198 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND ix 



with holly-trees. Columbaries or pigeon-houses 

 were, of course, quite indispensable to every 

 country house. These were always placed at 

 some distance from the house, and seldom inside 

 the garden-walls. They were usually square or 

 octagon, with gable roofs and a weather-cock 

 or cupola forming a small open-air dove-cote at 

 the top. Circular pigeon-houses are less com- 

 mon. There is an instance at Rousham in 

 the rose garden. The interior was arranged 

 with tiers of nesting-places built in the walls, 

 and in some cases, as at Melton Hall, in Norfolk, 

 and at Athelhampton, in Dorset, a revolving post 

 stood in a socket in the centre with a pro- 

 jecting arm, to which a ladder was hung. By 

 turning round the post access could be got to 

 any part of the building. Evelyn mentions 

 a " pigeon-house of most laudable example " 

 at Godstone, in Surrey. Many of these pigeon- 

 houses — such as the great square one at 

 Southstoke, near Goring — are so exceedingly 

 picturesque that there seems no reason for 

 excluding them from the garden, and they 

 are referred to for this reason, though, strictly 

 speaking, they are outside the range of garden 

 architecture. The ordinary barrel dove-cote 

 on its high post was often put up in the 

 garden. In an old garden near Southwater 

 a dove-cote such as this forms the centre-piece 

 of a square walled garden, with straight grass 

 paths leading up to a circle in the centre. 



