BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



ing, sixteen feet high to the eaves, and fifteen 

 feet in diameter. There is asmall square window 

 near the roof, the walls are three feet thick, and 

 the door four feet high. Inside are about five 

 hundred oblong nest-holes, but no trace of a 

 potence. A priory existed here in 1306. 



Somerset'sdovecotes have detained us long, 

 leaving but little time for those of Dorset, the 

 last English county here to be described. Four 

 only will be noticed; these, though **few," are 

 more than "fit," and eminently worthy of their 

 place. 



Most beautiful for situation is the dovecote 

 standing on the lawn at Athelhampton Hall, an 

 ancient manor-house distinguished even in a 

 county which is full of such. The dovecote's 

 background, looking at it from the house, is 

 formed of immemorial elms; whileclose behind 

 it are green walls of closely clipped yew hedges 

 stretching in along perspective from the velvet 

 turf. 



The dovecote is a large round building, in 

 circumference over eighty feet. The walls are 

 buttressed, and against them several ancient 

 pear trees grow — the most innocuous form of 

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