SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 527 
soil, and £26 5s. for the tenants. The £100 given to Drake to pay 
the compensation left a handsome margin, therefore, without taking 
into account any allowance for the water supplies granted to the 
estates of Whitleigh, Manadon, and Ham. Making no deductions 
on this head, and making no allowance for any direct expenditure 
"by the Corporation ; but assuming, for the sake of argument, that 
Drake did the whole work, he had thus £240 for the 17 miles of 
leat, or £14 (say £75 in modern money) per mile; whereas, as I 
have already shown, less than half that amount would have cut 
the original " ditch or trench" in the days of Elizabeth. It is very 
clear therefore now, not only that the Corporation paid for the leat, 
but also contributed largely towards the mills ; and that the per- 
sonal outlay by Drake must still further be reduced.* 
The award disposes, with equal conclusiveness, of the singular 
supposition that Drake bought Buckland Abbey to help forward 
the scheme ; for it shows that not an inch of Drake's land was 
affected, while he is set forth as compensated to the extent of 17s., 
as tenant of some of Mr. Parker's land near Plymouth. He is 
dealt with purely on business grounds. 
It is clear also that neither Walter Elford nor Sir Thomas Wise 
(the latter one of the assessors) could have any claim on the 
Corporation in respect of the leat except under this document. 
The fact that they were paid by the Corporation after the death of 
Drake seems conclusive therefore that they were not paid by him. 
The total payments due to Walter Elford personally were £1 10s. 8d., 
but as a landowner, only 5s. The amount awarded to Wise was 
19s. 4d.t It would appear, however, that the main ground of 
Elford's claim, though it had no real status, was the construction 
of the Head Weir. This is partially indicated in my former 
quotation from the Receivers' Accounts, but is made more clear in 
the entry attached to his name on the special list of Ereemen. 
"The abousaid Walter Elforde hadd his freedome geuen hym 
in consideration of digginge and makinge of a hedd weare by the 
Mayor and Coialtie of this Borough in and vppon the landes and 
* May not the words of Payne's letter to Cecil— that the leat " cost us and 
Sir Frauncis Drake, who upon composicion with us undertook it," " a greate 
some of money " — be fairly taken to indicate something approaching equality 
of expenditure ? If so, we are helped further to a conclusion as to the cost 
of the mills. — See post. 
f We may be perfectly sure that Wise, with Crymes and Coplestone, as 
assessors, had taken full care of their own interests. 
