The Mills Grind Slowly 173 



assets by the compilers of Domesday Book. Anglesea, too, sup- 

 plied medieval mills with grist-stones. But for many centuries 

 European mills had been supplied from Houlbec, near Evreux, 

 and from the still larger and more famous quarries of La 

 Ferte-sous-Jouarre, which lie close to Chateau-Thierry. Trains 

 carrying American troops to that sector in July and August 

 1918, were run up on the tracks of the quarry from which 

 came most of the stones that ground American corn meal. 



Stones for the mealing trade were cut from three to seven 

 feet in diameter, and twelve inches in thickness. Many of the 

 smaller stones were quarried in one solid piece, but the larger 

 ones, and the majority of those brought to America, were cut 

 in four to nine segments. These were mortised together and 

 bound with an iron rim. The bedder was finished smooth. The 

 tedder's inner surface was cut in a design which hastened the 

 grinding process and helped to work the meal out to the edge 

 to fall into the bin. Stones used for grinding wheat or rye 

 required less cutting than stones used for grinding American 

 corn. Here and there, in Europe, are still to be seen ancient 

 gristing-stones carved with religious symbols and names. But 

 usually the design was a simple arrangement of grooves, like 

 the spokes of a wheel. An old buhrstone is sunk in the soft 

 grass in front of the little red mill at Ludingtonville, Putnam 

 County, New York. The stone is nearly snow white. The de- 

 sign, like the fronds of ferns, swirls away from a central 

 opening which is shaped like a Celtic cross. 



This mill was the property of Colonel Henry Ludington, 

 who headed the Dutchess County militia. From it, his daugh- 

 ter Sibyl rode on horseback on the night of April 27, 1777, to 

 summon the members of her father's company from the cabins 

 in the Big Woods and the valley farms, to meet the British at 

 Danbury. 



Hundreds of old millstones have gone to make doorsteps and 

 to pave terraces and garden walks. There is such a walk on 

 St. Helena's Island, near Beaufort, South Carolina, and an- 



