BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



filling-in, of which Essex offers several speci- 

 mens. It forms a cube of about eighteen feet 

 each way, with a tiled roof and a small cupola. 

 Inside are overseven hundred L-shaped nests, 

 with potence and ladder. The house — Great 

 Bardfield Hall — to which the field and dove- 

 cote now belong, has a long history, culminat- 

 ing in its ownership by the trustees of Guy's 

 Hospital. The dovecote is most likely of Eliza- 

 bethan date. 



The Deanery at Bocking, also near Brain- 

 tree, has a dovecote of which the lower story 

 seems to have been long in use as a coach- 

 house. Now standing in a garden, it at one time 

 formed part of other farmyard buildings. It is 

 of unusually large size, being a cube of thirty 

 feet; is built of brick and timber, and may with 

 safety be attributed to Tudor days. The roof 

 is tiled, with a small dormer entrance at the top. 

 The inside of the walls is lined with clay, in 

 which the L-shaped nests are formed. 



In the farmyard at Wendon Lofts Hall, near 

 Saffron Walden, is an octagonal brick dove- 

 cote of large size, the total height being nearly 

 forty feet, and the diameter more than twenty. 1 1 

 1 60 



