SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 533 
stopped short of the intent of the Act, as in the erection of the 
mills they had clearly overstepped it. The drying of Surpool was 
itself a very small matter. The ancient mills stood upon a dam 
thrown across the mouth of the Pool, which extended over the 
greater part of the Union Street district, including what even in 
the present generation was known as the Marsh, up to King Street. 
The mills were originally built by the monks of Plympton, and 
stood close to the southern end of what is now Bath Street. They 
were worked by ponding back the tide water, precisely in the same 
manner as the present Stonehouse mills. All that had to be done 
therefore to convert Surpool into the " several marshes, meadows, 
and inclosed pieces of pasture," of which it is described in a bye-law 
of 1634 as consisting, was to keep the water out by shutting the 
gates or filling in the dam, while by bringing the water leat to Mill- 
bay instead of Sutton Pool the mills could be kept at work the 
same as ever, only continuously, instead of at low water only. 
That Surpool was never drained in any more effectual way than 
this maps of a later date plainly show ; and there are many yet 
who recollect what the character of the locality was ere " Union 
Eoad was made through the Marshes " in 1815-16. 
There is good evidence that the leat was carried to Millbay soon 
after its completion. The last piece of land taken by the Corpora- 
tion next the town belonged to Mr. George Barons, and here the 
middle mill — i.e. that which stood opposite the Free School — was 
erected. From this point the course would be free through the 
streets to Sutton Pool. A " brydge by the milles " was made in 
1591-2, and this was probably, but by no means certainly, over 
the leat. What is more to the purpose is that in 1598-9 we find 
a series of entries, not only of charges for "amending" and 
"ridding" (i.e. cleansing) the leat, but for "making" the leat "by 
the middle mill." And this, it seems to me, establishes a fair pre- 
sumption that it was not until after the death of Sir Francis, when 
Thomas Drake had succeeded to the lease of the leat mills, that the 
water was diverted from Sutton Pool to Millbay.* It was certainly 
before Oct. 1602, when a lease was granted by the Corporation 
(fine £124, rent 40s.) to James Bagge, John Waddon, Walter 
Neild, James Bickford, and Xich. Blake of " all that Straunde and 
void grounde adioyninge to a close in the tenure of John Lidbrooke 
* We shall see by-and-by how tight was Thomas Drake's grip of the water 
property. 
