Originally worked as a cushion cover, this embroidered panel shows Chatsworth after the last phase of building by Bess of Hardwick in 1577. It shows the west front of the building, with a view through the central entrance to the internal courtyard.
The panel was included in the inventory of goods in the Long Gallery at Hardwick Hall in 1601. Although Bess and members of her household, both male and female, practised needlework, the quality of the embroidery on this panel means that it was likely to have been produced professionally.
The extraordinary collection of textile furnishings that survives at Hardwick would have been very costly to acquire, and was a display of Bess's personal wealth. It remains at Chatsworth, retained because of its subject matter when the hall was given to the National Trust in 1959.
