To the north-west of Bridport and the south-west of Beaminster are
two old houses within a couple of miles of one another, the manor-
houses of Melplash and Mapperton. The former, a plain Elizabethan
gabled house, is said to have been one of the many residences of
Nell Gwyn. Whether the old Hall of Parnham, the seat of the Strodes,
was honoured by a visit of the Merry Monarch we do not know. If so,
it is possible Nell may have been housed at Melplash. Mapperton is a
remarkably picturesque house, with projecting bays and a
balustraded roof, above which are little dormer windows. Part of the
house is evidently Jacobean and part dates from the reigns of Henry
VIII. and Elizabeth, and the combination of styles, the niched
entrance gates surmounted by eagles, the ornamental pinnacles, and
the "upping-stock" beside the wall, make a most fantastic whole. It was once the seat of the Coker family.