BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



text, we have the inscription as follows: 

 Anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo 

 vicesimo sexto factum fuit istud co- 

 lumbare per fratrem Ricardum. 



or " In the year 1326 this dovecote was built 

 by brother Richard." 



And well and truly did this brother Richard 

 carry out his work, with the result that it alone, 

 of all domestic buildings of the Garway house, 

 survives to-day; the church and dovecote — 

 they are all that now remain. Not only is this 

 now the case ; it has been so for centuries. 

 In a lease granted about 1520, while the 

 "priest's chamber," stable, "cowheus," water- 

 mill are all described as, valde ruinosa et ad 

 terram . . . prostrata — wholly ruined and pro- 

 strate on the ground — the columbarium alone 

 is spoken of as bene et sufficienter reparatum 

 — well and sufficiently repaired. 



In the case of a circular dovecote such as 

 we admire here, this survival after other build- 

 ings of greater size and more importance have 

 perished is perhaps not altogether difficult to 

 be accounted for. It may well have owed its 

 escape from destruction to the difficulty which 

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