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"William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley, was Queen Elizabeth I's adviser and confidant for 40 years. He built the wonderfully dramatic Burghley House in 1560-87, probably designing it himself. Burghley's interior is lavishly decorated with Italian paintings of Greek gods enacting their dramas across the walls and ceilings (392)."

We went to Stamford to visit the Burghley (pronounced burr'-lee) House. A tour cost about 14 pounds for both of us and lasted a little over an hour. Although due to the courtyard, the outside is misleading in regards to the size of the house, it still is pretty huge. The most memorable aspect of the house is the overwhelming area of artistically painted surface, comprised of two types. The first is regular paintings: large, small, oil, still-lifes (not still-lives?), portraits, landscapes, battles - most rooms had at least 15 paintings on the walls, some many more than that. The other type is when the actual walls or ceilings are painted. All were quite impressive, especially the dining room. It is not an exaggeration to say that overall, more wall area was painted or covered by paintings than not. Justin's favorite moment of the trip centered around a painting; it also discloses that the English are no better than Americans at mindlessly accepting popular modern history as being the only relevant and worthwhile. The tour guide, a knowledgeable old lady who knew just about everything about the house, told a story of a previous tour group. She had pointed out a painting of Martin Luther to a group of British school children. One child immediately corrected the guide, saying that Martin Luther was black.

After touring the house, we walked to Stamford, a typical small city. We got lunch and ate at a small park, then walked through a few shops. We made our way back to Burghley, wandering about the grounds, which included seeing the deer park, an old bridge, and a very odd sculpture garden.

Burghley House is on the left; a view of Stamford from the Burghley grounds is on the right. They do not allow pictures inside the house, so if you wish to see the inside, visit Burghley's website.