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Mapperton House, Montacute House, and Barrington Court, England NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE TIME IT WILL TAKE to find your destination when driving on English country lanes. From the chalk cliffs on the English Channel to the Quantock Hills at Taunton, Wessex, there is a diverse region of moors and hillsides. We set out one sunny day for the Devon coast in Torquay and the Palace Hotel, a sixtyacre wooded enclave on the “British Riviera.” After several hours of driving the narrow roads of the English countryside, we came to Beaminster, where we stopped to visit the house and garden at Mapperton. Near Mapperton, in Somerset, we found another enchanting garden, Barrington Court. The two provide a study in similarities and contrasts. In 2006 Mapperton had been awarded by Country Life magazine the coveted award of Britain’s Finest Manor House. Among the criteria for the award is that the house must be occupied residentially (not a museum); have distinguished historic and architectural character; and have a fine setting and contribute to the local life in its community. Mapperton is one of the oldest Dorset manor houses. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having been the property of the sheriff of Somerset. Remarkably it descended in one family for more than eight hundred years, linked by descent in the female line. The house has medieval origins but was built in the 1540s of local limestone, as was the All Saints Anglican Church, which lies immediately next to it and is now owned by the estate. Many of the tombstones in the graveyard of the church are so ancient that the script of their memorials has been completely effaced by the rains, snows, and winds of yesteryear. The house was remodeled, or, better stated, “evolved” in the 1600s and 1700s. But it is said to “wear the clothes of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as if they all have been designed as one.” The house is decorated with massive stone eagles on either side of its entry gates. Its twisting chimney stacks soar above its steep slate roofs. Griffins, lions, and gargoyles stand sentry on its rooftops. The formal garden dates back to the 1600s, but today’s garden is principally the work of Ethel Labouchere (?–1955), who owned the property in the 1920s, and the earl of Sandwich family, who own and occupy the estate today. The garden at Mapperton sits at the top of a steeply descending valley, which winds down to the sea. From the front part of the estate, you would never know there is a garden. We walked slowly to the edge of the croquet lawn at the side of the manor in the direction of the ancient ravine. Suddenly we looked down a terraced slope that must Mapperton House, Montacute House, and Barrington Court 97 have been part of the original garden. Then an exquisitely designed formal Italian garden sprinkled with a mixture of herbaceous English color was before us. If “surprise ” earns points in garden design, the “wow factor” of suddenly looking down onto the Mapperton garden was strikingly evocative. Anchoring the upper garden is a limestone glass house with nine floor-to-ceiling arched windows accented by four Ionic columns for its larger protruding central section and with Ionic columns in bas relief for each of its side sections. The façade of the glass house turns to a yellow-gold color in the afternoon sun. The central arched window-door was open. We sat for a few minutes soaking in the sun and admiring the grapevines and the fruit on the large pots of limes and lemons. As our eyes glanced forward, we saw the fountain court and its raised pool and fountain . A wisteria-covered pergola lies immediately below the pool on the garden’s central, north-south axis. A small summerhouse sits just beyond the pergola, complete with its own fireplace, and offered its artist owner of a century ago shelter from the winter wind. The upper garden is liberally sprinkled with urns, vases, and garden sculpture as focal points. We looked down on the lower garden from the summerhouse to the two long rectangular pools laid end on end and separated by a small, intermediate circular garden. Both of the pools carry “deep water” warning labels, and they are each long enough for doing swimming laps. Below the lower garden, a stream and bog filled with wildflowers and blooming trees meander down the hill to...

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