Victoria and Albert at Burghley House: The royal visit that set the mould, and helped stave off revolution

That Britain escaped a Republican revolution in 1848 has something to do with the policies of Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister from 1841–46. The abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846 — although it divided his party and forced him from office — was a key factor in ensuring cheap food for the urban population for the rest of the 19th century. In addition, he worked to popularise the monarchy. By taking advantage of the new railway network, Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, could stay with ‘Your Majesty’s leading subjects’ and, in the process, be seen by the population at large. These events created engagements with the public that foreshadowed the regular royal ‘walkabouts’ that became a popular feature of the 20th-century British monarchy.

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, her 20-year-old cousin, on February 10, 1840, the year before Peel became Prime Minister. At first, the Queen did not warm to him, regretting the easy charm of his Whig predecessor, the avuncular Lord Melbourne, but she soon came to admire Peel for his integrity and sense and, when he recommended formal visits to country houses as a way of introducing her young consort to England, she saw the point. The first such royal excursion was to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire from July 26–29, 1841, its chatelaine, the Duchess of Bedford, then being a Lady of the Bedchamber.

At Woburn, 10,000 gathered in the park for the royal arrival, as local schoolchildren watched from the terrace and the Duke provided tea for 200 of his tenants in the Riding School. The following day, there were royal excursions, with the chance for people to assuage their curiosity and pay loyal respects, as well as sightseeing, country sports, cricket and fireworks. On different nights, there was a dress ball and a concert under the direction of the Italian composer Giovanni Puzzi, who wrote a piece especially, Composto in Occazione della visita della Regina al Castello di Woburn del Duca di Bedford.

Subsequent house visits repeated the successful Woburn formula, with the additions of loyal addresses from mayors and corporations, lord lieutenants and high sheriffs, parades of the local militia and military bands. Over the next eight years, there would be visits to Arundel Castle, West Sussex; Hatfield House, Hertfordshire; Stowe, Buckinghamshire; Burghley House, Lincolnshire; Penrhyn Castle in Gwynedd; Chatsworth, Derbyshire; and Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, as well as Dalkeith in the Lowlands and Taymouth Castle in the Highlands of Scotland. All are recorded in the Queen’s diary.

Of all these, perhaps the archetypal royal visit was that on November 12–14, 1844, to Burghley House, where the owner, the 2nd Marquess of Exeter, was Steward of the Royal Household. He began improving the house in preparation for a royal visit in 1842, but the work was given added impetus by advance notice of the event itself. His changes included the addition of enclosed corridors around the Elizabethan inner courtyard (Fig 1). Designed by John Gandy Deering, they enhanced the privacy and practicality of the family rooms on the ground floor.

Lord Exeter also modernised the kitchen, employing the latest technology, such as new cast-iron coal-fired cooking ranges and ovens and steam-heated warming cupboards, all provided by Benham & Sons of Wigmore Street, London. This equipment was modelled on that of the kitchen at Charles Barry’s new Reform Club on London’s Pall Mall, which also used Benham’s stoves and had been planned by the renowned chef Alexis Soyer.

At the same time, Lord Exeter restored the Elizabethan Great Hall. This had been used as an art store in the 17th century, then as a parking place for the fire engine, before being converted by the 1st Marquess into a museum for a collection of 80 glass-fronted cases of stuffed British birds. The popular revival of interest in ‘Olden Time’, fanned by the novels of Walter Scott and George IV’s ‘Tudor’ coronation, however, caused an upturn in tourism at Burghley. Added to which, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was re-framed as a happy foreshadowing of the defeat of Napoleon, lending importance to its Elizabethan fabric (Country Life, June 10, 2010).

The stuffed birds were banished to a distant garden temple and in their place was inserted an array of antiquarian joinery put together by Mr Smith, estate joiner, and a ‘minstrels gallery’ erected at the north end. The new panelling incorporated Flemish Baroque woodwork, including barley-sugar oak columns displaced by the French Revolutionaries from the abbey church of Tongerlo in modern Belgium.

Lord Exeter also encouraged an antiquarian approach to reglazing the windows under the direction of Thomas Willement, ‘Artist in Stained Glass to Queen Victoria’. Willement’s scheme included bright heraldic shields portraying Cecil family heraldry, as well as genuine medieval glass from Tattershall in Lincolnshire. A quantity of 15th- century glass had been acquired from this former collegiate church in 1757 by the 9th Earl of Exeter, who installed the majority of it in St Martin’s Church, Stamford. The leftovers served to revive the hall as the main dining room for Queen Victoria’s visit, both luncheon and dinner being served there.

The State apartment, on the first floor, known as the George Rooms after the Order of the Garter, had been remodelled by the 5th Earl of Exeter with ceilings painted by Antonio Verrio (Country Life, July 5, 2017). They formed an enfilade on the piano nobile: the Heaven Room approached by the spectacular Hell Staircase, the dining room, drawing room, state bedchamber, state dressing room and closet. The three middle rooms had been left unfinished when the 5th Earl died in Paris in 1700 and had only been completed and furnished by the 9th Earl under his own direction and using the London furniture firm Fell & Newton in the late 18th century.

