CHAPTER FIFTEEN 



MONMOUTHSHIRE 



AND WALES 



Monmouthshire is not markedly rich in dove- 

 cotes; but, taking it upon our way towards 

 Wales, we pause to look at one or two. The first, 

 if we enter the county from Gloucestershire 

 by way of Chepstow — once a thriving port of 

 entry for the wines of Spain, then for a century 

 a sleepy country town, destined to renewed 

 and vigorous life as an important shipyard dur- 

 ing the late war — we find at the mansion of St. 

 Pierre, some six miles west upon the Newport 

 road. 



The dovecote is a good square structure, 

 built of stone cemented over, with a tiled roof 

 and several hundred L-shaped nests. It is in 

 good repair and until lately was the home of 

 ''tumbler" pigeons, but exhibits little to detain 

 us long. 



A little farther on, near the Roman town of 

 Caerwent, we shall find the parish of Llanfair- 

 Discoed, where, at the Court House Farm, is 

 a substantially built square stone dovecote. 

 The roof, which boreja cupola, has fallen in. 



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