Footprints in the flour

A few days before leaving on my latest expedition I met with my director who advised me that she was planning a longer-term investigation in the Netherlands around the Sixteenth to Seventeenth centuries.

Of course, I was immediately interested, having been there when the pilgrims were preparing to leave for America, and the director suggested that I might be a good choice for someone to look for a vacant property that could be bought to use as a base for operations.

One of the places that was recommended to me was a windmill. The miller had become disabled recently as the result of an accident and his wife, who had become his caregiver, had expressed an interest in selling the mill as a going concern.

When I got there the miller himself was sitting under an apple tree in a wheelchair; literally a chair which had been adapted by mounting it on a low cart. The extent of his injuries was quite apparent; he was missing his right leg from the knee down, and all of his right arm. He admitted that his injuries had been caused by the mill machinery, but he also admitted that he had been foolish enough to try to carry out a running repair when he was drunk, that should have been done when the mill was idle.

Although he is clearly in some pain, he insists on showing me through the mill itself, with the help of his wife. He asks me if I have considered running the mill myself, pointing out that he has added several labor-saving devices all of which are powered from the mill's main drive shaft. The devices include an ingenious harnessing of the power to operate sack hoists which can be used to lift heavy weights both inside and outside the mill, and a boulter, for sifting flour to produce a finer grade. Of course, the mill also makes use of several simple machines such as ropes and pulleys for lifting, screws to regulate the grain feed, and levers on the weighing scales.

My own thinking is that, for the rather high one thousand nine hundred and fifty guilders asking price, we could not only have a useful base of operations in this time, but a very important source of much-needed income in local coin.

Before committing to a deal it seems sensible to ask the miller about the craft of milling. If there is one thing that I have learned in my travels (and my colleagues agree) it is that there are very few occupations in this age that don't involve some knowledge of specialized skills. The miller chuckles and tells me that when he started learning, all his master would tell him was that he needed to know how to "whistle up the wind" on a calm day! However, there are some things that are worth knowing and he doesn't mind teaching me. For example, whenever you have to make a part for machinery that will be exposed to water on a regular basis, use elm rather than oak, for elm will outlast oak when immersed in water and both are roughly equally hard for durability.

It is as we are descending to the exit door that I hear something scrabbling on the stairs behind us, and turn around just in time to see a very-well-fed mouse skitter down the wall and into a crevice. Despite being startled by the mouse, I am reminded of a favorite song from my own younger days: (also in Dutch)

X:73                          % number
T:A Mouse lived in a windmill
M:3/4
O:http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=10434 Q:1/4=160 P:ABABABA K:G P:A VERSE ^A6 |"G" B2 d2 DD |"C" E2 G2 G2 |"F" A2c2C2 |"Bb" D4 D2 |"Eb" G2^A2^A,^A, | w:A mouse lived in a wind-mill in old Am-ster-dam, A wind-mill with a "Ab" C2 ^D2 ^D2 |"D" D2 F2 A2 |"G" G2 B3 ^A |B2 d2 D2 |"C" E2 G2 G2 |"F" A c3 C2 | w:mouse in and he was-n't grous-in'. He sang eve-ry morn-ing, "How luc-ky I "Bb" D6 |"Eb" G2 ^A2 ^A,^A, |"Ab" C2 ^D2 ^D2 |"D" D2 F2 A2| "G" G6 || w:am, Liv-ing in a wind-mill in old Am-ster-dam!" P:B CHORUS G6 |-G2 B2 d2| "C" e6 | c6 |"G" d2 B2 G2 | D6 |"D" c2 A2 F2 | D4 e2 |"G" d5 ^c | w:I_ saw a mouse! Where? There on the stair! Where on the stair? Right there! A d^c d2 ^d2 |"C" e6 | c6 |"G" d2 B2 G2 | D2 e2 d2 |"A" ^c2 ^cA ^c2 |"D" c2 A2 F2 | w:lit-tle mouse with clogs on. Well I de-clare! Go-ing clip-clip-pe-ty-clop on the "G" G2 DEGB | A2 G2 A2 | G6 |] w:stair! * * * * * * Oh yeah! W: W:This mouse, he got lonesome, he took him a wife W:A windmill with mice in, it’s hardly surprisin’ W:She sang every morning “How lucky I am W:Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam” W: W:(Chorus) W: W:First they had triplets and then they had quins W:A windmill with quins in, triplets and twins in W:They sang every morning “How lucky we are W:Living in a windmill in Amsterdam – ya” W: W:(Chorus) W: W:The daughters got married and so did the sons W:The windmill had christenings when no one was listening W:They all sang in chorus “How lucky we am W:Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam” W: W:(Chorus) W: W:A mouse lived in a windmill, so snug and so nice W:There’s nobody there now but a whole load of mice W: W:EEN MUIS IN EEN MOLEN IN MOOI AMSTERDAM W: W:Er was eens een muisje in mooi Amsterdam W:Dat zat in een molen heel stiekem verscholen W:Hij zong elke morgen: 'Wat is het toch fijn W:Een muis in een molen in Mokum te zijn' W: W:REFREIN: Ik zag een muis. Waar? W:Daar op de trap. Waar op de trap? W:Nou, daar! W:Een kleine muis op klompjes W:Nee, 't is geen grap W:'t Ging van klipklipperdieklap op de trap W:Oh ja! W: W:Het muisje was eenzaam en zocht naar een vrouw W:En 'Piep' zei de muis in het voorhuis, 'ik trouw' W:Dus zongen ze samen 'Wat is het toch fijn W:Een muis in een molen in Mokum te zijn'. REFREIN W: W:Ma Muis kreeg een vijfling, en allen gezond W:Dus aten de muisjes beschuitjes met muisjes W:En iedereen zong toen 'Wat is het toch fijn W:Een muis in een molen in Mokum te zijn'. REFREIN W: W:De muizenfamilie werd vreselijk groot W:De molenaar vluchtte, hij was als de dood W:Voor de muizen die zongen ' Wat is het toch fijn W:Een muis in een molen in Mokum te zijn. REFREIN W: W:De muizen die hebben het fijn naar hun zin W:De molen staat leeg want geen mens durft er in... W:Ieeeee! 

