Henry Wotton was an English writer and politician in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Elements of Architecture, a translation and adaption of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio's De Architectura and the most important of Wotton's published works, was printed in 1625. Wotton's time as Venetian ambassador (1604–1612) may have influenced his ideas of architecture. He appears to have viewed the residence as very much the embodiment of its owner; it should, therefore, reflect the owner's values and be appropriately adorned and decorated. Its architecture, space, and surroundings represented the lordly qualities, one of which was generosity. Generosity was most easily dispensed through the act of hospitality, which was, in theory, at liberty to be freely given to anyone who came to the castle entrance. As Wotton stated, the residence was the theatre – not just the stage – of the owner's hospitality.

The performance of hospitality was, in large part, connected with display and ritual, and certain formal obligations were expected of the host and the guest. During the Middle Ages, hospitality was seen as an important Christian virtue, and, because of this, it was associated largely with monastic duty. However, it continued to have a prominent role in medieval and early modern secular society as well. A generous host, as the fourteenth-century Dominican John Bromyard stressed, offered food and accommodation to all sorts of men. This idea of hosting many sorts of people was still present in the late seventeenth century when George Wheeler stated that it was ‘a Liberal Entertainment of all sorts of Men, at ones House, whether Neighbours or Strangers, with kindness, especially with Meat, Drink and Lodgings’. As hospitality was so important for the Tudor elite, the layout of and display associated with areas of the residence that guests would frequent were, it will be argued, carefully thought-out and constructed.