In 1797 a miller near Brighton anticipated American enterprise by moving his mill bodily to a place two miles distant by the help of eighty oxen.
Another weakness of steam mills is that they are apparently without millers--at least there is no unmistakable dominating presence in a white hat, to whom one can confidently apply the definite article, as in the mill on the hill.

Millers' men there are in plenty, but the miller is lacking.

This is because steam mills belong to companies.

Thus, with the passing of the windmill we lose also the miller, that notable figure in English life and tradition; always jolly, if the old songs are true; often eccentric, as the story of John Oliver has shown; and usually a character, as becomes one who lives by the four winds, or by water--for the miller of tradition was often found in a water-mill too.

The water-miller's empire has been threatened less than that of the windmill, for there is no sudden cessation of water power as of wind power.