BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



ing, sixteen feet high to the eaves, and fifteen 

 feet in diameter. There is a small square window 

 near the roof, the walls are three feet thick, and 

 the door four feet high. Inside are about five 

 hundred oblong nest-holes, but no trace of a 

 potence. A priory existed here in 1 306. 



Somerset's dovecotes have detained us long, 

 leaving but little time for those of Dorset, the 

 last English countyhere to be described. Four 

 only will be noticed; these, though "few," are 

 more than "fit," and eminently worthy of their 

 place. 



Most beautiful for situation is the dovecote 

 standing on the lawn at Athelhampton Hall, an 

 ancient manor-house distinguished even in a 

 county which is full of such. The dovecote's 

 background, looking at it from the house, is 

 formed of immemorial elms; while close behind 

 it are green walls of closely clipped yew hedges 

 stretching in along perspective from the velvet 

 turf. 



The dovecote is a large round building, in 

 circumference over eighty feet. The walls are 

 buttressed, and against them several ancient 

 pear trees grow — the most innocuous form of 

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