Seamless beauty
Dating back to Tudor times, Mapperton House, in the heart of Hardy country, is a harmonious blend of architectural styles says JANET GLEESON
Built in the mid 1500s, Mapperton House, deep in the heart of Thomas Hardy country, is a harmonious blend of architectural styles
Ittakes some time to find Mapperton House. Tucked in a verdant fold of Dorset’s lovely countryside, along twisting single-track lanes, the entrance comes unexpectedly, giving little hint of the surprise in store. But when at last you find it, there’s a bewitching beauty about the mellow Ham stone facade that comes into view. And if something about the house, with its barley twist chimneys and moss- clad balustrade, seems strangely familiar, maybe it’s because Mapperton was the location for Bathsheba Everdene’s house in the 2015 film adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Far From The Madding Crowd.
Bathsheba aside, only a handful of families have ever lived here. The original Tudor house was built in the 1540s–50s, by Robert Morgan and his wife, passing down the female line. Mapperton was refashioned after the Restoration, and the following century more alterations were
The 10th Earl furnished Mapperton with family portraits by Reynolds and Hogarth
made by the unfortunately named Bastard brothers: the local architect contractors responsible for much of the rebuilding of Blandford Forum, after a devastating fire in the 18th century.
The result of these modifications is a fascinating and seamless blend of architectural styles, echoed in the equally diverse furniture and paintings each room contains. So you will find tapestries and oak co ers and chairs dating from the 16th and 17th centuries sitting happily alongside spectacular secretaires and commodes made in 18th- century France; 19th- century English writing tables and bookcases, lit with 20th- century papier-mâché table lamps; a John Nash watercolour hanging next to a maritime painting by Samuel Scott; and an 18th- century bed draped with a modern suzani bedcover.
Ironically, few of these furnishings belonged to the original occupiers. In 1919, Mapperton, by then in a sad state of repair, was sold to Mrs Ethel Labouchere, who extensively renovated it. ‘She completely rebuilt the roof, as I discovered when there was a leak in our bedroom. I crawled into the roof and stubbed my knee on an RSJ,’ says Lady Sandwich, wife of the 11th Earl, who lived here for three decades until last year.
Mrs Labouchere’s contribution to the house also included the installation of the Arts and Crafts ceiling in the Hall, along with a large plaster bas-relief copy of a section of the frieze from the Temple of Apollo in Bassae, depicting the Atheneans’ defeat of the Amazon women. ‘The allegorical meaning is the triumph of men and civilization over women and barbarism. I beg to di er,’ says Lady Sandwich.
Given the contribution Lady Sandwich has made to Mapperton, her objection is hardly surprising. Her father-in-law, the 10th Earl, bought the house in 1956, moving from Hinchingbrooke, a larger house in Huntingdonshire. He furnished Mapperton with the cream of the Montagu collection, including family portraits by Lely, Reynolds, Nathaniel Dance and Hogarth, naval paintings by Scott and Van de Velde, and some fine French and English furniture. His collection has remained at the heart of Mapperton ever since, although the ambience has changed greatly over the last three decades. ‘My father-in-law lived here for a long time alone, without a wife. When we came here in the 1980s, the house was cold and under-furnished. It didn’t have texture, and I added masses, rearranged things and had items repaired,’ Lady Sandwich explains.
The original Tudor ceiling survives in the Drawing Room, although in every other
way this is a room in which the 18th and early 19th centuries prevail. ‘The neoclassical chimney piece came from Hinchingbrooke and shows maenads up to tricks,’ says Lady Sandwich. The room is dominated by a large portrait of John Montagu, 4th Earl (who gave his name to the eponymous snack) by Sir Joshua Reynolds. A portrait of the opera singer Martha Ray, his companion, whose colourful life ended after she was shot on the steps of Covent Garden Opera House by a jealous admirer, hangs next to him. The table beneath is one of six fine examples of Regency cabinetmaking displayed in the room. ‘They date from after the great excitement of the Battle of the Nile (1798), and are decorated with blowsy Nubian girls and male sphinxes on the corners. They were all scattered around the house, and I brought them together, which made the room seem much more elegant, and much grander than it was,’ explains Lady Sandwich.
Her favourite object in the room stands in the corner – the marble bust of Louisa, 6th Countess of Sandwich, by the Danish neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. ‘For Christmas she always wears a tinsel wig and looks really young and excited. One year the
Tate borrowed her for an exhibition of country house treasures. I told the curator that she traditionally wore the wig but he wouldn’t be persuaded. And she came back having been cleaned, which made the rest of the room look grubby.’
There are reminders of the Montagu family’s links to British naval history in the ship models and paintings hanging in the Dining Room. This space is still at the heart of family life and regularly used for dinners and lunches. A 17th- century verdure tapestry from Brussels has part of its border missing. ‘It came from Hinchingbrooke and, in the 19th century, people just cut and pasted them to suit the walls,’ explains Lady Sandwich.
These days, Lady Sandwich and her husband no longer live at Mapperton, having moved to a house nearby, to allow their son Luke, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, and his wife Julie and family to manage the estate. However, they remain greatly involved in the care of the collection and still sometimes entertain here. ‘Every house needs a new ownership and energy every 30 years or so, and I am happy my husband has handed it over. Mapperton remains a lived-in family home and that’s what’s important.’