1 68 MAPPERTON. 



Morgan," and near the head of this picture "1560, set. 51." 

 From this date we can fix the exact time of the building of the 

 house to the period between the last years of Henry VIII. and 

 the early ones of Queen Elizabeth. The front is said to have 

 been partially rebuilt by Richard Brodrepp. 



Of the house as it now exists only the north wing retains traces 

 of its beauty as originally built. Even this wing has been sadly 

 altered, but the deep hollow sharp-edged mouldings of the corner 

 pinnacles supporting the Morgan Griffins the window in the 

 west gable the dormer in the south side of the roof the traces 

 of the great east bay, of which a stone only partially broken and 

 still in existence just at the ground level gives the exact splay 

 all these shew that, beautiful as Mapperton still is by natural 

 situation and architectural effect, it has been shorn of part of its 

 former perfectness. 



The front of the house appears to have been not partially 

 but wholly rebuilt by Richard Brodrepp, otherwise the courses of 

 the masonry and the transoms of the windows could hardly have 

 run so accurately together. On the front of the porch is a large 

 shield with the Brodrepp sheldrakes, but the entrance door of the 

 house inside the porch, if not the actual original door of Robert 

 and Mary Morgan's house, seems to be hung on the old stone 

 jambs, the low flat arch of the door head having the Morgan 

 crest in an elaborate piece of carving in the spandrills. This is 

 probably the only piece of original work remaining in this part of 

 the building. 



The date of the rebuilding of the front seems a little uncertain. 

 It lies between the time of Richard Brodrepp the ist, who came 

 into the property by his marriage with Miss Mary Morgan, and 

 that of his grandson, Richard Brodrepp 2nd, who died in 1706. 

 The marriage contract of Richard Brodrepp the ist is dated 5 of 

 James (1608), but the division of the property which finally 

 assigned Mapperton to Richard Brodrepp and his wife is ten years 

 later, 15 of James (1618). As the style of the rebuilt front, of 

 the old oak panelling of the halls, and of the massive oak 

 balustrades of the back staircase, as well as the ceiling designs of 



