SOMERSET 



It is a picturesque circular building of Ham 

 stone, with a cone-shaped roof in which are two 

 dormer windows. The cupola takes the form of 

 a flat stone slab, supported by four small stone 

 pillars andsurmounted byan ornamental knob. 

 Theinternaldiameterof the buildingis thirteen 

 feet, the height to eaves a little more. The level 

 of the floor is some feet lower than the ground 

 outside. Inside are about four hundred oblong 

 nests. 



Five buttresses support the walls, which are 

 three feet thick. The doorway is small — four 

 feet six inches high, by two feet four in breadth. 

 On one jamb is carved the date 1785; but the 

 bodyof the building is certainly the equal in age 

 of the fifteenth-century church. Trask, in his 

 history of the parish, says: "The dovecote, held 

 by Nicholas Newcombe at 6s. 8d. rent, is still 

 with us, although it was built before thechurch." 

 The rent, unlike the rent of other dwellings at 

 thepresenttime, is falling, foroneshillingannu- 

 ally is now paid to the lord of the manor by the 

 churchwardens. 



Not far distant, at Stoke-sub-Hamdon, is a 

 dovecote nowroofless. I tisacircular stone build- 



Q 225 



