The Long Gallery
The Long Gallery, forming the upper floor of the west front, was completed by the close of the sixteenth century, although none of the present interior dates from this period. The bolection-moulded panelling dates from the late seventeenth century, as does the marble fireplace in the far bay. The bookcases were installed in the 1740s and the neo-Jacobean decorative plasterwork on the ceiling and frieze dates from the 1830s when the Clifford-Constable's undertook a programme of extensive redecoration.
When Dame Margaret Constable was given leave to ‘walke at her pleasure' in 1610, the Long Gallery would have been sparsely furnished, and probably remained as such throughout the seventeenth century. There would have been relatively little furniture apart from a few chairs and one or two chests and the floor would either have been bare oak boards or covered with matting. All this changed when, in the 1740s, Cuthbert Constable ordered the estate joiner, Thomas Higham, to cut away parts of the bolection-moulded panelling and construct thirteen large elm and mahogany bookcases to accommodate his considerable library.
In 1833 the Clifford-Constables began the restoration of the Long Gallery. The elaborate decorative plasterwork ceiling and frieze was installed, although it was not until 1854 when the firm of William Binks & Son of Hull was employed to paint the ceiling, that the frieze was ‘picked out in scarlet'. The room was sumptuously furnished with new curtain hangings, a new carpet, and richly carved and gilded furniture. The sphinx tables by Giuseppe Leonardi ( fl. 1781-1811) with tops of specimen marbles by Giacomo Raffaelli (1743-1836) were purchased by Sir Clifford and his wife Marianne when they were in Rome on their honeymoon tour.
During the Victorian era the Long Gallery functioned very much as a social space. On 3 November 1837 ‘Sir Clifford and Lady Constable gave a grand ball-supper in the Long Gallery' which went on into the early hours of the morning. Numerous evenings were spent with family and friends engaged in amateur theatricals, musical soirées and light-hearted games. So enamoured were they with their music-making and dramatics that they later converted two adjacent rooms (the present-day Museum) into a theatre complete with a fully-equipped stage.
Registered Charity No.1010121 Registered Museum No. 604
The Long Gallery at Burton Constable, lithograph c.1840. The figurs depicted relaxing and making music are Lady Clifford-Constable, her son Talbot and her sister Eliza Chichester