Between the years 1558 and 1603, Elizabethan architecture was very much in style while Queen Elizabeth was in reign. These manors (mansions) are known for being flamboyant as well as very large. They were made to show off one’s wealth and fortune. Most of these houses, the ones that were rich anyway, were said to have these manors “incorporated with plenty of glass, an extraordinary degree of ornamentation and more rooms for comfortable living - sitting rooms flooded with light, for example” (Arfin). There are quite a few different houses of this type, houses that were built by Robert Smythson. Some of them include Burton Agnes Hall, Hardwick Hall, and Longleat House, and they are said to be some of Smythson’s best work. Burton Agnes Hall is known for quite a few things: “extraordinarily elaborate carving and ornamentation, particularly in the Great Hall, one of the earliest examples of a newel post supported staircase in England” (Arfin). Hardwick Hall is known for having “more glass than wall” (Arfin) and it was built for a celebrity named Bess of Hardwick. Longleat House is Smythson’s first “inside-out” house and according to Afrin, Queen Elizabeth had been a guest there before the house was ever even completed. These types of houses, Elizabethan Houses, were the houses that many lived in the novel The Tenant Wildfell Hall. Helen Graham had moved into Wildfell Hall, which was said to be an Elizabethan House. This was partly why the Markham family had been so shocked at the fact that Helen had moved in alone and with one servant.
Arfin, Ferne. “When You've Got It, Flaunt It - A Motto for the Elizabethan Age.” TripSavvy, New-York Presbyterian, www.tripsavvy.com/flamboyant-elizabethan-manors-of-england-1661661.