Treasure Houses of Britain

Burghley House was built by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Elizabeth I, starting in 1555. It took 32 years. 450 years later, Burghley’s state rooms are filled with treasures including one of the finest collections of 17th century Italian masterpieces, an exceptional display of Oriental and European ceramics, and fine furniture, all gathered by the Cecil family down the centuries.

Chatsworth in the glorious Derbyshire countryside was built by the remarkable Bess of Hardwick and later altered by the first Duke of Devonshire. Now home to the twelfth Duke, and open to the public, its first floor is taken up with richly decorated state apartments built for a visit by King William III. But, despite the lavish welcome, the King never arrived.

Blenheim Palace was paid for by Parliament in 1705, as a grateful nation thanked John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough. Treasures include a tapestry which records the Battle of Blenheim where Marlborough defeated the Franco-Bavarian forces in the War of the Spanish Succession. Winston Churchill, who was born at Blenheim in 1874, is buried in the park at the tiny church of Bladon.

Holkham Hall is a Palladian masterpiece commissioned by Thomas Coke, First Earl of Leicester. It took over 30 years to build. Coke spent years touring Europe and when he returned in 1718, he brought with him works of art, statues and manuscripts that now form a unique, priceless collection. But he had nowhere to put them. So, he built a grand house worthy of his new treasures.

Beautiful Boughton House is home to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury. His ancestors were collectors on a grand scale who managed to fill three houses in Scotland and two in England with treasures. Boughton is a storehouse of priceless artefacts, from tapestries and gilt tables to forty works by Van Dyck and cabinets by Andre-Charles Boulle. Now, the present Duke is adding to the collections.