SCOTLAND 



of the still remaining portion of Crossraguel 

 Abbey, Ayrshire. It stands at an angle of the 

 outer walls, and is of very unusual form, the 

 main beehive-shaped structure being raised on 

 a comparatively small round tower, partly over- 

 hung by what it carries. Inside there are about 

 nine hundred nests. 



The county of Berwick offers several dove- 

 cotes of interest. Foremost of these is that 

 standing in the old garden of Mertoun House, 

 near St. Boswells, for upon its lintel is carved 

 the earliest date found on any Scottish example 

 — 1576. It is a large circular building of stone, 

 with three string-courses, and an open centre 

 to the roof. The height to top of walls is thirty 

 feet, and the diameter eighteen. The buttresses 

 have probably been added at a later date. 



In the corner of a cottage garden near to 

 Chirnside church is a circular stone dovecote 

 sixty feet in circumference. There is a string- 

 course half-way up the walls. Round the central 

 opening in the vaulted roof isaspiked iron rail, 

 evidentlyintended as adefenceagainstthieves. 



At Edington, a village in the Chirnside dis- 

 trict, is a large oblong dovecote of dressed sand- 



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