• si 



Part III.] Morris Birrbeck, Esq. 33o 



hands. The story, in Peregrine Pickle, about the 

 Mechanic, who had invented a water machine to cut off 

 the head of a cabbage, hardly surpassed the reality m 

 the case of the machine, brought out in England, some 

 years ago, /or reaping wheat ; nor is it much les^ ridi- 

 culous to see people going many miles with grist to a 

 mill, which grist they might so easily grind at home. 

 The hand-mills, used in England, would be invaluable 

 with you, for a while, at least. 



632. But, it is of a mill of more general utility, that I 

 am now about to speak to you ; and, 1 seriously recom«^ 

 mend it to your consideration, as well as to other persons 

 similarly situated. 



633. At Botley I lived surrounded by water-mills 

 and wind-mills. There were eight or ten within five 

 miles of me, and one at two hundred yards from my 

 house. Still I thought, that it was a brutal sort of thing 

 to be obliged to send twice to a mill, with all the uncer- 

 tainties of the business, in order to have a sack of wheat 

 or of barley ground. I sent for a miUwTight, and, 

 after making all the calculations, 1 resolved to have a 

 mill in my farm yard, to grind for myself, and to sell 

 my wheat in the shape of flour. I had the mill erected 

 in a pretty little bam, well floored with oak, and stand- 

 ing upon stones with caps : so that no rats or mice 

 could annoy me. The mill was to be moved by horse$y 

 for which, to shelter them from the wet, 1 had a shed 

 with a circular roof erected on the outside of the bam. 

 Under this roof, as well as I recollect, there was a large 

 wheel, which the horses turned, and a bar, going from 

 that wheel, passed through into the barn, and there it 

 put the whole machinery in motion. 



634. I have no skill in mechanics. I do not, and 

 did not, know one thing from another by its name. All 

 I looked to was the effect ; and this was complete. I 

 had excellent floiir. All my meal was ground at home. 

 I was never bothered with sending to the mill. My ear» 

 were never after dinned with complaints about badjlour 

 and heavy bread. It was the prettiest, most convenient, 

 and most valuable thing I had upon my farm. It was, 

 I think, put up in 1816, and this was one of the plea- 

 sures, from which the Borough-villains (God coDwund 



