This attractively compiled book focuses on the Portsmouth Block Mills, considered by many to be some of the finest seminal buildings of the Industrial Revolution. They attracted much interest right from their onset in 1803 as they gave witness to the first use of a steam engine in the Royal Dockyards, the introduction of Samuel Bentham's innovative powered sawmills, and the triumphant realisation of Marc Brunel's revolutionary block-making machines. It is an uncommon book.