PREFACE 



may perhaps serve, in legal phrase, to "open 

 the case." 



The book is very far from being exhaustive; 

 many counties have perforce been left entirely 

 untouched, though an effort has been made to 

 deal with most districts of England, and to 

 some extent with Scotland and Wales. The 

 story of the Roman columbarium, as of the 

 ¥rG.nch.colombier, has been lightly sketched; so 

 also with the laws concerning dovecotes, both 

 in Britain and in France. What is here offered 

 is, in short, a hors-cTceuvre rather than aserious 

 course, far less a solid meal. 



So much as an apology for imperfections; 

 gratitude remains to be expressed. A certain 

 number of the dovecotes marshalled for in- 

 spection in the following pages are well known 

 to me, some being old familiar friends. For a 

 knowledge of others I am largely indebted 

 to the late Chancellor Ferguson's "Pigeon- 

 Houses in Cumberland," a paper published 

 in the Transactions of the Cumberland and 

 Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeolog- 

 ical Society, vol. ix., 1887-88; to "The Dove- 

 cotes of Worcestershire," an exhaustive, de- 



ix 



