Very interesting tale http://al4a.fun/al4avideos/ al4a In fact from the moment you trundle down Mapperton鈥檚 leisurely entrance drive, you feel as if you are stumbling upon some well-kept secret. Remote in its rolling Dorset landscape, five miles from the sea, the 16th- and 17th-century house of golden Ham stone, with its assembly of chapel, dovecote and stables, as well as foraging chickens and oak gates half-off their hinges is, on first impression, the epitome of sleepy unspoilt England. It was bought by the family of the present owners, the Earl and Countess of Sandwich, in 1956.