milldams

"Yes," he sighed, 'the sound of water escaping from milldams, willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, brickwork and the scent of rotting apples ...

Bottled Spider Gardner, John 2002

Provisions for watching over the public health were enforced, a guard kept over water supplies, stringent measures taken in regard to springs and wells, and the cleansing of ponds and milldams.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913

The trees were dark with leaves and brooded close above them; old water-fences and milldams cast inky shadows on the still, shallow ponds clasped in wooded hills.

The Desert and the Sown Mary Hallock Foote 1892

Here are others, still brighter and larger, with yellow disks, and sky-blue flowers; these grow by still waters, near milldams and swampy places.

Lady Mary and her Nurse Catharine Parr Strickland Traill 1850

Our railway tunnels are wonderful works of science, but the mole tunnelled with its foot, and the pholas with one end of its shell, before our navvies handled pick or spade upon the heights of the iron roads: worms were prior to gimlets, ant-lions were the first funnel makers, a beaver showed men how to make the milldams, and the pendulous nests of certain birds swung gently in the air before the keen wit of even the most loving mother laid her nursling in a rocking cradle.

The Continental Monthly, Vol 3 No 3, March 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various