History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

viii
PREFACE
mainly on the lines then adopted, though,
as a result
of many researches undertaken later, its scope has been
considerably extended ; and the historical sketches now
presented are believed to be as authoritative and complete
as the records will allow.
Unhappily, however, this has only been accomplished
since, on the eve of the publication of Volume III., the
work was suddenly deprived of its patron and director :
Mr. Bennett having died, almost without warning, in the
prime of life, and, apparently, perfect health, from an
abscess on the brain, on May 8, 1900. In now issuing the
volume under circumstances rendering his participation in
the work but a memory, one cannot but endeavour to
it preface with some account of the earnest exertions he so
long and so pleasantly put forth on its behalf; and recall a
few of those events in an arduous career which, towards its
untimely close, seem to have appropriately converged in
the study of the present congenial theme.
It is a remarkable fact that, not to an archaeologist or
miller, not to a gentleman of leisured ease or great wealth,
but purely to a commercial man, daily engrossed in
mercantile affairs, the inception and publication of this
History are due. It was Mr. Bennett, solely a man of
business, who, conceiving the project, dreamed of making
amends for two centuries' literary neglect of mills and
milling ; and who gave unstintingly labour, time, and money
to the achievement of that end. To those who knew him
this singular fact was no paradox. He had retained a long
association with the corn trade of the port of Liverpool,
and enjoyed intimate relations with its foremost millers ;
he possessed an inherent literary and antiquarian taste, and
took unceasing interest in the fast-disappearing old mills of
his native city ; while over all he was animated by a strong
originality of character and an indomitable spirit of enterprise.
These were the factors that brought about his
embarking on an archaeological enterprise of this character.
He had for some years desired to collect what little
gleanings of histories, reminiscences, or traditions might
remain regarding the antique windmills that in his youth
had abounded in Liverpool, and in the early part of 1894