SHROPSHIRE 



cote ofstone. The length of each wall is eighteen 

 feet, and the height to the eaves twenty. The 

 building has been turned into a storehouseand 

 all trace of nests has disappeared. 



In the garden of Thonglands, a farmhouse 

 partly of Elizabethantimber-workand partly of 

 still older date, lying in one of the most charm- 

 ing of all Shropshire's charming districts — the 

 secluded valley of Corvedale — there is a cir- 

 cular stone dovecote. The roof has fallen in, 

 and the walls, burdened with a weight of ivy, 

 are upon the way to follow suit. Inside is the 

 comparatively small number of two hundred 

 and fifty nests, arranged in ten tiers, and all 

 plain oblong recesses. There is no sign of any 

 potence having been in use. The walls are only 

 thirty inches thick, a fact which seems to nega- 

 tive the bold opinion offered by a villager that 

 it might date from "in the Roman times. ' ' Some 

 speak of it, however, as of fourteenth-century 

 date; in any case it merits to be better cared for 

 than is now the case. 



At Rowton Hall, Broseley, a sixteenth-cent- 

 ury house best reached from Coalport station, 

 there is amassive dovecote builtof brick, eight- 



n 



