Queen Elizabeth I's ministers and nobles were in competition to build houses she would enjoy staying at for a few days during the summer months. Many of them even built to the limit of their resources and beyond. Although Queen Elizabeth frequently visited Lord Burghley's other houses, she never stayed at Burghley House; her only visit was cancelled due to the threat of small pox.

The Sixteenth century houses developed, socially and architecturally, from castles. These had had a strategic role in the feudal system, and were designed to accommodate several households. In the later medieval period, accommodation within or along the inside of the walls that surrounded the castle, was replaced with outbuildings. Houses like Burghley were built around a courtyard with servants' rooms on two sides. Fortification may no longer have been necessary, but an impressive display of power certainly was.

The gardens would be rectangular or square and divided into four to twelve sections. They were laid out to a geometric plan with paths separating the small beds. Each bed would contain only a few plants, so that individual flowers could be admired. Popular features were fruit trees, wooden statues and fountains.

Flower gardens were a status symbol, a form of conspicuous consumption, especially if filled with plants discovered by explorers in Africa, the Americas and the East — some bulbs were worth their weight in gold! Herb gardens were also popular; they were planted as a soothing aromatic walk and for warding off spirits as well as for cooking with.