46 MANORIAL DOVECOTES. [CHAP. n. 



by a ladder without, the lower half being used as a 

 cow-house, cart-shed, or root-house. It is usually so- 

 lidly built of either brick or stone, and the interior 

 fittings are of brick also. Nesting-places are thus made 

 to occupy the four entire walls, except where the open- 

 ing for the door prevents them. The place gets cleaned 

 out twice or thrice in the year, and is very snug ; but 

 as the birds which die are not removed when they ought 

 to be, it is sometimes very offensive, to the human sense 

 at least. In many places in the west of England brick 

 nesting-boxes for common Dove-house Pigeons are built 

 outside the walls, according to the exact pattern of 

 those in the ancient Dovecotes, but the plan has none 

 of the security, warmth, and quiet of the old system, and 

 retains all its disadvantages. On Colonel Petre's estate 

 at Westwick in Norfolk, an arch is thrown across the 

 road, and the pediment and upper portions of each pier 

 are tenanted by Pigeons. The idea was probably sug- 

 gested by Capability Browne, who assisted in laying out 

 the grounds. The effect is really very good, and the 

 birds thrive and evidently enjoy the vicinity of the lake 

 as a convenient watering and bathing place. But those 

 gentlemen who reside in a rocky district might contrive 

 the most picturesque of all Dovecotes, by hollowing out 

 a space in the face of a cliff, and fashioning the en- 

 trance as nearly like a natural cavern as possible. A 

 few pairs of Rock Doves once settled here in lockers 

 hewn in the rock itself, would indeed feel themselves 

 at home ; and if an elevated spot were selected, their 

 out-door proceedings would be observable from the man- 

 sion and pleasure-grounds generally, and could not fail 

 to form an agreeable point of view. 



The above-mentioned cubical, brick-built receptacles 



