The accompanying plan of the lay-out of Holdenby (Fig. 55), from a survey made in 1587, gives a good idea of the surroundings of the larger Elizabethan houses. The road between two villages ran along the north side of the park, and from this road branched another one which led up to the house. While it traversed the park it was allowed to wind according to the undulations of the ground, but when it came to within a quarter of a mile of the lodge it was made perfectly straight, and so ran through the midst of "the green"--"a large, long, straight, fair way," as Lord Burghley called it. It led directly to the porter's lodge, which was a building separate from the house, and self-contained, and it passed the long range of stabling on the right. The porter's lodge opened into the first court, the "base-court," as it was called, walled round, and entered on its two sides by large gateways. At the further end of the base-court stood the house, raised a few steps above the general level, where Lord Burghley "found a great magnificence in the front or front pieces of the house, and so every part answerable to other, to allure liking." The house was built round two great courts, the first 128 feet by 104 feet, the second 140 feet by 110 feet, comparable in point of size to those at Hampton Court, and a good deal more intricate in detail. To the north of the house itself were two walled gardens, of nearly an acre each, and beyond these were spinneys, or small woods, and the little village with its inn. The ground on the south side of the house sloped pretty steeply away, and was laid out in a series of terraces. At the top of these, and flanking the whole length of the base-court, the house, and the orchard beyond, ran a broad straight path. In the midst of the terraces a great platform was run out at the level of this long path, containing a rosery laid out with paths in a simple geometrical pattern. At the extreme end of the long path was a cross-path leading each way to a prospect mount, up at least one of which wound a spiral path, ending (in all probability) in a banqueting house, such as Lord Bacon describes in his essay "Of Gardens," and such as the Parliamentary Commissioners describe as being at Nonesuch in the year 1650. At the foot of the terraces lay fishponds amid orchard-trees, and, in a small enclosure of its own, the church. Close to the church was the site of the old manor house, the home of Sir Christopher Hatton's fathers, but which he found far too insignificant a dwelling for the Lord Chancellor.