Canterbury Tales - The Miller - stock illustration

The Miller, a character in "The Canterbury Tales", a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century and 'told' by a group of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St Thomas à Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, Kent. This series of illustrations is from "Chaucer's Canterbury Tales", edited by John Saunders, publ. J.M. Dent & Co, 1889, and are based on those in the Ellesmere Manuscript. (Now in the public domain.) Here, the miller puts his long-suffering horse through the misery of listening to a vigorous rendition on the bagpipes which renders the miller red-faced with the effort and the horse extremely annoyed!