HO; 







Jraw.ng-room Is an admirable example of plaster-work, with 

 pendant .in. I ileurs.de-lys in the panels, and a In 

 richly \vorki-d with medallions, while the wainscoting of the 

 rooms is extremely nood. In vari< s in the structure 



the armtiri.ll bearings of the owners are sculptured .mJ 

 emMuoaed characteristically . h.xtemaily, the herald 



tin- octagonal turrets and spiral pedestals are very 

 good. 



What shall we say about the gardens of this sweet 

 Dorset -aire house ? They are simple as such gardens should be. 

 The mansion itself is richly vested with ivy and climbing 

 roses, though nowhere to the obscuring of its architectural 

 features. Tall gate-posts crowned with balls open to the 

 venue between the house and the outbuildings, which last are 

 among the quaintest imaginable. The gardens c.-ver about 

 t'xjr acres, and have a sweet and attractive character, without 



Jy marked features, though the long grass slopes. 



trmin^ terraces, are quite characteristic and good. The 



nee of many trees adds very greatly to the charm of the 



place. They are in much variety, which has been increa-i ,i 



by the care devoted to judiciou* planting, and (lowering 



district is given up to dairy farming, and Hardy took hi* 

 pictures of farming life tr<>m what he had seen and observed in 

 tluse Dorsetshire hills and valleys. HeammM.-r is. in fact, 

 the centre of a district fam-ms for the Double U-rM-t" or 

 "blue Vinny" cheese, and the hills that surround the town 

 are mostly occupied by the farms, but in the broader valley* 

 the farms are generally larger, and produce immense quantities 

 of butter and cheese. The traveller who has passed over the 

 chalk downs and cornlanJs, where the >un blazes upon the 

 fields, is delighted to look over the lower country devoted to 

 dairy farming, where the lanes are white and the darker 

 network ol the hedges overspreads the paler green of the grass. 

 As Thomas Hardy says of the Vale of Blackmoor, with slight 

 exceptions, the prospect in such places is a broad rich 

 mass of grass and trees mantling minor hills and fair, 

 pastoral J.iles. The forests, as we said, have depart. . I. 

 though some old customs that belonged to them seem 

 still to be retained. The produce ol the Mapperton 

 district is carried for country consumption into Beaminster 

 and other towns. The main lm<- of the South Western 

 Railway is a few miles to the north, but m-arer at hand 



THE KNTHANCE GATES. 



.ire one of the principal attracts >ns, though the tall elm and the 

 spreading chestnut seem to predominate. The broad-lraved 

 plane and the nodding birch are of the goodly company, and 

 have their part in the sylvan charms of these Dorset valleys. 

 Mapperton House has tine lawns and ample parterres, and it 

 will be remarked that the j-reen grass space in the forecourt, 

 running quite up to the wa is of the house, is a pleasant relief 

 to the grey stone of the structure. 



The country about, as has been said, is very picturesque 

 and varied, for the house stands in a fairly elevated situation, 

 but sheltered by the hills and having a conical height called 

 Chart Knoll on the north west. Nearly the whole of the 



is the line that runs from Bridport to Maiden Newton, on the 

 : Western Railway from Yf-vil to Dorchester and 

 Weymouth. 



Bridport is an ancient town, celebrated once for the 

 making of what were kn >wn as " Bridport d.i^ers," being 

 the hempen cords with which malefactors were hung. Enough 

 has been said, however, to show that the district which 

 surrounds the house we illustrate is as interesting as that 

 attractive structure itself, .mJ with this remark we shall 

 leave a place which we .ire very ^lad to include in this 

 series of illustrations of the famous houses .mj gardens of 

 England. 



