152 Notes and Sketches. 



character of the old molendinary system is found in 

 the case of the mills "belonging to the burgh of Aber- 

 deen. A charter of Charles I., granted in 1638, and 

 confirmed by a subsequent charter, sets forth that as 

 " the said burgh is becoming a populous city, famous 

 for humanity and renown," and as His Majesty "is 

 sollicitous that the said burgh should daily flourish," 

 therefore he grants "all and sundry the common mills" 

 of the said burgh to the Magistrates and Council, "with 

 the multures and sequels of the said mills, and of all 

 grain growing upon all and sundry the crofts, acres, 

 and lands of the community of our said burgh, and 

 within the freedom and territory thereof, and of all 

 grain pertaining and belonging to the burgesses and 

 inhabitants of our said burgh tholing fire and water 

 within the same." Doubtless the royal grant had been 

 in its time a privilege worth having, and it seems to have 

 been jealously guarded. We find, for example, that on 

 4th August, 1726, the Council ordained that all querns or 

 iron hand mills " sett up " or to be sett up within the 

 city for grinding malt or any other grain " be seized, 

 demolished, and broken down to pieces;" the object, 

 no doubt, being the protection of the business of the 

 town's mills. And for very long after this the mills 

 had no more formidable rivals than those connected 

 with the various county lairdships, to which the 

 tenants generally continued to be thirled during a con- 

 siderable part of the first half of the present century. 

 But it had latterly come to be the case that there was 

 scarcely a single mill within the limits of the burgh of 

 Aberdeen kept up in a state of complete efficiency. 

 They had become antiquated and unfit to meet the 

 demands of the time, while several mills that had been 

 erected a short distance beyond the burgh boundaries 

 were doing a thriving and profitable trade ; simply 

 because their owners saw it to be to their interest to 

 adapt them to modern necessities. And so, a few years 

 ago, the Burgh Corporation, notwithstanding its chartered 



