BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



walls are three feet thick, the doorway not par- 

 ticularly small. The most unusual feature is the 

 presence of a low cellar floor below the ground 

 level. 



A rather attractive octagonal dovecote of 

 stone stands in a field at Milcombe, near Ban- 

 bury. The length of each wall is nine feet; the 

 octagonal roof has four windows, one in each 

 alternate section, and is crowned by an open 

 cupola. There are eight hundred simple oblong 

 nest-holes, but neither alighting-ledges nor 

 potence. Pigeons still haunt the house to some 

 extent. 



Minster Lovel supplies us with a substan- 

 tial circular example built of stone, rather plain 

 in appearance, with a small four-pillared cup- 

 ola upon the roof Among other dovecotes of 

 the county may be mentioned the square four- 

 gabled specimen at Shipton Court. Those of 

 the Oxford Colleges, now all demolished, would 

 require a lengthy chapter to themselves. 



At Clattercot, six miles from Banbury, traces 

 of the former priory of Gilbertine canons may 

 be seen at a farmhouse; and in the garden is a 

 good three-storied dovecote, about twelve feet 

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