Tuesday and time to move on to our next Airbnb (this one for three nights at Gilmorton, south of Leicester). The place is only about an hour's drive away so we decided to spend most of today doing a tour of Burghley.
First stop was the Morrison's supermarket in Stamford to get some petrol (the cheapest we have seen anywhere, good old supermarket discounting) and some supplies for a picnic lunch since it was another nice day.
 |
| Burghley from the Lion Bridge |
Burghley was built in the mid 16th century by William Cecil Lord Burghley. It took around 32 years to build. The house is enormous and quite magnificent. It is now owned by a Trust but the family still lives here and so only the part of the 'house' is open to the public. There is also a huge estate associated with the property with a herd of fallow deer. They also generate revenue from significant farming operations. It is a great place to visit, especially on a nice day, with beautiful grounds all created by 'Capability' Brown (the Lion Bridge and small lake leading back to the house are his doing).
We spent a few hours touring the house which includes bedrooms where Elizabeth I and Princess (and later Queen) Victoria slept on various visits. We had a nice picnic lunch in the sunshine before looking around their 'Garden of Surprises' and extensive 'Sculpture Garden'. Some of the sculptures were pretty odd and some quite amusing. Spot the giant Rabbit below!
After 5 hours we were ready to move on and drove the rest of the way to Gilmorton. This accommodation is fine but actually not as good as the previous one. The main difference being there is only a bath (with a flexible shower house) but no shower curtain. We are stuck with bathing in the more traditional English way - sloshing around in a bath of (your own) dirty water!
For dinner we walked across the road to 'The Crown'. Tuesday is carvery night so we had a large selection of roast meat and veges for £5.95. Pretty good value (in fact everything is good value after our £22.00 breakfast at 'The George').
