Hardwick Hall

Late this winter I called at Hardwick hall in Derbyshire. The famous ‘Prodigy House’, built by the even more famous Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury and ancestress of the Dukes of Devonshire, is an Elizabethan mansion of distinction. Tudor England was a brutal and violent place, but the nation was relatively settled after the Roses Wars, and the wealthy felt able to build homes designed for comfort rather than defence. Hardwick Hall is famous for its gigantic windows: "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall," is the oft-repeated maxim. Curiously, the windows get larger as the floors rise; the upper rooms were destined for the noblest occupants, not the lower. It is sometimes called a 'lantern house' as a result. Gigantic tapestries hug the walls and lady Bess’s arms supported by two stags are features of many rooms. 

Whereas older, medieval properties were designed to exclude, especially rivals’ armies or the lower classes, Hardwick Hall is designed to absorb. It is itself a product of new ideas about architecture, and was considered novel and cutting edge in its own century. But more than this: those windows are designed to flood the rooms with sunshine. This is not, I think, because the late Countess of Shrewsbury feared the rising cost of chandlers’ bills and wished to reduce her candle consumption, any more than the owner of a modern Bentley or Rolls Royce need fear the cost of filling the tank with petrol. Rather, it was a clear break with the darker, medieval past, with its wars, disorders and Roman superstitions. Sunlight burns brighter than tallow and wax; God's daylight is better than man’s spark. May we flood our churches, homes and hearts with that light of God which radiates from His Son, the truths of whom are recorded in His precious word. Knock through the thick, stone walls and swing wide those heavy, oaken doors, and usher in the illuminating truth of God's written word.

We have also a most sure word of the Prophets, to the which ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day star arise in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19, 1599 Geneva Bible