The first thing that I noticed as I visited Burghley House was that when I purchased my guidebook (which I do everywhere) you also get a separate guide to the picture collection in the house.

As you travel around the house each of the pictures is numbered by a plate on the frame and by using this guide you can find out what each and every picture is (assuming the artist is known, and if they are not it is noted in the guide as such).  So at this property there is no wondering about a particular picture because the guidebook does not cover that one that you can't place.  The house is toured in groups with a personal tour guide but even they do not necessarily remember every portrait and painting in the building (especially at somewhere like Burghley where there are nearly 400).  As such this a wonderful addition to regular guides and an added bonus.

In this house which has been owned by the Cecil family since the 16th Century, the tour begins in the Old Kitchen, a large cavernous room with some very unusual contents, including skulls of turtles adorning the wall.

The next stop on the tour was quite a surprise to myself.  I am much more used to finding the Chapel at the end of the tour, however at Burghley the Ante-Chapel and the Chapel are the very next rooms.  Lavishly decorated the family could attend to their prayers without leaving the house.

The next room is the Billiard Room which contains a ceiling influenced by Lancelot Brown which in it whiteness is a stark contrast to the Norwegian oak pannelling.  Around the walls of this room we find the first of the portraits of the family.  In the center of the room there is a billiard table which was made in the 1850s, the frame being made of oak taken from the wreck of the battleship Royal George which sank at Spithead in 1782 and was raised in 1841.

Continuing through the Billiard Room we find ourselvs in the Bow Room which contains a much higher ceiling and in contrast the the previous room this room has painted walls and ceiling rather than placing the paintings upon it.

The tour continues with the Brown Drawing Room which contains portraits by Gainsborough and a bed which was slept in by Queen Victoria when she had visited Burghley as a young girl in 1835.

The Black and Yellow Bedroom is next room on the tour and also contains a bed which has been used by royalty, this time by both King George VI and HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, then the Duke and Duchess of York when they stayed at Burghley.

The Marquetry Room (called this because of the marquetry furniture to be seen in it) is the first of five rooms along the west side of the house which was formed from the Elizabethan Long Gallery.

The second of these rooms is Queen Elizabeth's Bedroom (although she never actually used the room), and the third is the Pagoda Room.  The Blue Silk Bedroom and the Blue Silk Drawing Room complete the rooms formed from the Gallery.  From the window of the final room there is a wonderful view of Capability Brown's lake and the Lion Bridge.

The tour continues on within the house to the great State Rooms beginning with the First George Room and continuing to the Second George Room, Third George Room and Fourth George Room.  Lavishly furnished and lined with paintings and portraits there is a lot to see in the State Rooms and you will find that the tour guides know the stories behind the rooms and a lot of the items within them.

After the State Rooms we come to what can only be described as a masterpiece of painting in the Heaven Room and the Hell Staircase.  Unfortunately as photography was not allowed in the house I am not placing the guidebook images on this site. I can only urge anyone who has the chance to visit for themselves and see these two contrasting works of art.

When you have seen all that you want at the Hell Staircase the tour ends wtihin the Great Hall with its double hammer-beam roof.  Measuring 68 feet long by 30 feet wide it was used as a banqueting hall in Elizabethan days and is today used for concerts and social events.