To convert the code above to sheet music, or listen to the tunes, copy the code for a single song, then paste it here and [submit].

Of course, by the time we are on the ground outside the mill once more, two of the mill cats are snoozing in the sun. Blissfully ignorant of the juicy meal they might have had.

Spreekt u het Nederlands?

My original intention in coming to Leiden was to learn more about the English non-conformists. I could hardly have hoped to find a better friend than Bridget Robinson. I had hoped that perhaps a few inquiries among the market traders might point me in the right direction, but at the third stall a short woman was negotiating the purchase of a brace of pheasant in an odd mixture of English and Dutch, in an unmistakeably English accent.
Once it looked as though the trade was completed I asked whether she knew of any church congregations where I might be able to worship.
"God be thanked!" she exclaimed, and proceeded to ask me about my beliefs, whether I would consider myself a true catholic, or a Calvinist.
I admitted that my own beliefs were closer to those of Calvinist teachings, but that in honesty before God, I should be called a Brownist, believing that neither the catholic church, nor Calvinism gave liberty to the Holy Spirit to move freely in the hearts and lives of men.
For a frightening moment I wasn't sure whether her expression was veering towards outrage or astonishment but when she seized me in a warm embrace and insisted I accompany her back to her home my doubts were banished.
Home, for Bridget and the reverend John Robinson is Grone Point house, only a few minutes walk from Leiden University. And while Grone Point is clearly larger than needed for a single family it also serves as a meeting-place for the English separatist assembly in Leiden.
Although I don't have any pictures of Amsterdam or Leiden when the Robinsons lived there, a couple of paintings by Jan Vermeer from later in the century should give a fair impression of the way the towns looked.

