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Burghley

The largest and grandest house of the Elizabethan Age, Burghley House presents a dazzling spectacle with its domed towers, walls of cream coloured stone, and acres of windows. Clear glass was still ruinously expensive in the 1560s, so Elizabethan grandees like Cecil flaunted their wealth by having windows that stretched almost from floor to ceiling. Burghley House also displays the Elizabethan obsession with symmetry - every tower, dome, pilaster and pinnacle has a corresponding partner.

Contemporaries called Burghley a 'prodigy house', a title shared at that time with only one other stately home in England - Longleat in Wiltshire. Both houses were indeed prodigious in size and in cost. At Burghley, Cecil commissioned the most celebrated interior decorator of the age, Antonio Verrio, to create rooms of unparalleled splendour. In his Heaven Room, Verrio excelled even himself, populating the lofty walls and ceiling with a dynamic gallery of mythological figures.

The 18 State Rooms at Burghley house a vast treasury of great works of art. The walls are crowded with 17th-century Italian paintings and Japanese ceramics, and rare examples of European porcelain grace every table, alcove and mantelpiece; the wood carvings of Grinling Gibbons and his followers add dignity to almost every room. Also on display are four magnificent state beds along with important tapestries and textiles. The old brewhouse has been transformed into a modern visitor interpretation centre.

In the 18th century, Cecil's descendants commissioned the ubiquitous Capability Brown to landscape the 160 acres of parkland surrounding the house. These enchanting grounds are open to visitors and are also home to a large herd of fallow deer, first established in Cecil's time. Brown also designed the elegant Orangery, which is now a licensed restaurant overlooking rose beds and gardens.

The Sculpture Garden comprises twelve acres of scrub woodland reclaimed and planted with specimen trees and shrubs, and now providing a sylvan setting for a number of dramatic artworks by contemporary sculptors. The Garden of Surprises is a modern oasis of flowing water and fountains based on the Tudor garden.

Throughout the summer season, Burghley hosts a series of events of which the best known, the Burghley Horse Trials, takes place at the end of August.