Burleigh, or Burghley House, the princely seat of the Marquis of Exeter, is one of the most magnificent mansions of its period; it has come down to us intact, and is perhaps more interesting—from its associations with the “glorious days”—than any other edifice now remaining in the kingdom. The halls are still standing where the famous Lord Treasurer entertained his Sovereign and her dazzling court; while Nonsuch, Theobalds, and Cannons have vanished—their sites are ploughed over; and Kenilworth has become a venerable antiquity, a moss-covered ruin.

In the reign of the Confessor, Burghley was let to farm by the Church of Burgh, to Alfgar, the king’s chaplain, for his life. The crown having seized it at his death, Abbot Leofric redeemed it for eight marcs of gold. In Doomsday Book it is rated at 40s. As usual in the feudal ages, it often changed hands, when treasons and rebellions were every-day occurrences. In the 9th of Edward II. Nicholas de Segrave was possessed of Burleigh, which had descended to Alice de Lisle, as part of the inheritance of John de Armenters. The successor of Nicholas de Segrave was Warine de L’Isle. He was one of the great men who, in the 14th of Edward II., took up arms against the King, under the command of Thomas Earl of Lancaster; was made prisoner with him at the battle of Barrow Bridge, and the week following executed at Pontefract. In the 1st of Edward III., Gerard de Lisle, son of the above Warine, was restored to his father’s possessions, and accompanied several times the King in his wars with Scotland and France. After undergoing many of the usual changes to which property was subjected in such uncertain times, it finally passed into possession of a family named Cecil, as we now spell it, although it appears to have enjoyed many variations of orthography in its transition. The founder of the house and family was a gentleman named William Cecil, who accompanied the Duke of Somerset to Scotland. At the battle of Musselburgh field he narrowly escaped being killed, a gentleman who out of kindness pushed him out of the level of a cannon, having his arm shattered as he withdrew it. On his return he was made Secretary of State, and in some political trouble was sent prisoner to the Tower: but no charge being brought against him he was released from his captivity, again made Secretary of State, became a Privy Councillor, and received the honour of knighthood. During the reign of Mary, he attached himself much to the fortunes of her younger sister, Elizabeth. When she ascended the throne, fresh honours were lavished on him: he became Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Master of the Court of Wards, Baron Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer, and Knight of the Garter. He was much afflicted with gout in his latter years, and on one occasion when he was confined with an attack of it, at his house in the Strand (called Burleigh House, where a street of that name is now built), the Queen condescended to visit him. On one of these occasions, coming with a high head-dress, and the servant, as she entered the door, desiring her to stoop; she replied, “For your master’s sake I will stoop, but not for the King of Spain.” He died in 1598, having been Lord High Treasurer twenty-six years, and was buried in the parish-church of St. Martin, Stamford. A superb white alabaster monument, sixteen feet high, is raised over his tomb; his figure lies under a canopy supported by several black marble columns. It is in the style of the period, and stands under the arch of the north aisle and body of the church.

Thomas, Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasurer’s eldest son, was created Earl of Exeter in 1605; and Henry, tenth Earl of Exeter and eleventh Lord Burghley, his lineal descendant, was created Marquis of Exeter in 1801. His son, Brownlow Cecil, the second Marquis, who succeeded his father in 1804, is the present possessor of the princely mansion and estates.

The mansion we are about to notice is built on ground where there is but little undulation of surface, and stands about a mile and a half from the old town of Stamford, in Northamptonshire, separated from Lincolnshire by the river Welland, which runs through Stamford. At the northern extremity of the domain stand the park lodges: they are extremely handsome erections, and more than usually important buildings for such purposes. Although built so recently as the year 1801, by Henry the tenth Earl, they are in perfect harmony of design with the main edifice. The cost of their erection exceeded 5000l. The park is about two miles in length and a mile and a half in width. It was arranged and planted by the famous “Capability Brown,” and is well adorned with fine ash, elm, chestnut, and other trees, as well as plantations of shrubberies. A temple, grottos, and picturesque buildings for domestic or agricultural services, add to its beautiful character. It is well stocked with deer. On entering the park to proceed to the house, a noble piece of water, three quarters of a mile in length, is spanned by a handsome bridge of three arches, having the balustrades decorated with four statues of lions couchant. In the park enclosure are the remains of the ancient Roman road, called Ermine Street, from Stilton through Castor to Stamford: it is easily traceable in many parts.

