BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



framing, with a lath and plaster filling-in ; eight- 

 een feet square, and twenty feet high to the 

 eaves. The tiled roof is a truncated pyramid, 

 crowned by a wooden cupola of somewhat un- 

 usual form; it has four windows of a pleasing 

 shape, each set in its own gable. This is prob- 

 ably an addition of later date than the dove- 

 cote itself, which, from an allusion to it in an 

 old document, appears to have existed in 1 5 75. 



The chief attraction is within. On the side 

 facing the door are one hundred aiid eighty- 

 four nest-holes. Of these, those in the upper 

 tiers, numbering about one hundred, are of 

 wood; the eighty-four below are made of clay, 

 and are for the most part in very good condi- 

 tion. Internal measurements give a cube of a- 

 bout one foot, and each is entered by a round- 

 ed hole in one corner. Thirty-seven similar 

 nests still survive in the left-hand wall, and there 

 appear to have been more. 



There is no potence, but its place is taken by a 

 wooden table, five feet high and four feet square. 

 There are also four high posts, each connected 

 to its neighbours by two rails, and furnished 

 with projecting wooden pegs. The rails and 

 158 



