BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



villageto the west of Swindon, and not difficult 

 of access from Purton station. It is a square 

 brick building, standing atthe junction of three 

 fruit-tree-covered walls. I ts walls are twenty feet 

 inlength, itsheightaboutthirty. Theroof of old 

 Cotswold stone tiles is very picturesque; four- 

 gabled, withthecentralcupolacrowned by what 

 appears to be the mutilated figure of a pigeon, 

 or at least a bird. There is a ''practicable" door 

 on the west side, another, now bricked up, being 

 opposite. Inside are more than one thousand 

 simple oblong nests, together with a potence. 

 The building seems to date from the time of 

 Anne or the early Georges. 



Alarge oblongstone dovecote, witha hipped 

 and stone-tiled roof, stands in another Wiltshire 

 garden, at the house known as J'aggard's, Cors- 

 ham. Althoughitmeasurestwenty-sixfeet long 

 by twenty feet in width it only holds about two 

 hundred nests, some few of which are tenanted 

 to-day. Oneofthe two doors is modern, and the 

 building generally has suffered considerable 

 alteration, the lower part having served as a 

 cowhouse. 



A circular stone example, with a stone-tiled 

 1 80 



