140 



THE ALBION MILLS. 



PART VII. 



himself was accustomed to say that the Albion Mill 

 machinery was the father of them all. 



As a commercial enterprise, the mills promised to be 

 perfectly successful : they were kept constantly employed, 

 and were realising a handsome profit to their proprie- 

 tors, when unhappily they were destroyed by fire on the 

 3rd of March, 1791, only three years after their comple- 

 tion. Their erection had been viewed with great hostility 

 by the trade, and the projectors were grossly calumniated 

 on the ground that they were establishing a monopoly 

 injurious to the public, which was sufficiently disproved 

 by the fact that the mills were the means of considerably 

 reducing the price of flour while they continued in opera- 

 tion. The circumstances connected with the origin of 

 the fire were never cleared up, and it was generally be- 

 lieved at the time that it was the work of an incendiary. 

 During the night in which the buildings were destroyed, 

 Mr. Rennie, who lived near at hand, felt unaccountably 

 anxious. A presentiment as of some great calamity 

 hung over him, which he could not explain to himself 

 or to others. He went to bed at an early hour, but 

 could not sleep. Several times he went off in a doze, 

 and suddenly woke up, having dreamt that the mills 

 were on fire ! He rose, looked out, and all was quiet. 

 He went to bed again, and at last fell into a profound 

 sleep, from which he was roused by the cry of " Fire ! " 

 under his windows, and the rumble of the fire-engines 

 on their way to the mills ! He dressed hastily, rushed 

 out, and to his dismay found his chef-d'oeuvre wrapt in 

 flames, which brightened the midnight sky. The engi- 



cient. The cutting-out and stamping- 

 machines were the invention of the 

 late Matthew Boulton, of Soho, but 

 the machinery was by Mr. Rennie. 

 On one occasion, in 1819, a million 

 of sovereigns were turned out in eight 

 days ! During the great silver coinage 

 in 1826, the eight presses turned out, 

 for nine months, not less than 247,696 



pieces per day, the rolling going on 

 day and night, and the stamping for 

 fifteen hours out of every twenty- 

 four. Mr. Rennie also supplied the 

 machinery for the mints at Calcutta 

 and Bombay ; that erected at the 

 former place being capable of turning 

 out 200,000 pieces of silver in every 

 eight hours. 



