The Tudor architectural masterpiece at the heart of Burghley. Although this tranquil courtyard can only be glimpsed by day-to-day visitors to the Staterooms, it occasionally serves as a venue for concerts and dramatic productions, for which it is well-suited as its original design and purpose was to act as a stage for the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth. Here, Cecil incorporated every possible feature to impress upon the audience, and perhaps also upon his Queen, that he and his family were of a noble line, long-established and illustrious. Carved roundels suggesting links with great figures of history, even to the King of Troy, feature large. Columns, obelisks and other classical architectural forms surround the courtyard in order that the visitor would find it hard to ignore the grandeur of the place.