SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 531 
for the map itself only names Drake as living at Buckland Mona- 
chorum. While these leat maps afford no evidence whatever as 
to the origin of the water course, they explain the singular error 
into which Eisdon and Westcote, and Prince, following them, fell, 
with regard to the marvellous "mighty rock thought to be im- 
penetrable," by showing that the real marvel of those days was 
the taking the leat " through mighti rockes which was thought 
unpossible to carrie water through, 5 ' the reference being to the 
loose bouldery ground — which did not seem likely to hold any 
body of water — near the Head Weir. If either of our old topo- 
graphers had been acquainted with the locus in quo we should have 
been spared this blundering source of wonders. The full text of 
the legend is : — 
" Here the riuer is taken out of the olde riuer and caried 448 
paces through mighti rockes which was thought unpossible to carrie 
water through." 
On the Cecil map we further read : — 
" From the Fyrst taking in of the riuer that is now brought 
into plimmouth as it is caried euerie waie to geat the vantage of 
the hilles is by measure 27 miles after 1000 paces to a mile and 
fyue foot a pace." 
This partially explains the strange overestimate of the length of 
the leat, which almost every writer upon the subject has been 
content to repeat — with an occasional amplification — down to the 
present day. Partially only, for while 27 miles at 1000 fair paces 
the mile would very nearly correspond with the actual length, if 
we are to reckon five feet strides to a pace we are still some 8 miles 
in excess. However, it is clear that the miles in question were not 
statute miles, and that is the main point, as it fairly reconciles the 
" 25 miles" of the Black Book with the actual facts. 
It has been somewhat of an open question whether the terms of 
the Water Act were ever carried out, and the water taken into 
Sutton Pool for the cleansing of the harbour, though the negative 
appears to have been commonly held.* In the ancient maps of 
the leat the water course terminates at the upper end of the town, 
* The three purposes alleged in the Act, and the only ones directly con- 
templated by that statute are : — The providing of water for shipping, &c, 
precaution against fire, and the scouring of the harbour. There is no ground 
for alleging that either of these was a subterfuge, and the Act consequently 
obtained under false pretences. 
2 M 
