PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



STAMFORD BARON" 



entrance contain shields of the owner's ancestors 

 and alliances.' 



The house was one of first rank in point of size and 

 lay-out. Some of its outlying buildings have been 

 removed, and although they were not lofty, nor very 

 commodious, they helped to form courts and added 

 to the stateliness of the whole fabric. The north 

 court, for instance, which is now open on two sides, 

 was originally enclosed on the west by a low wing to 

 match that which remains on the east. On the west 

 front of the house, where there is now only a lawn, 

 was another court, enclosed by a building on the 

 north, and by walls on the west and south sides. 

 Beyond these courts were large formal gardens with 

 ponds, canals, bowling-green, wilderness, pheasantry, 

 and vineyards, and outside all was the park planted 

 with long and wide avenues, some of which lent 

 dignity to the house, and others were continued to 

 afford views of special interest from its windows and 

 terraces. The ancient character of the surroundings 

 has completely disappeared, and has given place to the 

 style of landscape gardening of which ' Capability ' 

 Brown was the most famous exponent. There are 

 preserved in the house some views, and a plan of the 

 park and lay-out made by J. Haynes in 1755, which 

 give an excellent notion of its arrangement and 

 appearance, while the plate by Tillemans in Bridges' 

 History' also gives a good idea of the house and its 

 surroundings before all the walls and the formal dis- 

 position of the gardens were destroyed by Brown 

 about the beginning of the last quarter of the 1 8th 

 centurj'. 



The only piece of formal gardening left is a piece 

 in front of the temple attributed to Lady Sophia Cecil 

 (afterwards Pierrepont), only daughter of the ' Cottage 

 Countess,' and probably made about 18 10. The 

 gardens have been much developed recently ; the 

 present Lady Exeter has arranged a very beautiful 

 rose garden with pergolas, and Lord Exeter has con- 

 structed a formal garden on the south of the house. 

 The old walled fruit garden in the usual position to 

 the south-east of the house was swept away by Brown 

 to make room for his semicircular piece of water, and 

 a new one of 14 acres in extent made in the park a 

 mile or more away to the south-east. 



Burghley contains a great number of treasures 

 of historical and artistic interest. Of the large col- 

 lection of pictures which fill the house, among the 

 most prized are a portrait of \'an Eyck, by him- 

 self; Carlo Dolci's painting of our Lord holding the 

 cup at the Last Supper ; a portrait of Martin Luther, 

 by Kranach ; St. Hubert and the stag, by Albert 

 Dorer ; Charles the First's children, by Stone ; 

 William Cavendish duke of Newcastle, by Van Dyck ; 

 several fine examples of Angelica Kauffmann ; Sir 

 Thomas Lawrence's paintings of the Cottage Countess 



and her daughter, of her children (unfinished), and of 

 the Duchess of Hamilton, who was the third wife of 

 the first marquis. In the kitchen hangs a painting 

 by Rubens of the carcase of a bullock as such appear 

 in butchers' shops. There is also in the house a great 

 deal of tapestry of the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries. 



Among the furniture special mention should be 

 made of the Chippendale bedstead in the crimson 

 velvet bedroom. 



Burghley has been celebrated for its plate. The 

 earls and marquesses of Exeter have been hereditary 

 grand almoners, and at almost all the coronations up 

 to that of George IV, the silver gilt dish used on 

 such occasions became their perquisite. There are 

 five of these in Lord Exeter's possession besides one 

 which he had made in commemoration of the corona- 

 tion of the present sovereign. Two are from the 

 coronation of James II, possibly owing to the unusual 

 lavishness then displayed ; one is from the coronation 

 of Queen Anne ; one from that of George I, and one 

 from that of George IV. They vary very much in 

 design ; that of George I being the most simple, and 

 those of James II and George IV the most elaborate. 

 Here, too, is the paten of silver gilt presented to the 

 chapel of the house in 1609, in memory of the first 

 Lord Burghley. Round the back are written memorial 

 verses in the eulogistic style of the period describing 

 Lord Burghley as — 



The only faithful watchman of the realm 

 That in all tempests never quit the helm. 



Here also is the largest of the so-called wine-coolers 

 which is known to exist except the famous one at 

 St. Petersburg. The one at Burghley, said to weigh 

 3,000 oz., is of the date of Queen Anne, and highly 

 ornamented. 



The interior of the house has undergone many 

 alterations from time to time, and retains hardly any 

 of its original embellishments, except a little Jacobean 

 panelling in some of the inferior rooms. The dis- 

 position of the rooms themselves has also been 

 changed ; the long gallery, for instance, which for- 

 merly occupied the whole length of the west front, is 

 now divided into a number of moderate-sized apart- 

 ments. Some of the rooms are panelled with wood- 

 work of the time of William III, and adorned with 

 carving by Grinling Gibbons, and there are several 

 fine ceilings by Verrio and Laguerre, the former of 

 whom is said to have been resident here for twelve 

 years while engaged upon his labours. No house can 

 show better examples of this style than Burghley.' 

 Such modern work as there is cannot be called note- 

 worthy in its character, but the corridor which 

 surrounds the inner court has added immensely to the 

 convenience and comfort of the house. 



1 There are 16 of these compartments, 

 in four groups of four divisions. The 

 four groups represent : — 



1 Cecil and its ancient alliances (1, 

 Cecil ; 2, Winston ; 3, Carlyon ; 4, 

 Vaughan). Lord Burghley's great- 

 grandfather, Philip Sitsilt, married 

 a Vaughan. Philip's grandfather 

 married a Winston. Carlyon is 

 brought in by Winston. 



2 Lord Burghley's mother's family 

 (l, Eckington ; 2, Walcot ; j and 4 

 not identified). Lord Burghley's 

 mother was Jane Eckington. Wal- 

 cot is brought in by Eckington. 



3 Lord Burghley and his own sisters 

 (l, W. dom. de Burghley, Ii;77 ; 

 2, Cave, impaling Cecily 3, Wing- 

 field, impaling Cecil ; 4, White, im- 

 paling Cecil). Anna Cecil married 

 Roger Cave of Stanford, Elizabeth 

 married Robert Wingfield of Up- 

 ton. Agnes married Thomas 

 White, of Tuiford, Notts. 



4 Lord Burghley's own family (i, 

 Cecil, impaling Cheke ; 2, Cecil, 

 impaling Nevill \ 3, Cecil, im- 

 paling Coke 5 4, De Vere, impaling 

 Cecil). Lord Burghley's first wife 

 was Mary Cheke. The only child 



of this marriage was Thom.is 

 Cecil, who married Dorothy 

 Nevill. Burghley's second wife 

 was Mildred Coke. The only 

 children of this marriage who 

 married were Anna, who married 

 Edward de Vere, earl of Oiford, 

 and Robert, who, however, was not 

 married until 1589, or twelve 

 years after this work was executed. 

 > Op. cit. ii, 586. 



' Most of this work was done for John, 

 the fifth earl, who was a splendid patron 

 of the arts, and to whom the large collec- 

 tion of pictures at Burghley it mainly due. 



