Stamford - Burghley House

Burghley House (2mi/3km south of Stamford), seat of the Marquess of Exeter, is an outstanding example of Elizabethan architecture (1553-87). The mansion was built for William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-98), an influential politician during the Elizabethan period. The west front, with its windows, towers and ornamental chimneys, is as delightful as the sumptuous interior fittings, the large number of paintings by Italian and English Baroque painters and the grandiose late 17th century interior decorations by Louis Laguerre (Bow Room) and Antonio Verrio (Heaven Room). The park surrounding the mansion was created by the famous landscape gardener "Capability" Brown in the 18th century.