|
In the quiet meadows of the Dove, Mapleton has houses of mellowed brick and a tiny church with a curious octagonal dome. An 18th century structure, it has only a few remains of the older church in some fragments of glass, and perhaps the five great beams supporting the roof. The oak chair is of the 18th century.
Five great beeches overhang the road to the one-arch bridge across the Dove, where one may stand with one foot in Derbyshire and one in Staffordshire, seeing two miles away the peak of Thorpe Cloud and the great mass of Bunster, the two splendid guardians of Dovedale.
Beyond the river are a fine church at the doorstep of Okeover Hall and the deer park which we may cross to Mayfield, where Tom Moore wrote ‘Lalla Rookh’.
One of a great Derbyshire family, Thomas Cokayne, born at Mapleton in 1587 was the author of an English and Greek dictionary for New Testament students.
|
