CHURCH PIGEONS 



gaged in catching some of them fell down Into 

 the choir and was killed. During the reign of 

 Henry III. acertain John of Hertford, who ''car- 

 ried Holy Water at Denham (Bucks), when 

 he wished to drive out some pigeons from a 

 certain lantern at the church of Denham, out- 

 side the same church, let fall a stone from that 

 lantern upon the head of Agnes, wife of Robert 

 de Denham, who was sitting in the church, so 

 that the third day she died." Again, in 1 375 the 

 vicar of Kingston-on-Thames was judged en- 

 titled to all pigeons bred in the church and its 

 chapels. 



Adjoining the west end of the now ruin- 

 ous church of Portpatrick, Wigtownshire, and 

 slightly encroaching on its western wall, there 

 is a curious small round tower. The walls are 

 over three feet thick, and the internal diameter 

 about nine feet. The lower portion seems much 

 older than the upper part, from which it is 

 divided by a string-course. The slated roof, a 

 truncated cone in shape, is topped by a small 

 pigeon-cote. 



In 1670 a door was placed at the top of the 

 steeple at Wilmslow church, Cheshire, in order 



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