HARDWICK 



Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, one of the great houses of England, 

 is, with others of its approximate contemporaries of the later half of 

 the sixteenth century, such as Longleat, WoUaton, and Montacute, an 

 example of what was at the time of its erection an entirely new aspect 

 of the possibilities of domestic architecture. 



The country had settled down into a peaceful state. A house was 

 no longer a castle needing external defence. Hitherto the homes of 

 England had been either fortresses, or had needed the protection of moats 

 and walls. They had been poorly lighted ; only the walls looking to an 

 inner court, or to a small walled garden could have fair-sized openings. 

 No spacious windows could look abroad upon open country, field or wood- 

 land. But by this time such restriction was a thing of the past, and we 

 see in these great houses, and in Hardwick especially, immense window 

 spaces in the outer walls. The architects of the time, John Thorpe, 

 the Smithsons and others, ran riot with their great windows, as if 

 revelling in their exemption from the older bonds. The new free- 

 dom was so tempting that they knew not how to restrain themselves, 

 and it was only later, when it was found that the amount of lighting 

 was overmuch for convenience, that the relation of degree of light to 

 internal comfort came to be better understood and more reasonably 

 adjusted. 



The famous Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick), to whose 

 initiative this great house owes its origin, set an imperishable memorial 

 of her imperious arrogance upon the balustrading that crowns the square 

 tower-like proiections at the angles and ends of the building, where the 



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