Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, one of the great houses of England, is,
with others of its approximate contemporaries of the later half of the
sixteenth century, such as Longleat, Wollaton, and Montacute, an example
of what was at the time of its erection an entirely new aspect of the
possibilities of domestic architecture.
The country had settled down into a peaceful state. A house was no
longer a castle needing external defence. Hitherto the homes of England
had been either fortresses, or had needed the protection of moats and
walls. They had been poorly lighted; only the walls looking to an inner
court, or to a small walled garden could have fair-sized openings. No
spacious windows could look abroad upon open country, field or woodland.
But by this time such restriction was a thing of the past, and we see in
these great houses, and in Hardwick especially, immense window spaces in
the outer walls. The architects of the time, John Thorpe, the Smithsons
and others, ran riot with their great windows, as if revelling in their
exemption from the older bonds. The new freedom was so tempting that
they knew not how to restrain themselves, and it was only later, when it
was found that the amount of lighting was overmuch for convenience, that
the relation of degree of light to internal comfort came to be better
understood and more reasonably adjusted.
The famous Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick), to whose
initiative this great house owes its origin, set an imperishable
memorial of her imperious arrogance upon the balustrading that crowns
the square tower-like projections at the angles and ends of the
building, where the
[Illustration: THE FORECOURT: HARDWICK