Great Hall

The Great Hall is the largest room at Boughton and remains the most imposing of spaces, as it must have been since its construction in early Tudor times. The sketch by A.W. Blomfeld done in anticipation of the much needed repairs in 1911, which included the installation of the wainscoting panels gives an impression of how it must have looked. Hidden above the painted barrel ceiling is the original timber roof structure, with its carved windbraces and quatrefoil patterns. Blomfeld sketch	The Great Hall Click for larger image  Or look at a QTVR of the Great Hall
Rare portrait of Queen Elizabeth I as a young princess A portrait of Oliver Cromwell by Robert Walker, until recently hanging in the Cabinet Office, Whitehall and previously, the Residence of the British Ambassador to the Netherlands, is on display at the Great Hall. The new ceiling, “The Apotheosis of Hercules” by Chéron was one of the last to be worked on and remains incomplete. It was commissioned by Ralph Montagu in the 1690’s, when he also had installed the windows, opened through two storeys, and the ducal coat of arms in the western ceiling lunette, with its griffins peering down on the activities below. Coat of arms Only one of the four Tudor doors survived the alterations. The panelling, of Boughton Oak, was installed in 1912, and at the same time the large equestrian portrait of the Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch by an unknown artist, c.1672-3 was brought from Dalkeith House, near Edinburgh.
	The six silver sconces (see left) were a wedding gift from his father, Charles II, whose Royal Cipher they bear.   Click to see VR Object of the Sconce
The pair of Boulle Marriage Coffers is of a similar date. On three of the four walls are Mortlake tapestries depicting "The Four Elements," after Charles Le Brun , by John Vanderbank. "Fire" "Earth" The Tudor arched doorway now displays Blanc de Chine porcelain collected by Sarah, Duchess to the great Duke of Marlborough.
To the right the portrait by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) is of Elizabeth Montagu, who united the Montagu and Scott families through her marriage to Henry, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch. She inherited Boughton on the death of her only brother, the Marquis of Monthermer, portrayed by Pompeo Batoni (1708-87) .	Elizabeth Montagu
To the right of the West door is her parents Mary, also by Gainsborough, and George Brudenell, created 3rd Duke of Montagu, by Sir William Beechey (1753-1839).
The silver shell casket is eighteenth-Century Peruvian, formerly used to store coca leaves. The two oval portraits on the East Wall are of Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu, and his first wife Elizabeth Wriothsley, by Pierre Mignard (1612-95). The other pair of ovals are English School portraits of Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough and her daughter Mary Churchill, Duchess of Montagu.
The mid-18th Century English gilt tables (see right) with marble tops flanking the fireplace are surmounted by equestrian figures comprising a bronze of Louis XIV and a parcel gilt 18th Century model of the Emperor Charlemagne.	Marble Top Table Information
The giltwood side table by the West door is early 18th Century, English. The Pier table on the West Wall is of carved gilt wood and Sicilian jasper c.1760. The tall walnut chairs, with their original leather, are William and Mary period. On the North wall, facing the window, is the First Lord Montagu of Boughton, then his mother, and next to the fireplace his grandfather, Sir Edward, Lord Chief Justice to Henry VIII, who acquired Boughton in 1528. To the right of the fireplace is an important portrait of Queen Elizabeth attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts c. 1595; next, a charming portrait of Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of Southampton surrounded by items of clothing and jewellery, English school, c.1600. Beside her, a well known portrait by John de Critz the Elder (1552-1642) of her husband, the 3rd Earl of Southampton, a patron of Shakespeare, who dedicated his first two published works to him&emdash;"Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucretia." He is painted while imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1601-03, for conspiring against Queen Elizabeth, and was subsequently released by James I.

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