The 2nd Marquess now burnished these rooms with additional gilding and silver mounts to the fire grates. In the royal suite, he employed George Morant & Son to refurnish the bedroom and adapt the Fell & Newton bed to make it more practical (Fig 6). Morant furniture must have given the Queen a slight sense of déjà vu, as several of her hosts in the 1840s commissioned bedroom furnishing from them, including the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel Castle for her visit there in 1846. (Country Life, September 3, 2025)

In November 1844, Burghley was ready for the royal visit and there was much appreciative coverage of the event itself in the local press and in the Illustrated London News (which devoted much space to all the royal visits, having been established in 1842). The Queen and her household travelled by the four-coach royal train from Euston to Weedon, then the nearest stop to Northampton on the west coast line. They left Euston at 9.22am with the Royal Standard flying from the engine and a gilded crown on top of the royal carriage. The train sped north at 35mph, very much a public spectacle. Trackside spectators cheered the Queen as she passed by, including, it was noted, many ‘workmen’ in their ordinary clothes and neckerchiefs.

Lord Exeter, in his role as Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, met the royal party at Weedon. He was in the company of the High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, Sir Henry Dryden, the Justices of the Peace and a Guard of Honour of the 47th Regiment Queen’s Colour (which had travelled there, with their horses, on an earlier train). A public carriage procession conveyed the Queen to Northampton, where she was greeted by the mayor, civic dignitaries and massed schoolchildren in front of All Saints’ Church, before being given luncheon in the Guildhall. Meanwhile, Lord Exeter galloped back to Stamford at speed, in order to be able to greet the Queen again there as Lord of Burghley.

A ‘splendid arch’ designed by ‘his Lordship’s architect’ was erected over the road at Duddington to mark the ‘beginning of Lord Exeter’s property’. Crowds lined the five miles to Stamford, which was decked with flags and ‘Long Live The Queen’ banners. The Royal Party was received by the Mayor and Corporation of Stamford and Lord Exeter gave a dinner at the George Inn for 150 of his ‘chief tenants’, who had formed a greeting party. The Queen arrived at ‘the stately towers of Burghley’ at 4.30pm (Fig 3). The start of the visit had been dogged by drizzle and this now turned to heavy rain.

A diary of the visit by Sophia Cecil, wife of Lord Exeter’s younger son Thomas, describes the arrival of the Queen and Prince Albert at the north entrance door and the introduction in the Red Drawing Room of the other guests. Dinner was at 8pm, with 40 sitting down in the Great Hall as the Coldstream band played in the new Minstrels’ Gallery (Fig 5), after Sir Henry Dryden, High Sheriff, had kissed hands in the Drawing Room and presented a loyal address from the people of Northamptonshire. Lady Sophia noted that the Queen was dressed in black, wore a magnificent pearl necklace and had a Bird of Paradise in her hair.

The next day, the Queen and Prince Albert attended Morning Prayers in the chapel, but breakfasted alone in the Heaven Room. The Royal Party joined the family and guests for luncheon in the Great Hall, Lady Sophia noting that ‘Her Majesty appeared to enjoy her very substantial luncheon of Beef, Partridge etc’. Afterwards, as it was too wet to go out, there was an extensive tour of the house, including the kitchen. The Queen and Prince Albert admired the picture collection and ‘Her Majesty appeared to be much amused at something which turned out to be “His Grace’s Wig and Whiskers” in the Blue Dressing Room where the Duke of Rutland was staying’.

In the evening, the new baby Lady Victoria Cecil was christened in the chapel by the Bishop of Peterborough (Fig 2). Prince Albert was the godfather and chose the name, ‘that which is most dear to me’. The Bishop ‘seemed lost without his spectacles and began the service before the Baby was brought in so he had to stop short and begin it over again’. Afterwards, the Royal Party watched the fireworks on the south side of the lake from the windows of the Heaven Room. The Queen wore large diamond earrings and ‘was dressed in white satin with a wreath of white natural flowers in her hair’. A sprig of the latter was preserved by the new process of gilt electroplating and is still displayed at Burghley (Fig 4). The evening’s entertainment included a Welsh harpist who played in the Marble Hall.

On Thursday, the weather cleared up, the men went shooting in the morning and, in the afternoon, there was a carriage procession to Stamford. ‘The town looked very gay, every window full. Banners and flags. Ringing of bells, cheering etc., and the reception was altogether very enthusiastic.’ Returning to Burghley, the Queen planted an oak tree and Prince Albert a lime on the south lawn (Fig 7). The spade specially made was too heavy, so the Queen used a lighter wooden child’s spade, which is still preserved. In the evening, there was a ball after dinner that went on until 2am, although the royal party retired at 11pm. For this, the Queen dressed in black with a tiara of diamonds and rubies.

The following morning, the royal couple left after breakfast and Lord Exeter accompanied them back to the railway station at Weedon. ‘During the whole time the Queen and Prince appeared much pleased, and everything went off with the greatest success.’

Pictures courtesy of The Burghley House Collection. See the Burghley House website for more. ‘Burghley House’ by John Martin Robinson, with photographs by Ashley Hicks, is out now (Rizzoli, £60).

This feature originally appeared in the March 25, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.