The mill was built at the mouth of a coombe on the verge of the Downs; the coombe was narrow and steep, as if nature had begun a cutting with the view of tunnelling through the mass of the hills.

At the upper end of the coombe the spring issued, and at the lower was the millpond.

There is something peculiarly human in a mill--something that carries the mind backwards into the past, the days of crossbow and lance and armour.

Possibly there was truth in Tibbald's idea that men grow larger in the present time without corresponding strength, for is it not on record that some at least of the armour preserved in collections will not fit those who have tried it on in recent times?
Yet the knight for whom it was originally made, though less in stature and size, may have had much more vigour and power of endurance.
The ceaseless rains last year sent the farmers in some places to the local millers once more somewhat in the old style.

Part of their wheat proved so poor that they could not sell it at market; and, rather than waste it, they had it ground at the village mills with the idea of consuming as much of the flour as possible at home.