BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



spring, it was full of birds, old and young (it 

 would contain quite two thousand) some one 

 shut up or forgot to open the window which 

 gave the pigeons egress to find food for them- 

 selves and their young, and that all the occu- 

 pants were starved to death." 



At West Camel, near Bath, in a paddock ad- 

 joining the rectory garden, is a circular dove- 

 cote with four buttresses. The diameter is fif- 

 teen feet, the height considerable. Inside is no 

 sign of the potence which probably once exist- 

 ed, but, though untenanted, more than seven 

 hundred nest-holes still remain, some being L- 

 shaped, others of more simple plan. 



The roof is of rough tiles, the walls but little 

 short of three feet thick, and the door notice- 

 ably small. Close by is a good specimen of an 

 old tithe barn, perhaps coeval with the dove- 

 cote. West Camel was formerly an appendage 

 of Michelney Abbey, near Langport, and the 

 tradition of this having been the abbot's dove- 

 cote is quite probably correct. 



An even finer tithe barn, with a stately en- 

 trance, buttresses, and narrow cruciform win- 

 dow-slits, is the near neighbour of the dovecote 

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