CHAPTER FOURTEEN 



GLOUCESTER AND 



OXFORD 



From the many fine dovecotes scattered 

 through the length and breadth of Gloucester- 

 shire hardly a better introductory example can 

 be chosen than that standing in a meadow near 

 the Manor Farm at Daglingworth, a Cotswold 

 village three miles distant from Cirencester. 

 The nunnery of Godstow had a cell, or as 

 Dame Juliana Berners calls it, a "superflu- 

 ity," at Daglingworth; and here, as in so many 

 other instances, it is the dovecote only which 

 survives. 



It is a large circular building of stone, with 

 a string-course more than half-way up the 

 walls, and a roof in which are two dormer win- 

 dows. There is no cupola, the weather-vane 

 rising directly from the apex of the roof. In- 

 side are five hundred and fifty nests, with the 

 potence in working order. 



Although our business here is with dove- 

 cotes, it would, as remarked by Mrs. Micawber 

 in somewhat similar circumstances, be "rash" 

 to leave Daglingworth without pausing at the 



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