HISTORY OF THE PLYMOUTH LEAT. 159 



In one of these, compiled by James Yonge, M. D., 

 (I presume an ancestor of our present worthy 

 townsman, bearing the same name and title) is the 

 following sentence : — 



" 1590. — This year I find the town agreed with 

 ^' Sir Francis Drake, to bring the water into the town, 

 "and paid him £200, in hand/' 



An extract, also, from the receiver's book of the 

 same date adds — 



" Towards compounding with the owners of the 

 "land, thro' which the water runs, £100." 

 Thus, making the first advance £300 ; a good round 

 sum in those " golden days," when men worked for 

 sixpence a day, and a bag of barley cost 16 pence. 



On the 24th April, 1594, it seems the water was 

 brought into the town ; on which occasion a grand 

 procession of the Mayor and gownsmen, with music, 

 went out to meet Sir Francis and the water, and 

 ushered them into the town in state ; whether the 

 water was dammed back, to keep pace with their 

 worships, or whether their worships gallopped along 

 in double quick time, to keep pace with the water, 

 neither record nor tradition hands down to us. 



But although £300 was a round sum in " Queen 

 Bess's day ;" yet when we consider that the leat had 

 a course cut for 25 miles (including windings to ad- 

 just the levels) ; it is evident that £200 could not pay 

 for the labour, even at 6d. per man, per diem ; nor 

 £100 for the land cut up, although more of it was 

 then waste than now. In fact there are records of 

 other payments upon this score ; but what further 

 sums were paid to the gallant knight on the labour 

 accompt, do not appear ; so many of the old corpo- 

 ration books having been lost. It seems, however, 

 probable from what will presently follow, that a good 

 part of the payment was in kind ; Sir Francis having 

 very probably been a more expert calculator of pro- 

 babilities and capabilities than the worshipful magis- 

 trates of the borough. 



