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38 KIPLING'S SUSSEX
arrest attention. It appears in " Below the Mill Dam " in Kipling's " Traffics and Discoveries," and in several of the Puck stories. Alas ! the old order changes ! It is with feelings of genuine regret that we find a turbine in place of the old wheel which had clacked and ground her corn " ever since Domesday Book." The turbine now drives the electric light plant for Kipling's house which is only a few yards distant. It was in this mill that the wheel objected to being considered mechanically after she had been painted by five Royal Academicians !
The Dudwell which flows at the back of " Bate-mans," supplies the water to the mill, and often in the winter time invades the gardens and lower rooms of the houses. The farmer who once had the Dudwell at the bottom of his garden, has more often, in days of flood, his garden at the bottom of the Dudwell. Such a flood is described in the story, " Friendly Brook " (A Diversity of Creatures).
' The mill is also faithfully described in " Hal o' the Draft," and Kipling has not exaggerated its beauty. It is a curious and interesting building, with its steep roof, and red tiled walls, and diamond-leaded windows with curious iron hasps. We pass through a gate at the side which leads up |
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