NORTHAMPTON 



Harleston can show another dovecote, far 

 less picturesque, however, than the one just 

 viewed. Itis rectangularand almost square, the 

 wall-length being twenty-one feet by twenty- 

 three. The walls are three feet thick, but the 

 doorway is unusually large — six feet in height, 

 three feet three inches wide. The height to the 

 eaves is sixteen feet. The roof, once covered 

 with the famous local slates already spoken of, 

 is now of small red tiles. The somewhat bald 

 appearance of the whole is well toned down by 

 a large pear-tree trained on the west wall, as 

 also by the "weathering" of the lichen-covered 

 stones. A single window, narrow, tall, round- 

 headed, breaks the western wall. The dove- 

 cote, probably about three hundred years of 

 age, contains eight hundred nest-holes, all de- 

 serted now. 



A word with reference to thelargenessof the 

 doorway here. Though a small doorway may 

 be looked on as a sign of age, a larger entrance 

 is not always indicative of modernity. Thedoor- 

 way, made both small and strong for safety of 

 the inmates, was found nothing but an incon- 

 venience when the dovecote, as a dovecote, fell 



103 



