The Monticellonian., 1905-06-15
THE OLD W|NDM|LLS
PICTURESQUE FEATURE OF THE
 LANDSCAPE DISAPPEARING.
Modern Type Common in This coun- try - Origin of Old Windmills Unknown-Until Recently
 Mum bers in England.

Tn this new land of ours we are more or less familiar with the big arms and tall ladders of wind pumps and. though We scarcely dare acknowledge it. we have ever thought them of certain pieturesqueness Tray eled friends speak with superiority of the real thing in Holland. of the occasional ancient landmarks re- maining in England. of the ancient of days in the east
 An interesting article in Country Life tthe English periodicaD tells how these reminders of a different order If things are fading from the English landscape. and the writer speaks re- gretfully of the disappearance. The loss to country landscape by the grad
 lal decay and disappearance of these landmarks is greatly to be deplored. IL almost looks as if the winds had ceased to blow when places are reyis- tied after 20 years absence and all the fine twisting windmills have disap- peared There is only one left round London where formerly there were dozens. especially on the Hampstead Heights. while Gornhill in the City 1nly marks by name where the bish- ops windmill stood. Formerly the fens were full of them for pumping purposes. while SuffoIh and Norfolk, great wheatgrowing counties, were studded with their familiar outlines on every rounded hill. They were stimu- lating features in the landscape, not only because of their size, and tho pretty jaunty little fiier-vanes with .heir floats painted blue and scarlet, that turned the tops of the big, lower built brick mills automatically to trim he sails to the wind as it shifted, but because. too of the force and swift motion and sense of power inspired by the motion of these gigantic arms. When high steady wind was blowing the rush of the great arms. the rattle of the louvres, the creaking of the great pin that held on the sails, the roar and crush and shake of the mill stones inside, were exciting to the ears of grown-ups and a source of fearful joy to all children. There were awful tales of bad boys and girls who tried 10 touch the sails as they swept by on their downward track, and were whirled aloft by them; while to climb the f1oury stairs and peep into the
 loury mill itself. was more than the hardest boy dare do, so sacred did the millers (who were usually sulky fel- lows. owing to their life apart from the world in the mill ehambers) deem their dirty temple of Ceres.
 In England there are three types of Windmills. and no man dare say whence came the first. Whenever they appeared. they must have caused the hearts of the women to rejoice. for in prehistoric England. as is evidenced by stone Querns found near ancient dwellings, the household meal must have been ground daily in afduous fashion and doubtless ground by wom- en. In the east to-day we find the meal made ready for use in the ancient way, two women grinding at the mill. But to return 10 the introduction of the windmill 10 England Some say the CTuSdueIS brought over the IdbOF-SaN- ing and ingenious machinery. but care ful observers refute this by pointing to the fact that the Crusaders did not get to Palestine until the commence ment of the twelfth century. while there exist English records for the eleventh century concerning disputed titles to windmills showing conclusive ly that the Crusaders did not bring. along with the thousand and one i'm provements' attributed to them. the first windmill to England Did the Romans give them to the Britons, the