Mapperton House & gardens Dorset-130519 (9) Explored by Ann Collier Wildlife & General Photographer Mapperton House & Gardens in Dorset is privately owned by the Earl & Countess of Sandwich. The house & gardens form the centre of a working rural estate of around 1,800 acres of pasture, arable & ancient woodland. Mapperton was entered in the Domesday Book 1086 as Malperetone. It was then the property of William de Moion, cousin of William the Conqueror & Sheriff of Somerset. The valley gardens reflect at least three periods of history. On the top level is the croquet lawn, on the next level is the Italianate garden & the orangery added in the late 1960's. SANDWICH - It is said that the naming goes back a long way- 1726. It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat. It is said that he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, and because Montagu also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order "the same as Sandwich!" Could be true! https://flic.kr/p/2iJtuaD