a machine for grinding corn, &c. of which there are various kinds, according to the different methods of applying the moving power; as water-mills, wind-mills, mills worked by horses, &c. See Mechanics, Sect. V.

The first obvious method of reducing corn into flour for bread would be, by the simple expedient of pounding. And that was for ages the only one which was practised by the various descendants of Adam, and actually continued in use among the Romans below the reign of Vespasian. But the process was very early improved by the application of a grinding power, and the introduction of mill-stones. This, like most of the common refinements in domestic life, was probably the invention of the antediluvian world, and certainly practised in some of the earliest ages after it. And, like most of them, it was equally known in the east and west. Hence the Gauls and Britons appear familiarly acquainted with the use of hand-mills before the time of their submission to the Romans; the Britons particularly distinguishing them, as the Highlanders and we distinguish them at present, by the simple appellations of querns, carnes, or stones. And to these the Romans added the very useful invention of water-mills. For this discovery the world is pretty certainly indebted to the genius of Italy; and the machine was not uncommon in the country at the conquest of Lancashire. This, therefore, the Romans would necessarily introduce with their many other refinements among us. And that they actually did, the British appellation of a water-mill fully suggests itself; the melin of the Welsh and Cornish, the mull, melin, and melin of the Armoricans, and the Irish muilean and muilind, being all evidently derived from the Roman mola and molendinium. The subject Britons universally adopted the Roman name, but applied it, as we their successors do, only to the Roman mill; and one of these was probably erected at every stationary city in the kingdom. One plainly was at Manchester, serving equally the purposes of the town and the accommodation of the garrison. And one alone would be sufficient, as the use of hand-mills remained very common in both, many having been found about the site of the station particularly; and the general practice having descended among us nearly to the present period. Such it would be peculiarly necessary to have in the camp, that the garrison might be provided against a siege. And the water-mill at Manchester was fixed immediately below the Castlefield and the town, and on the channel of the Medlock. There, a little above the ancient ford, the sluice of it was accidentally discovered about 30 years ago. On the margin of Dyer's-croft, and opposite to some new constructions, the current of the river, accidentally swelled with the rains, and, obstructed by a dam, broke down the northern bank, swept away a large oak upon the edge of it, and disclosed a long tunnel in the rock below. This has been since laid open in part with a spade. It appeared entirely uncovered at the top, was about a yard in width, and another in depth, but gradually narrowed to the bottom. The sides showed everywhere the marks of the tool on the rock, and the course of it was parallel with the channel. It was barred by the flood about 25 yards only in length, but was evidently continued for several further; having originally begun, as the nature of the ground evinces, just above the large curve in the channel of the Medlock.

For the first five or six centuries of the Roman state, there were no public bread-bakers in the city of Rome. They were first introduced into it from the east, at the conclusion of the war with Perseus, and about the year 167 before Christ. And, towards the close of the first century, the Roman families were supplied by them every morning with fresh loaves for breakfast. But the same custom, which prevailed originally among the Romans and many other nations, has continued nearly to the present time among the Mancunians. The providing of bread for every family was left entirely to the attention of the women in it. And it was baked upon stones, which the Welsh denominate greidlos and we griddle. It appears, however, from the kiln-burnt pottery which has been discovered in the British sepulchres, and from the British appellation of an odyn or oven remaining among us at present, that furnaces for baking were generally known among the original Britons. An odyn would, therefore, be erected at the mansion of each British baron, for the use of himself and his retainers. And, when he and they removed into the vicinity of a Roman station, the oven would be rebuilt with the mansion, and the public bakehouses of our towns commence at the first foundation of them. One bakehouse would be constructed, as we have previously shown one mill to have been set up, for the public service of all the Mancunian families. One oven and one mill appear to have been equally established in the town. And the inhabitants of it appear immemorially accustomed to bake at the one and grind at the other. Both, therefore, were in all probability constructed at the first introduction of water-mills and ovens into the country. The great similarity of the appointments refers the consideration directly to one and the same origin for them. And the general nature of all such institutions points immediately to the first and actual introduction of both. And, as the same establishments prevailed equally in other parts of the north, and pretty certainly obtained over all the extent of Roman Britain, the same erections were as certainly made at every stationary town in the kingdom.