O'Eeili.y — Ancient Water-milk, Native and Foreign. 63 



stands pcrpeudiculaiiy. A bar of iron runs through tlic centre of this 

 wheel. This bar of iron, or axle, rests on a point of steel, which is 

 fixed on a plank, the one end of which is fixed in the mill wall, the 

 other in the end of a piece of plank, which stands at right angles with 

 the plank on which the wheel rests. The upper end of the axle fits 

 into a cross-bar of iron, which is fitted into the upper millstone, 

 which is rested upon wooden beams or long stones. There is a pur- 

 chase upon the end of the said perpendicular beam or plank by which 

 the upper millstone can be raised or lowered (p. 13). There are nine 

 pieces of board, 8 inches broad and 1^- feet long, fixed in the wheel, 

 parallel and at equal distance from each other, upon which the water 

 is brought to bear ; which, together with a few sticks for roof and 

 some heather for hatch, constitutes a Lewis mill." — " New Statistical 

 Account of Scotland," 1845. 



M'Culloch states that the quern was found in every house in 

 St. Kilda, and recommends the establishment of a water-mill to super- 

 sede it. He then gives a description of a water-mill almost identical 

 with those already described, and says: "It would not be easy to 

 construct the horizontal mill on cheaper terms." — M'Culloch's " West- 

 ern Isles of Scotland," vol. ii., p. 30. 



4. Isle of Man. — "Many of the rivers (or rather rivulets) not 

 having sufficient water to drive a mill the greatest part of the year, 

 necessity has put them on an invention of a cheap sort of mill, which, 

 as it costs very little, is no great loss, though it stands idle six months 

 in the year. The water-wheel, about 6 feet in diameter, lies hori- 

 zontal, consisting of a great many hollow ladles, against which the 

 water, brought down in a trough, strikes forcibly, and gives motion 

 to the upper stone, which, by a beam and iron is joined to the centre 

 of the water-wheel." — "Gibson's Camden" (Isle of Man), vol. ii., 

 p. 1448. 



5. Ulster. — I conclude with a few remarks more, viz. : — "That from 

 the said long bogg (beside Newtownards, Co. Down), issue many rills 

 and streams, which make small brooks (some of them almost diy in 

 ye summer) that run to the sea on each side of ye upper luilf-barony, 

 and on them each townland almost had a little milln for grinding oats, 

 dryed in potts, or singed and leazed in ye straw, wliich was ye old 

 Irish custom, the mealle whereof, called ' ffreddmie,' was very coarse. 

 The mills are called ' Danish,' or ladle millies ; the axle-tree stood 

 upright and ye small stones or querns (such as are tiirned with hands) 

 on ye top thereof ; tlie water-wheel was fixed at ye lower end of ye 

 axle-tree, and did run horizontally among ye water, a small force 



