ABSTRACT
Burghley House, Stamford, was built between 1555 and 1587 for William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I. It is one of England’s greatest houses, and one which, because of the national impor tance of its most distinguished first owner, could be expected to be brimming with music from the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of English music - the Eliza bethan era. Sadly, it is not. No surviving original sources of music from this time have been preserved at Burghley House, and furthermore there is only speculative evidence of musical performance there at that time. But there is ample evidence of musical activity in later periods.
