Elizabeth Williamson, in her Leicestershire and Rutland volume in the Buildings of England series, revised and reissued in 2003, gives the build dates for the new house as between 1696 and 1700.[6]Historic England suggests a slightly later completion date of 1705.[7] While Finch consulted widely on the design, including seeking advice from Christopher Wren, and employed a number of known builders, including Henry Dormer and John Lumley,[b] he appears to have acted as his own architect.[c][6]Historic England describes Finch's design as "Baroque in composition"[7] and it consists of a large central block with adjoining wings that flank an entrance court. Finch incorporated the stables from Buckingham's house which had survived the civil war into the east wing.[d][12] The southern, garden, frontage now looks out over Rutland Water.[13] In 1795 the 9th Earl engaged Humphry Repton to remodel the grounds. Repton produced one of his celebrated Red Books showing the potential for development, but not all of his ideas were taken forward.[13]
On 6 August 1908 a fire broke out at the house, resulting in the destruction of many of the interiors and much of the contents. At the time the house was let to Freddie Guest, a cousin of Winston Churchill who was staying at Burley when the fire occurred.[e][14] The Finches held on to the estate into the late 20th century, the house passing by descent to the Hanbury family, until it was sold in the 1980s to Asil Nadir. After Nadir's flight to Northern Cyprus following charges of fraud, the estate was bought by Kit Martin, who converted the house into six[dubious – discuss] separate dwellings and undertook enabling development in the grounds.[15] Burley remains privately owned and is not open to the public.[16]
Architecture and description
Williamson notes that "the site and scale are impressive".[6] Historic England describe Finch’s style as “Baroque in composition, Palladian in detail”.[7] The house consists of a main block, the corps de logis, which is fifteen bays long by seven wide. This is of three storeys over a basement. It is surmounted by pediments with, at the centre, Nottingham's coat of arms supported on four Corinthian columns.[6] The building material is brick, faced with limestone quarried at Clipsham in the north of the county.[7] The main floor, the piano nobile, is raised on a wide terrace. To the north, the entrance front is partially enclosed as a cour d'honneur by two flanking wings and a colonnade with Tuscan columns that concludes with the western and eastern stables.[7]
Much of the original interior was destroyed in the fire of 1908. Restoration was undertaken by John Coleridge in the early 20th century in an imitation 17th-century style. Some original work remains, including mural decoration by Gerard Lanscroon in the Staircase Hall.[6]
^Other sources suggest that the banquet at which Hudson was presented was held in London. Hudson's subsequent life was eventful; fleeing to France during the Civil War, he was captured by Barbary pirates on his attempted return. He died in poverty in 1682.[2]
^Howard Colvin's Biographical Dictionary of British Architects: 1600-1840 has entries for both Henry Dormer and John Lumley. Of Dormer, he writes; "an architect and land surveyor... employed by the second Earl of Nottingham to supervise the rebuilding of Burley-On-The-Hill, Rutland, but his share (if any) in the design is uncertain".[8] Of Lumley; "a surveyor and master mason, [he] took the place of Henry Dormer as the surveyor employed by the 2nd Earl of Nottingham to supervise the building of his mansion at Burley-On-The-Hill... the main features of the design had already been determined by the time Lumley took charge... some of the architectural details may have been determined by him".[9]
^Pearl Finch, in her history of her family published in 1901, suggested that Finch was inspired by the architecture of Italy, which he had seen on his Grand Tour, undertaken in the 1660s.[10] Elizabeth Williamson gives credence to this suggestion, noting, as did Pearl Finch, the similarities between the colonnades of the cour d'honneur at Burley with those of St. Peter's Square in Rome: "the colonnades of St Peter's, then in progress, seem to have made a fruitful impression".[6]
^The Duke of Buckingham's stables at Burley were famed for their grandeur: Thomas Fuller described them in his Worthies of England, published in 1662; "[Burley] was inferior to few for the House, Superior to all for the Stable, where horses (if their pabulum were so plenty as their Stabulum stately) were the best accommodated in England".[11]
^Churchill described the fire in a letter to his fiancée, Clementine Hozier, dated 7 August 1908, the day after the incident: "The fire was great fun and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. It is a [very] strange thing to be locked in deadly grapple with that cruel element. I had no conception of the power and majesty of a great conflagration. Whole rooms sprang into flame as if by enchantment. Chairs and tables burnt up like matches. Floors collapsed and ceilings crashed down. Every window spouted fire, and from the centre of the house a volcano roared skyward. The Guests have no responsibility and the Finches are I hear well-insured. It is only the archives that must be mourned inconsolably".[14]
^The grounds contained a folly, the Sanctuary of the Hermit Finch, designed in 1807. This was destroyed by fire in 1965.[19]
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