BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



beauty, and, whendeath beckoned, gavehis last 

 look to the old garden that he held so dear. For 

 Bosworth Smith himself has told us surely all 

 there is to tell of house and garden in that fascin- 

 ating volume. Bird Life and Bird Lore. 



So let us come at once to where, "further on 

 again, is acircular dovecote of stone without an 

 angle in the whole, walls, roof, or top . . . such 

 as nowell-conditioned manor-house of the Ed- 

 wards or the Henrys would willingly have been 

 without." A little cavalier, this treatment of the 

 building, we may think, for it is one of no un- 

 common charm. And yet we cannot doubt its 

 owner loved it, as he loved its inmates, loved the 

 magpies, ravens, owls of which he wrote with 

 such appreciative pen. 



To us at least the building seems one not to 

 be passed lightly by. On entering into owner- 

 ship of Bingham's M elcombe, the new occupier 

 found the dovecote much dilapidated, and forth- 

 with restored it with a care it well deserved, re- 

 modelling the whole upon an old design. It is 

 a circular building of brick and stone. The roof, 

 its slope of most alluring grace, is covered with 

 delightful old stone tiles and crowned by a small 

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