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Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
Architect: R. Smythson (1590-1597)
Lithograph: from 'Mansions of England in the Olden Times, Vol II', J. Nash (1839-49)
Source: RIBA British Architectural Library

The most brilliant Elizabethan lantern house is Hardwick Hall, commanding views of the Derbyshire hills. There was already a great house here. However, this was inadequate for its owner, the ambitious Bess of Hardwick. Fabulously rich after the death of her fourth husband, between 1590 and 1597 she created the ultimate high house, employing Robert Smythson to achieve this.

Instead of being built around a courtyard, this new house was designed as a stack of rooms, growing in height and luxury as you ascended, and wrapped almost entirely in glass. Hence the saying: ‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall.’

Drawn by John Nash over two centuries later, it is this lantern-like effect that this engraving concentrates on. The full moon illuminates the lofty towers, flickering candles show off the house’s glass skin, and flaming stakes reveal the stout wall and gate through which the retinue is to enter. But this is no joyous homecoming. The fine lady on horseback appears to be Mary Queen of Scots. But here Nash gets carried away by the romantic: in 1587 Mary was executed. Bess’s pleasure palace was never Mary’s glass cage.