On arriving opposite the mansion, the eye is bewildered at its unusual extent: its numerous turrets, and the spire of the Chapel rising above the parapets, give it the aspect of a town comprised in comparatively diminished area, rather than a single abode. The appended engraving exhibits a portion of the west front. The mansion stands in an extensive lawn. Mr. Gilpin, in his “Tour to the Highlands,” thus describes it:—“Burghley House is one of the noblest monuments of British architecture of the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the great outlines of magnificence were rudely drawn, but unimproved by taste. It is an immense pile, forming the four sides of a large court, and although decorated with a variety of fantastic ornaments, according to the fashion of the time, before Grecian architecture had introduced symmetry, proportion, and elegance into the plans of private houses, it has still an august appearance. The interior court is particularly striking: the spire of the Chapel is neither, I think, in itself an ornament, nor has it any effect, except at a distance; when it contributes to give this immense pile the consequence of a town.” Horace Walpole says, John Thorpe was the architect; and that he superintended the erection of the greater part of this stupendous building. This assertion is corroborated by the plans, still extant, in this celebrated architect’s collection of designs, now in the Soane Museum. It is built of freestone and forms a massive parallelogram, enclosing a court 110 feet long and 70 feet wide. The principal entrance is on the north side,

and offers a frontage of nearly 200 feet, pierced with three ranges of large square-headed windows, divided by stone mullions and transoms. The outline is varied by towers at the angles surmounted by turrets with cupolas; the frontage is varied by advancing bays between the towers; a pierced parapet, occasionally embellished with ornaments that mark the Elizabethan era, crowns the walls. The chimneys are constructed in the hollows of Doric columns, which are in groups, connected by a frieze and cornice of the order; as they are very numerous, and of fine proportions—rising loftily in the air—they combine with the turrets, &c. to give a great variety of forms to the superior portion of the main design. In the arched roof under the passage to the interior court, which was in the first instance intended to be the chief entrance, are escutcheons of the family arms, on one of which is inscribed “W. DOM de Burghley, 1577,” being the year when that part of the house was built. On the opposite side of the court, over the dial and under the spire, is carved the date 1585, which indicates when that part was erected; and on the present entrance, on the northern side, stands the date 1587 between the windows. The house has been much adorned by various successive possessors, and at the present time few seats, either in England or on the Continent, can vie with Burghley House.

Queen Elizabeth frequently visited her favourite minister, her Lord Treasurer, here; and on April 23, 1603, James I., on his journey from Scotland, came to Burghley: the next day, being Easter Sunday, he attended divine worship at the parish church, St. Martin’s, Stamford, when the Bishop of Lincoln preached before him.

Entering the court, the beauties of the architecture become apparent. The appended engraving represents the entrance from the courtyard. The eastern side is the most highly decorated, and its three stories adorned with the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, in super-position. Above the last are two large stone lions, supporting the arms of the family. Over an arch before the chapel is a bust of King William III.; the balustrades are enriched with a variety of sculptured vases. Four large gates from the various sides open into the court, and give entrance to the several portions of the building, which contains nearly one hundred and fifty apartments, many of them of great dimensions, all furnished suitably for their purpose, and a considerable number in gorgeous profusion of decorative ornament and splendid furniture. It is one of the few palatial mansions of a refined, gay, and brilliant period, which remain carefully preserved, and undisturbed by modern upholsterers. It is impossible to speak too highly of the elegance and splendour of the interior. The first apartment on entering is the spacious Hall: from some of the remaining features of its construction, it has been imagined that the great Lord Treasurer did not build a new house from the foundation, but that an edifice existed to which he imparted vastness by the additions he made. The dimensions of this Hall show at once that it includes a noble space, being sixty-eight feet long and thirty feet broad. It receives light from two large windows, and has a fine open-worked timber roof, springing from corbels, very similar in idea to the roofs of Westminster Hall, and the Parliament House at Edinburgh. The chimneypiece is in perfect keeping with the Baronial Hall, and is of stone, finely sculptured, bearing for its principal device in the centre the shield and supporters of the founder of the family; it is also ornamented by a number of pictures, some of which are portraits. There are statues in marble of life size, one of which, very much esteemed, represents Andromeda chained to the rock, and the Sea-monster. It was purchased in Rome, a century ago, by the fifth Earl of Exeter, for 300l. “Drakard’s Guide” attributes it to Peter Stephen Monnot; but Brydges, in his “History of Northamptonshire,” says it is by Domenico Guidi.

