‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall’, is a well-known local saying that actually characterises one of the key features of Hardwick, namely the exuberant use of an expensive and rare material for houses in 1590s England, namely glass. Begun in 1590 and completed only seven years later Hardwick is a house that shouted innovation from the same rooftops that proclaimed the builder of the house, Elizabeth Shrewsbury, the Countess of Shrewsbury, with her initials ‘ES’ proudly sitting atop the turrets of the house.