530 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the younger Lampen for our engineer. Whichever of the two it is 
to whom we are indebted for this work, it is now clear, however, 
that, as I suggested, the Lampens are a local family, and that, as 
I also thought probable, they have continued to be connected with 
this locality to the present day. The name did not disappear from 
St. Budeaux until the present century, and still remains in Ply- 
mouth. That the Rev. Robert Lampen was a descendant of the 
leat Lampen, direct or collateral, there should be no further 
question. 
We now come to the evidence offered by certain contemporary 
maps. A map or plan of the leat, made soon after its completion, 
has long been known to exist in the British Museum, and we are 
indebted to an entry in the Reports of the Historical Manuscripts 
Commission, noted by Mr. E. G. Bennett, for the discovery of a 
duplicate among the Cecil papers in the collection of the Marquis 
of Salisbury. Both maps are originals, evidently by the same 
hand — duplicates, not copies. Possibly they reproduce in part 
the original view of Lampen, which " haywoode " new wrote 
"iiij times;" but it is certain that they depict the leat after its 
completion. Unquestionably they are the work of " Sprie the 
painter,"* who is recorded to have drawn many "platts" and 
"patternes" of the town and neighbourhood for the Corporation, 
and indeed rode " to Mevie aboute the water " when the Act was in 
progress. It is not at all unlikely that they are the two " platts " 
— " one for my Ld of Bath, and the other for Mr. Sparke " — for 
which William Downeman, Receiver in 1593-4, paid Spry nine 
shillings. Sparke then went to London, and appeared before the 
Privy Council, in support of the contention of the Corporation with 
regard to their interest in the fortifications. 
The entry in the catalogue of the Cecil papers is misleading ; 
for it runs, " Mode of supplying the town of Plymouth with fresh 
water from the River Plym (?) near Chepstow (!),f as accomplished 
by Sir Francis Drake." This is the assumption of the cataloguer ; 
* Robert Sprie was admitted freeman in 1569-70. 
t Of course by the Plym is meant the Meavy, and by Chepstow, Sheepstor. 
The one blunder is simple, but the other is "hard to be understanded." 
Perhaps it is fortunate that the entry does not occur in an ancient document, 
or we might have been in danger of being told that Drake had brought the 
water all the way from Monmouth ; and that his skill as an engineer had 
been shown by an under-Severn tunnel. 
