32 ■ Idylls of the Field. 



is the seal of the heron, and everywhere across the 

 yielding surface the slender feet of the wagtail have 

 run in endless mazes. It is their special hunting- 

 ground ; year by year they hide their nest hard by in 

 the ruins of the mill. 



It is long since the plash of the wheel and the hum 

 of rude machinery disturbed the silence of these quiet 

 meadows. Eight long ages its pleasant murmur 

 mingled with the music of the stream. We read of it 

 in Domesday Book. The record is but brief : ' There 

 is a mill paying five shillings.' 



The village mill was a point of special notice in 

 the old Norman survey. Scattered up and down its 

 quaintly-written pages, together with the list of boors 

 and slaves and villeins, of ploughs and vinelands, of 

 forges and of fishponds, we find careful statements of 

 the tax the miller paid. 



We meet with varying assessments, from twenty 

 shillings down to sixpence. Sometimes two adjacent 

 hamlets joined at a mill. In one case 'two parts 

 paying three shillings ' belong to one, and ' a third 

 part paying two shillings' to another village. On 

 another page, ' half a mill ' pays seven shillings and 

 sixpence, the other 'half nine shillings. In one 

 instance half a mill is assessed at five shillings, 

 but of the second half there is no trace discover- 

 able. 



It is not many years since the broken wheel was 

 still lying in the ruins, but of the building itself little 