A Delft Street, by Jan Vermeer	Delft, by Jan Vermeer

Comfortably settled in the kitchen of the house, Bridget fills me in on the background to their move to Holland.
She had married John the year before the Gunpowder Plot in London, which had been intended to remove the King from power, and which might, had the conspirators succeeded, have resulted in the Church of England being brought once more under the supremacy of the Pope. John Robinson had been granted the preferment of Saint Andrew's Church in Norwich, a town with a strong connection to the Dutch wool trade and several expatriate Dutch families. When King James issued his proclamation insisting on conformity with the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith following the Hampton Court Conference, John felt that he could no longer continue in his position as a priest in the Church of England and they returned to live with Bridget's parents at Sturton-Le-Steeple. It was as a result of the move that the couple had joined the non-conformist assembly meeting at the home of William Brewster, at Scrooby in Northamptonshire.
While the assembly had hoped to be permitted to continue to worship privately in their own unique way, the laws of England in 1606 were such that they were liable to fines, imprisonment, and in some cases torture, and it was these conditions that prompted many of the assembly to move to Amsterdam three years after Bridget married.
The move to Amsterdam was no minor undertaking. Those members who had determined to make the move pooled their resources, hiring horses and a couple of carts which were loaded with such possessions as they intended to take to their new homes. It seemed as though the whole undertaking was in jeopardy when, on arrival in the town of Boston, the captain whose ship had been chartered for the voyage to Holland, was waiting by the quay with the town constables and a priest, ready to arrest the footsore travellers for sedition. (The picture on the left shows Boston as it looked from the air in the 20th century)
Rather than discouraging them, once the fines were paid and jailed members released, the majority of the travellers joined to watch in prayer while a couple of the menfolk were sent to the quay to find another vessel for the voyage.
Bridget tells me that the Brownist congregations that they had found in Amsterdam were not in harmony amongst themselves, let alone with the Church of England which they had shunned, and before the end of the year, the Scrooby assembly had determined that perhaps the least harmful course would be for them to move elsewhere in Holland.
Nearly four years after coming to Holland, in January 1611, John Robinson, William Jepson, Henry Wood, and his brother-in-law, Randall Thickins jointly purchased on behalf of the assembly, a large house called Grone Point, near the Leyden University. Although it would be May 1612 before they could begin to make use of the property.
While she was showing me the rooms in the house that are commonly used by the assembly I couldn't help but admire the virginals used to accompany the singing. The case of the instrument was unusually plain, without even the customary decorative papers, but to me, the sound when Bridget played a few short phrases of a typical foursquare hymn, was beautiful. With music in mind, I asked Bridget about the attitude of the assembly toward music and dancing as forms of recreation.
Although Bridget herself regards music as a perfectly acceptable form of recreation, she tells me that all too often dance is the back door through which the devil tempts innocent souls, and she presents me with a pamphlet (a treatise against daunses) which I am advised to read and consider prayerfully, for the benefit of my soul, although, she concedes that during a visit to Utrecht, not above two years ago, her husband and herself "were greatly entertained at some length" by a blind man who played upon a flute, sitting in the churchyard of the Cathedral, by name, Jacob van Eyck.

X:14                          % number
T:De lof-zangh Marie         % title
C:Anon (arr. J.van Eyck      % composer
O:Der Fluiten Lust-hof (1646) % origin. M:C|                         % meter
L:1/2                        % length of shortest note
Q:                           % tempo
K:C                          % key
V:1                          % voice 1
P:THEMA
d2 | d ^c | d e | f2 | f2 | g f | e d | ^c2 | e2 | f a | g f | e2 | d2 |
A2 | d ^c | d _B | A2 | d2 | f e | f g | e2 | a2 | e2 | g2 | f g | e2 | d2-|d2 |]
P:VARIATIE I
[L:1/8] d2 AB ^c2 A2 | d2 ed ^c2 A2 | d2 gf e2 c2 | f8 | f2 de fdef | g2 ag f2 gf |
e2 fe d2 ed | ^c8 | e2 AB cd e2 | fefg a2 ef | g2 ag f2 gf | e2 d2 eAB^c |
d8 | A2 B2 ^c2 A2 | d2 ed ^c2 A2 | d3 c _B2 AG | A8 | d3 ^c d2 e2 | f2 gf e2 de |
f2 ef gafg | e8 | a2 FGABcd | e2 ABcdef | g2 GABcde | f2 efgafg | e2 d2 eAB^c | d8-|d8 |]
P:VARIATIE II
dDEF GAB^c | dFGF ^cEFE | dFGF eGce | f8 | fFA_B cdef | gceg fadf | eA^ce dDAd |
^cAec A4 | eagf ed^cA | fefg aAFa | gGEg fDdf | eAdF GeA^c | d4 D4 | Aagf ed^cA |
dDFd ^cEAc | dDdc _BG c/d/B/c/ | A8 | dadf ecAe | fDdf eAce | fD de/f/ gGgf | e4 z a fg |
aAFG Aagf | [L:1/16] edcB AGFE FGAB cdef | g2fe dcBA G2g2d2e2 | f2AB cdef g2ag f2gf |
e2A2 d2^cd edcB A2Bc | d2c2 _B2AG FEFG A2D2 | d16-|d16 |]

To be continued...
To convert the code above to sheet music, or listen to the tunes, copy the code for a single song, then paste it here and [submit].