CUMBERLAND 



quarter for the boy's share of this pedagogue's 

 instructions, but later transferred him to the 

 care of one Pedlar Thommy, who had exchang- 

 ed the calling of a wandering merchant for that 

 of schoolmaster, and had established his head- 

 quarters in the Crookdale pigeon-house. 



In a field behind the vicarage at Aspatria 

 is a quadrangular dovecote about twelve feet 

 square, built of rubble, and roughcast. As in 

 the Crookdale specimen, a ledge surrounds the 

 outside of the walls at six feet from the ground. 

 The door has been enlarged; the nest-holes, 

 formed of blocks of stone, and vertically over 

 one another, are eight inches square by one 

 foot deep. They begin at the ground level and 

 have no alighting-ledges. 



Unhappily this dovecote is at present in a 

 grievous case. It is now quickly falling into 

 ruin; and, owing to an uncertainty as to the 

 shoulders upon which should fall the duty — and 

 the cost — of its repair, there seems at present 

 every prospect of its beingsoon numbered with 

 the many dovecotes which have ''disappear- 

 ed." It is particularly unsuitable that Cumber- 

 land, a county where the dovecotes have been 



