86 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
which the essential article — water — could be provided, not only 
for the present, but for the future wants of the great and populous 
town." As ages rolled on, the warlike deeds of Drake might be 
forgotten; but, whilst civilization continued in this island, still 
would the recollection of his talents and energy be kept alive in 
the breast of every Plymothian by this enduring monument of his 
fame, and it was to be hoped that the day would never arrive when 
the memory of this greatest benefactor to the town would cease to 
excite emotions of admiration and gratitude. And what, according 
to Woollcombe from his study of the Black Book, appeared to him 
to be the precise amount of this benefaction 1 " The true state of 
the case," he said, " seems to be this : that a mind of less energy 
and activity would hardly have conceived the design of bringing 
the water from the Mew in a straight line to supply the town ; 
that the first step was to procure an Act of Parliament for the 
purpose, a measure by no means then so frequently resorted to as 
it has been in modern times ; that the Act passed in the year 1585, 
though some years elapsed before it was carried into execution 
(partly owing to the alarm occasioned by the threatened invasion 
from Spain, and partly by the difficulty of procuring persons com- 
petent to the task), and that at length, in 1590, Sir Francis agreed 
to undertake it himself, and was paid £200 by the Corporation to 
enable him to commence the work, besides £100 to compound with 
the owners through whose grounds the stream was to be led." 
Woollcombe next admitted that Drake was obliged to make the 
rivulet through a circuitous course of twenty-five miles. "It 
appears that he obtained from the Plymouth Corporation, for his 
care and diligence in conducting the water to the town, in cash 
£352 16s., and afterwards a lease of sixty-seven years of the 
whole profits of the mills, the marshes, and the water leading 
thereunto, with the reservation only of a conventionary rent of 
£34 3s. 4d. a year." Woollcombe finally added, "That to the 
energy and public spirit, therefore, of Sir F. Drake, though not to his 
purse " (this they had seen to be a mistake), " were the inhabitants 
of Plymouth indebted for the essential blessing of an unfailing 
water supply." Woollcombe's conclusions and theirs slightly 
differed, for they thought that their means of information dis- 
closed the necessity of a far larger expenditure than Woollcombe 
was aware of, or than the Corporation were willing to place in 
their accounts. There was an obvious reason why they would not 