From the Hall, visitors pass through the Saloon, and up the ancient grand vaulted stone staircase in the north-west part of the house, to an apartment called the Chapel Room, which contains nearly fifty pictures, mostly of sacred subjects. A true description of the numerous pictures in the different rooms is sadly wanted, as we find one here called Titian’s Wife and Son, attributed to Teniers! in “Drakard’s Guide,” published at Stamford. Here also stands a model of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, curiously inlaid. The Chapel, to which the preceding serves as an ante-room, is spacious, being forty-two feet long, thirty-five feet wide, and eighteen feet high. The ceiling is panelled and studded with devices; the side-walls are wainscoted half-way up, and at intervals are placed, on pedestals, ten antique bronzed figures, of life size, each holding a lamp. Festoons of fruit and flowers, carved by Grinling Gibbons, are its principal ornaments. Many of the finest apartments in the house, such as chimneypieces, are profusely decorated with his valuable carving. A seat on the left-hand side, nearest to the altar, is pointed out as having been occupied by Queen Elizabeth when on a visit to Burghley. There are some large pictures placed on the walls of another space, which forms also a portion of the Chapel at the western end. This part, thirty-one feet long and twenty-four feet broad, is wainscoted to the ceiling, and is filled with open seats, for servants and others connected with the family to attend divine service.

The gorgeous Ball-room succeeds, fifty feet in length, twenty-eight in width, and twenty-six in height. The walls are painted with historical and other subjects by Laguerre. The candelabra, which are placed on pedestals of japan gilt about two feet high, are truly splendid. Two of them, placed by the sides of the lofty bow-window, are the figures of Negroes kneeling, and supporting the lights on their heads. The Brown Drawing-room, filled with pictures and a carved chimneypiece by Gibbons, leads to the Black Bedchamber, so called from the hangings of the bed, which are of black satin lined with yellow; the chimneypiece here is also by Gibbons. The west Dressing-room has in the window recess a toilette-table, set out with richly gilt dressing-plate. The north-west Dressing-room is hung with pictures; indeed every one of the principal rooms boasts of pictorial decoration, and among the profusion are many fine examples of ancient art. In a small apartment called the China Closet is an extensive gathering of varied specimens of antique Chinese, and Indian porcelain. Queen Elizabeth’s Bed-room is hung with tapestry, and contains an ancient state bed with hangings of green embossed velvet, on a ground of gold tissue; with chairs to correspond. The toilette-table is set out with richly chased dressing-plate. A number of other apartments in this range follow, similarly furnished and adorned. On the south side of the house there is another suite of grand apartments called the George Rooms, which were decorated in 1789, under the express direction and control of Brownlow, earl of Exeter, who selected the whole of the ornaments from publications of ancient architecture in the library at Burghley. His lordship directed the whole, without the assistance of any professional person. The rooms are wainscoted with the finest Dutch oak, of a natural colour; the ceilings are mostly painted by Verrio, in mythological subjects; carving, gilding, and tapestry, are profusely employed; the furniture is of corresponding magnificence; and pictures, sculptures, and antiquities are dispersed, to add to the general embellishment. The Dining-room contains two superb sideboards laden with massive silver-gilt plate; a silver cistern weighs 3400 ounces, and a lesser one 656 ounces: there are also coronation dishes, ewers, &c. Two apartments are Libraries; they are filled with many MSS., fine and rare books, antiquities, and an extensive collection of ancient coins.

The new State Bed-room, in the suite of George Rooms, contains a state bed, which has the reputation of being the most splendid in Europe. It stands on a base or platform, ascended by a couple of steps. A canopy, richly carved and entirely gilt, is supported at the angles by clusters of columns rising from elaborate tripods, which support the canopy or dome. The height of this construction, which resembles a temple, is twenty feet from the ground; 250 yards of striped silk coral velvet and 900 yards of white satin are employed in the hangings. The bed is a couch, which stands under the temple. The fifth George Room is called “Heaven,” from the multitude of Pagan deities with which Verrio has covered it; and the grand staircase (not the vaulted one) is usually called “Hell,” in consequence of the painted ceiling representing the poetic Tartarus.

It would be vain to attempt a minute description of all that interests the learned or accomplished visitor; a volume has already been published, which in itself is but an abridged account. Every faculty of rational enjoyment is gratified to repletion in viewing the gorgeous halls of Burghley House.