HEREFORDSHIRE 



diameter is seventeen feet three inches; the 

 height from the floor, which was paved, to the 

 spring of the vaulting, sixteen feet. 



The interior presents manypoints of excep- 

 tional interest. Windows are entirely lacking, 

 light and air being, like the former occupants, 

 admitted through a circular opjening two feet 

 two inches in diameter placed in the middle 

 of the vaulted roof In the centre of the floor 

 was a circular stone basin, six inches deep and 

 five feet in diameter. To this was connected a 

 drain to supply water from outside, with another 

 to draw off excess. 



A bathing-basin is a most unusual feature, 

 if not quite unique, in English dovecotes; one 

 would like to know if it was upon special order 

 or his own initiative that brother Richard 

 placed it here. He did not hold, apparently, 

 with those authorities who, as we saw in speak- 

 ing of the Roman columbarium, disapproved 

 of a cold bath for sitting birds. 



Look now at the nesting arrangements, 

 which could hardly have been brought to 

 greaterperfection. The numberof the holes — 

 six hundred and sixty-six — has been suggested 



E 49 



