NEAR LONDON 



feet in circumference, and twenty-three feet 

 high to the eaves. The walls, three feet eight 

 inches thick, are buttressed in four places. The 

 four buttresses are on the north, south, east, 

 and west respectively, and are carried up the 

 full height of the walls. 



The door, five feet in height by two feet six 

 inches broad, has jambs and lintel of a later 

 period than the walls; indeed upon the lintel is 

 the date 1 642,with C. R. — standing, almost cer- 

 tainly, for Carolus Rex. Immediately above the 

 doorway is a blocked-up pointed arch. The roof 

 is cone-shaped, with a small square cupola upon 

 the top. 



Inside we find six hundred L-shaped nests 

 of chalk, arranged in fifteen tiers; the eighth 

 row is the only one with an alighting-ledge, 

 though there are other ledges quite irregularly 

 placed. A potence is still in position. 



The date usually assigned to this most in- 

 teresting building is 1 307, though the grounds 

 for such precision are not clear. But there is 

 little doubt that it is hardly, if at all inferior in 

 antiquity to the Herefordshire example at Gar- 

 way, or to the lost treasure at Bosbury. A vault- 



167 



