HEREFORDSHIRE 



a well-known Herefordshire authority on fruit- 

 growing and cider- making, is an octagonal 

 brickdovecote, largely adapted to modern uses. 

 There are some nest-holes left. Its octagonal 

 lantern carries a flag as weather-vane; on it 

 are the initials E. W., with the date 1 753. The 

 building itself is dated in large letters 1641 



with the initials ^ ' , whose owners were 

 F. M. 



Ffoulkes and Margaret Walwyn. 



It seems as though the county's rivers might 

 be taken as our guides. The Wye would, after 

 many windings, bring us down to Ross ; not 

 far from Ross is Weston, where, at Bollitree 

 Dairy Farm, there is — or was, for recent in- 

 formation has proved unobtainable — a dove- 

 cote which presents at least one interesting 

 feature. It is a rectangular stone building, and 

 at each corner was placed a guard against 

 attacks from rats, in a form which, though re- 

 commended by the early eighteenth century 

 Sportsman s Dictionary, is seldom seen. The 

 safeguard was an iron angle-plate on which a 

 climbing animal would slip andfall. Thewriter 

 of the work just mentioned, adds, that they 



61 



