Rooms

This room is of central importance to the life of the house and family. It was made into its present form by Sir Edmund Brudenell and the roof, panelling and fireplace all date from 1571.

 

It was badly damaged in the Civil War and the heraldic stained glass was broken in the last war. The latter was restored in 1959.

 

The original pale blue silk was in tatters by the end of the last war, when the house was occupied by soldiers. The room was re-decorated in 1966 and the pictures re-hung.

 

The picture over the fireplace is the 1st Countess of Cardigan by van Dyck and his Studio. The rare set of twelve small portraits on oak panels are of unknown women and children, possibly Treshams, of around 1615.

 

This is the first of the Georgian additions in the late 18th or early 19th Century. It now contains some interesting portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds and most of the library collected in the 16th Century by Sir Thomas Tresham and his son-in-law, Sir Thomas Brudenell, later the 1st Earl of Cardigan.

 

Although there are no building records, it seems likely that this and the adjoining staircase were built by the 5th Earl who died in 1811.

 

Over the fireplace is the famous picture of the 7th Earl of Cardigan galloping in the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava. All the rest of the pictures are of his hunters, a change from family portraits.