CORN MILLS AND QUERNS

"O mill, what hast thou ground? Precious thy wheat!
It is not oats thou hast ground, but the offspring of Kervall [i.e. the princes].
The grain which the mill has ground is not oats but blood-red wheat;
With the scions of the great tree (Kervall, their ancestor) Mailoran's mill was fed."

This mill was situated on the little river that runs from Lough Owel to Lough Iron in Westmeath, near the point where the river is now crossed by a bridge; and the place still retains the name of Mullenoran. It is curious that a mill existed there from the time of the death of the princes and no one can tell how long before down to the end of the eighteenth century; and there are some old people still living there whose grandfathers saw it in full work.

A mulenn or mill is mentioned in the St. Gall glosses of Zeuss seventh or eighth century at which time the name mulenn, which is used in the Irish passage copied by Zeuss, and which was borrowed from Latin, had become well naturalised in the Irish language. We may then take it for certain that watermills howsoever derived were in use in Ireland from the earliest ages of Christianity. Accordingly the statement, which is sometimes made, that mills were introduced into this country by the Danes is quite erroneous, inasmuch as they were known and worked here long before the Danes ever appeared on our shores. But there is as yet no sufficient evidence to prove that they were known in pagan times.

Ancient mill-sites and the remains of old mills have been found in various parts of Ireland buried deep in bog or clay, always beside a stream, many presenting appearances of very remote antiquity. Some are small horizontal-wheel mills, which were common down to recent times; some are the remains of larger mills with vertical overshot wheels. In most of those sites millstones have been found, of various sizes up to three feet in diameter: and there is often a long narrow oaken trough or shoot generally hollowed out from a single tree-trunk for conveying the water to the wheel. Parts of the framework surrounding the mill, with the flooring, also remain in some of these old sites, mortised together, but never fastened by nails: the woodwork of all generally of oak.

The mills used in Ireland were of various shapes and sizes, which, as well as the modes of working them and preparing the com for grinding, will be found fully described in my larger work, "A Social History of Ancient Ireland."

FIG. 184. Upper stone of a Quern: 18 inches in diameter: in National Museum. (From Wilde's Catalogue).

2. Querns and Grain-Rubbers.

A grinding-machine much more primitive and ancient than the water-mill was the quern or hand-mill. It was called in Irish bro, gen. brón [brone]: and often cloch-bhrón [cloch-vrone]: cloch; 'a stone'; but both these terms were also applied to a millstone. The upper stone worked on an axis or strong peg fixed in the lower one, and was turned round by one or by two handles. The corn was supplied at the axis opening in the centre of the upper stone, and according as it was ground between the two stones came out at the edge. Sometimes it was worked by one person, sometimes by two, who pushed the handles from one to the other. In ancient times it was in Ireland considered the proper work of women, and especially of the cumal or bondmaid, to grind at the quern. Querns were used down to our own day in Ireland and Scotland; and they may still be found at work in some remote localities.

FIG. 185. Complete pot-shaped Quern: 9 inches in diameter: in the National Museum (From Wilde's Catalogue)

The almost universal use of querns is proved by their frequent mention in the Brehon Laws and other ancient Irish literature, as well as by the number of them now found in bogs, in or near ancient residences, and especially crannoges. Some of these are very primitive and rude, showing their great antiquity. Quern-grinding was tedious work: for it took about an hour for two women to grind 10 lb. of meal. It is hardly necessary to say that the quern or handmill was in use among all the ancient peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa: and that it is still employed where water-mills have not found their way.

In comparatively modern times mill-owners who ground the corn of the people for pay looked on the use of querns with great dislike, as taking away custom. Quern-grinding by the poorer people was regarded as a sort of poaching; and where the mill belonged to the landlord he usually gave orders to his miller to break all the querns he could find; so that the people had to hide them much as they hide a still nowadays. In Scotland laws were made in the thirteenth century to compel the poor people to abandon querns for water-mills, all in the interests of landlords and other rich persons. It was the same in England: in 1556 the local lord in one of the western English counties issued an order that no tenants should keep querns "because they ought to grind at their lord's mill." But these laws were quite ineffective, for the people still kept their querns.

FIG. 186. Grain-rubber: oval shaped: 16 inches long. (From Wilde's Catalogue)

The most ancient grinding-machine of all, and most difficult and laborious to work, was the grain-rubber, about which sufficient information will be derived from the illustration. Several of these may be seen in the National Museum: they are still used among primitive peoples all over the world.