CHAPTER VIII - Dovecots and Sundials
Among the many picturesque features of an old manor house, nothing is more pleasing than the old stone or brick dovecot, around which large flocks of pigeons are always flying.
We cannot be sure when people in England first began to keep pigeons in dovecots, but it is generally agreed that William the Conqueror was the first to introduce into this country the large pigeon house, which, until the time of Elizabeth, only the lords of the manor and rectors were allowed to build. We cannot suppose that such a practical people as the Normans went to the trouble of building these great dovecots for ornamental purposes, or for any pleasure which the sight of large flocks of pigeons may have given them. It was the need for providing a reserve supply of food in case of emergency that led to the building of dovecots, wherein at least five hundred couples of pigeons could live and breed.
The earliest of dovecots are of round formation, but the later ones are often square, six-sided, and sometimes octagonal, or eight-sided. But whatever the shape, all of them have the walls lined from floor to roof with nest holes, made in the thickness of the wall.
The first illustration is of a
circular stone dovecot at the Court House, Richard's Castle. It is built after
the Norman pattern, and has an imposing roof with three dormer windows. The
walls are four feet thick and contain six hundred and thirty nest holes. Like
nearly all the round examples it is fitted inside with a large revolving ladder,
so as to enable the owner to reach all the nest holes.
The other drawing shows an octagonal, or eight-sided, pigeon house, built in this case of brick, and dating from the seventeenth century. Here again the nest holes are made in the substance of the wall, which is two feet two inches in thickness. There is no revolving ladder, as such would be of no use in any but a round building.
Many of these old dovecots are fitted with a trap placed inside the top of the roof. This was worked by means of a hanging cord, and enabled any one using it to catch the birds as they entered.
Before the invention of clocks in the fourteenth century, sundials were placed on all kinds of buildings, as well as in the gardens of country houses. Sundials are of very great antiquity, and in the Book of Isaiah we read, "Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backwards." This dial is thought to have come from Assyria about the year 714 B.C.
In China sundials are as common as clocks are in this country, and until a few years ago the Japanese used to carry small dials as we carry watches.
We know that the Romans placed sundials on temples, baths, houses, and on tombs but the oldest dial we have in England is that on Bewcastle Cross, which dates back to A.D. 670. In Norman times dials were placed at the junction of important highways for the benefit of travellers. For example, Seven Dials, in London, was so called because a column once stood there to which seven dials were fixed facing the seven roads that converged at that spot. It was not until the sixteenth century that sundials became fashionable in private gardens and over the doors of houses and churches. The pedestals of many sundials are of beautiful design and workmanship, as the two illustrated. These are both in Sussex, one being at Winchelsea and the other at Battle Abbey.
All
old sundials bear mottoes, which are generally, as they should be, short and to
the point, as the three following examples:
"Come, light! visit me!
I count time; dost thou?"
"Light and shadow by turns, but always love."
"Haste! oh, haste! thou sluggard, haste!
The present is already past.
Begone about your business."
In no place does a sundial look so well as in some old-world garden, where -
"Serene he stands among the flowers,
Any only marks life's sunny hours;
For him dark days do not exist -
The brazen-faced old optimist."
George Allison.
Original book printed in Great Britain by George Philip and Son, Limited, London. 1928