CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 



THE SCOTTISH 



"DOOCOT" 



"Nor was the court without its ornaments. 

 In one corner was a tun-bellied pigeon -house, 

 of great size and rotundity, resembling in 

 figure and proportion the curious edifice called 

 Arthur's Oven, which would have turned the 

 brains of all the antiquaries in England, had 

 not the worthy proprietor pulled it down for 

 the sake of mending a neighbouring dam-dyke. 

 This dovecot, or columbarium, as the owner 

 called it, was no small resource to a Scottish 

 laird of that period, whose scanty rents were 

 eked out by the contributions levied upon the 

 farms by these light foragers, and the conscrip- 

 tions enacted from the latter for the benefit of 

 the table." 



In the above words, familiar to every reader 

 as part of the description of the entrance-court 

 at Tullyveolan, Scott makes us acquainted with 

 a very common form of Scottish "doocot," as 

 well as with th6 purpose of its erection. Nor, 

 unfortunately, is the fate which befell Arthur's 

 Oven one invariably escaped by dovecotes, 



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