SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 519 
add that it was in 1593, and not at the time of their erection, that 
the corporate lease of the mills to Drake for 67 years commenced. 
Has that fact any connection with this measure 1 
Next, concerning the compensation to owners and occupiers : — 
The Black Book records that Sir Francis received £100 to com- 
pound with the lords of the land over which the leat runs, and I 
have stated that "£50 at the outside would have been extravagantly 
sufficient to buy the fee simple of the whole." I now show that 
this was so by quoting the award of compensation made by the 
judges under the Act. The original indenture is not known to 
exist; but there is a contemporary copy, which was possibly a 
draft. As the document is exceedingly interesting, I cite it in full, 
with the omission only of the repetitions of legal technicalities. 
It will be seen that the judges — Sir Edmund Anderson, and Baron 
Stroud — did not themselves assess the details. They visited 
Plymouth somewhere in 1590-91, when the Corporation gave them 
a tun of wine " for theire paines and helpe touching the water 
Course," but left the particulars to Christopher Harris, Thomas 
Wise, William Crymes, John Copplestone, and William Strode, 
confirming their award after the leat had been completed in 1592. 
The award deals with the lands concerned, in lineal order from 
the Weir Head to the town ; and, with a few exceptions, the com- 
pensation paid to the tenant is, singularly enough, the same as that 
given to the landowner. How much of the land was practically 
valueless is shown by the several awards of 4d. As all the 
amounts were calculated at sixteen years' purchase, a farthing a 
year was the lowest sum that could be taken to represent any 
claim. It is perhaps worth noting also that the award recognizes 
solely the Mayor and Commonalty. They were the only parties 
authorized under the Act; and it was they who, in the words 
adopted by the judges, had made the leat. " Whereas the said 
Maio r and Coyaltie . . . have digged mined and trenched and 
caused to be digged mined and trenched one ditche or Trenche . . . 
for the convenyent or necessarie conveyeng of the said Riuer to the 
said Towne of Plymouthe." Drake does not appear, save as a 
recipient of compensation, from beginning to end ! The well- 
known dictum, Qui facit per alium facit per se, had not then been 
questioned, nor well-paid contractors advanced to the rank of 
originators and philanthropists. 
