Burghley House Garden

A great Elizabethan house (1587) with a serpentine park. The park was designed, after 1754, by Lancelot Brown. Dorothy Stround describes the commission as being 'one of the most important of his career and which lasted for over a quarter of a century'. Horace Walpole exclaimed 'A noble pile! Brown is ornamenting the Park and has built a gothic greenhouse and stables which are not bad, except that they do not accord with the house, which is not Gothic'. Brown widened the river, made a serpentine lake, sited a summerhouse by the lake, designed a stone bridge and planted trees in the park. A five acre space at the head of Brown's lake has been reclaimed from scrubland and planted with specimen trees. It is used as a sculpture garden, displaying contemporary works. Opened in 2007, the Historical Garden of Suprises is enclosed by a Yew hedge next to the sculpture garden. It has mirrors, mazes, a moss house and grotto.