John Martin Robinson

Conceived by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, and built between 1555 and 1587, Burghley House is a testament to the ambition and vision of the most powerful courtier of the first Elizabethan age. Designed by Cecil himself, in consultation with the Dutch Renaissance architect and painter Hans Vredeman de Vries, the architecture and interiors at Burghley reflect a mix of contemporary fashionable influences. The house s facades are each markedly different, with a striking and ornate Gothic gatehouse beneath a roofline of cupolas and obelisks, and with French and Italian styles visible in the windows and pilasters. And inside, where the State Rooms house remarkable collections of furniture, textiles, and Old Master paintings acquired over the centuries, Cecil s Gothic-style Old Kitchen remains alongside the magnificent Renaissance staircase and Italianate fireplace in the Great Hall. From Burghley s inception as Cecil s prodigy house to its remarkable renovation and the development of its parklands by Capability Brown in the eighteenth century, to the estate s preservation efforts today, this is a rare and detailed look inside one of the gems in the British landscape. With sumptuous photography made specially for the book and imagery drawn from Burghley s private archives, this book is a privileged tour of Burghley House and its remarkable history.

Robinson describes his involvement with saving Spitalfields; his life as a "Young Fogey" with characters such as A.N. Wilson, Glynn Boyd Hart and Gavin Stamp; and the Georgian Group. The style is humorous, personal, politically incorrect and very entertaining.

Wilton House in Salisbury, England, has been the ancestral home of the Earl of Pembroke for nearly 500 years and boasts one of the most fascinating and varied histories of all Britain s historic houses. Shaped over centuries by the most significant names in architecture and interior design, Wilton is known as the finest example of Palladian architecture in England, with interiors by Inigo Jones and John Webb, furniture by William Kent and Thomas Chippendale, and unparalleled collections of both classical sculpture and Old Master paintings with masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and Tintoretto among its rooms. The book explores the development of the house and its collections, from the Van Dyck paintings in Jones s remarkable Single and Double Cube state rooms to the Arundel marbles housed in James Wyatt s Gothic-revival cloisters. With a foreword by the Earl of Pembroke, a revelatory text by the historian John Martin Robinson, and imagery drawn both from Wilton s private archives and from eminent architectural and interiors photographers, this book lifts the veil on Wilton House and its remarkable history.