HEREFORDSHIRE 



early English arcade which screens the south 

 chapel; these, with still other features, bid us 

 pause. But we must content ourselves with 

 the knowledge that, originally a preceptory of 

 the Knights Templars, it passed, in or shortly 

 after 1308, the year in which disaster overtook 

 that order, into the possession of the Hospi- 

 tallers. It is to the latter that we owe the 

 grand old dovecote at the farm close by. 



It stands partly in the foldyard, partly in a 

 sloping field. The door giving access to the 

 yard is a comparatively modern innovation, 

 the onlyoriginal entrance being the one which 

 opens on the field. The archway of this door- 

 way has two upright stones to form the "key"; 

 below them, filling in the arch and resting on 

 thejamb-heads of the doorway, is a tympanum 

 bearing an inscription. This, now barely leg- 

 ible, was deciphered some eighty years ago 

 by that learned and capable local antiquary 

 and historian, the Reverend John Webb. 

 Dispensing with the abbreviations employed 

 by the dovecote's builder, and accepting the 

 almost certain correctness of the italicised 

 words supplied by Mr. Webb from the con- 



45 



