90 LIFE OF SIR HUGH MYPPELTOX. PART IT. 



were not disposed to find any part of the requisite 

 means for carrying it out. Notwithstanding-, therefore, 

 the necessity for a large supply of water, which became 

 more urgent in proportion to the increase of population, 

 the powers of the Act were allowed to expire without 

 anything having been done to carry them into effect. 



In order, however, to keep alive the parliamentary 

 powers, another Act was obtained in the third year of 

 James I.'s reign (1605), 1 to enable a stream of pure 

 water to be brought from the springs of Chadwell 

 and Amwell, in Hertfordshire ; and the provisions of 

 this Act were enlarged and amended in the following 

 session. 2 From an entry in the journals of the corpo- 

 ration, dated the 14th October, 1606, it appears that 

 one William Inglebert petitioned the court for liberty to 

 bring the water from the above springs to the northern 

 parts of the city " in a trench or trenches of brick." The 

 petition was " referred," but nothing further came of 

 it; and the inhabitants of London continued for some 

 time longer to suffer from the famine of water the 

 citizens patiently waiting for the corporation to move, 

 and the corporation as patiently waiting for the citizens. 



The same difficulty of water-supply had been expe- 

 rienced in other towns, but more especially at Plymouth, 

 where the defect had been supplied by the public spirit 

 and enterprise of one of the most distinguished of English 

 admirals no other than the great Sir Francis Drake. 

 It appears from the ancient records that water w;is 

 exceedingly scarce in Plymouth, and the inhabitants had 

 to send their clothes more than a mile from the town to 

 be washed, and that the water used for domestic purposes 

 was mostly fetched from Plympton, about five miles 

 distant. Sir Francis Drake, who was born within ten 

 miles of Plymouth, and settled in the neighbourhood 

 of the town after having realized a considerable fortune 



3 Jac. c. 18. 2 4 Jac. c. 12. 



