580 LETTER II. TO [PART III. 



thing I had upon my farm. It was, 1 think, 

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

 sures, from Which the Borough-villains (God 

 confound them !) drove me in 1817. I think it 

 cost me about a hundred pounds. I forget, 

 whether 1 had sold any flour from it to the 

 Bakers. But, independent of that, it was very 

 valuable. I think we ground and dressed 

 about forty bushels of wheat in a day ; and, we 

 used to work at it on wet days, and when we 

 could not work in the fields. We never were 

 stopped by want of wind or water. The 

 horses were always ready ; and / know, that 

 our grinding was done at one half the expence 

 at which it was done by the millers. 



1035. The farmers and millers used to say, 

 that I saved nothing by my mill. Indeed, gain 

 was not my object, except in convenience. I 

 hated the sudden calls for going to the mill. 

 They produced irregularity ; and, besides, the 

 millers were not more honest than other people, 

 Their mills contained all sorts of grain; and, 

 in their confusion, we sometimes got bad Jlour 

 from good wheat ; an accident that never hap 

 pened to us after we got our own mill. But, 

 as to the gain, I have just received a letter 

 from my son, informing me, that the gentle 

 man, a farmer born and bred, who rents my 

 farm in my absence, sells no wheat; that he 



