Windmills and Watermills
ENGLISH windmills and watermills, having begun their working lives somewhere about the eleventh or twelfth century, are now, in the twentieth, finally retiringnot the originals certainly, but their worthy descendants, the last of an ancient race of giants, rather trustworthy and honourable than, as Don Quixote imagined in setting Rosinante to charge the "ignoble creatures," " outrageous, a cursed brood." Out of date, for the most part dilapidated and supenieded, the mills are retiring, but not, happily, dying. On the contrary, though few continue to grind `corn now—a noteworthy exception it Birdham tide-mill in Sussex-I–many mills to-day are taking, literally, a new lease of life ; whether as private houses or "hikers' hostels" dOei not much matter, so long as they are saved from further neglect. And one only regrets that the new interest in them had not arisen before some of the loveliest were allowed to go derelict beyond repair. However, as we might say aptly enough, it would be tilting at windmills to grumble at the good old English way of doing things. The last-moment rescue-work seems now to have begun in earnest, and we warmly welcome a little book, written for the Society for the PreservationOf Ancient Buildings, which is as hopeful a Sign of the way the wind is blowing as we have seen. This is the first volume of English Windmills, records of mills in Kent, Surrey and Sussex," and as the title implies, it is only
the first of a comprehensive survey of all the windmills in England : a necessary step towards ensuring their preservation or one that should at least, as the author, Mr. Batten, hopes; "increase the public interest" in objects that should, if only for the sake of appearance, be left to stand as idle monuments to the more leisurely and picturesque past. And perhaps, after all, there is yet a brighter hope for the windmills.
It is, at any rate, refreshing to come across such a record as this :
-" Blackboys Mill, west of Uekfield, stands close to the Lewes, Mayfield road, behind the Blaekboys Inn, It is a post mill, painted white, with four single-shuttered sweeps and a tail-pole. The round-house is of tarred wood. This mill is still working and in fine condition. In December, 1929, one sweep was blown off, but was soon replaced."
The book is fully illustrated with good clear photographs, from which, incidentally, it might be supposed that most of the mills shown are still in perfectly good condition. It might—.
but not by one who has had the experience of reconditioning an outwardly handsome windmill for living in ! In fact, windmills at present need all the protection they can get, from moth and rust as from the speculative builder who
wants the ground for his asbestos bungalows. This timely little book then must do good—nor, by the way, is it in the least dry, though concerned with fact more or less to the exclusion of fancy. Try reading it as a change from the novel and if you are interested, well, here is another and more personal book on mills, called The Mills of Man. It is illustrated with photographs taken by the author in his wander-
ings about the country, and contaiw, in addition to plenty of readable stuff about the origin of mills, their situations and so forth, a number of true stories of dark doings at windmills (highwaymen) and watermills (smugglers) which make it at
times as difficult to put down as a detective thriller. The story of Thomas Boulter, of Poultshott Mill, should be better
known : as Mr. Long suggests, here was the real " gentleman of the road " of the legends, beside whom Dick Turpin was a mere cowardly hooligan.
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