Burghley House creates a "surprise Elizabethan garden"
31/07/2007
A £1.5m project to turn the clock back at Lincolnshire’s Burghley House, creating a unique Elizabethan garden with a contemporary twist, has opened to enthusiastic reviews from visitors.
Based on William Cecil’s ‘trick’ garden design from the 1560s, Burghley’s Garden of Surprises officially opened earlier this year in a colourful Elizabethan-themed ceremony hosted by both sides of the Cecil family descended from the first Lord Burghley.
Current house director Lady Victoria Leatham, a direct descendant of William Cecil, has been the inspiration behind the new venture which boasts more than 30 water features, including water jets, a house furnished with water and an exit ‘curtain of water’ to test visitors’ bravery.
Children can visit a fairytale grotto in the Moss House complete with ‘rare’ gems at the end of a winding path through carved rock or check out a mirror maze.
And science and art combine in the Burghley sundial, encircled by life-sized revolving classical Caesars’ busts. Calibrated to the precise latitude and longitude of the Gardens, the Longitude Dial offers a world map literally centred on Burghley which will also reveal the changing star signs and plenty more besides as visitors watch time pass by as the Earth rotates.
Burghley House remains the country’s largest and grandest house of the first Elizabethan age and ‘starred’ as a movie location for Pride & Prejudice and The Da Vinci Code.
The Brewhouse Interpretation Centre & The Garden of Surprises is open until 28th October 2007, daily (except Fridays) 11 am to 5 pm. Admission to House and Gardens: Adults £10.40, children (5-15 years) £5, concessions £9, family (2 adults and 2 children) £25. Admission to Gardens: Adults £6, children (5-15 years) £3, concessions £5, family (2 adults and 2 children) £15.
More details from the link below.