SCOTTISH "DOOCOT" 



one, judging from the pains taken to render 

 such attempts abortive. As often in England, 

 so also in Scotland the doorways of the dove- 

 cote were generally small and low, the doors 

 massive and well secured; we shall indeed fre- 

 quently find thedoorsdoubled — one on the out- 

 side edge, asecond on theinsideof the thick and 

 solid wall. Not only was the act of dovecote- 

 breaking formerly regarded as a serious crime; 

 it was likewise illegal to kill pigeons found out- 

 side the shelter of their home, however far a- 

 way that home might be. Everything points to 

 the great value placed upon the birds as food 

 — a point of view easily understood when we 

 recall the comparative poverty of Scotland. 



But the other side of the question was not 

 entirely neglected, at any rate in later times. 

 The baronial right of dovecote-building, which 

 was the Scottish parallel to the power vested in 

 the lord of an English manor, received adoubt- 

 less necessary check early in the seventeenth 

 century. A statute of 1 617 limited the right of 

 building and maintaining a dovecote to those 

 persons who held "lands or teinds of a yearly 

 rental amounting to ten chalders of victual"; 



237 



