472 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION, 
before the leat was made, while directly he erected the mills on the 
leat, which came into competition with those at Surpool or Mill- 
bay, the value of the old mills was depreciated 25 per cent. 
If we turn to the Water Act we find no reference to the erection 
of mills as one of the objects in view ; and we have seen that for 
the time at least their construction did serious injury to the original 
Corporate estate. Can there be any reasonable doubt—unromantic 
and prosaically business-like as the idea may seem—that the exten- 
sion of his trade as a miller was Drake’s leading object in what he 
did? The Act belonged to the Corporation ; only by agreement 
with the Corporation could the right to erect the mills be obtained : 
what readier means of attaiming this than by a composition under 
which Drake undertook at no loss to himself to complete the work 
which the Corporation had begun ; and to find the additional capital 
they did not possess for the erection of the leat mills, which under 
his agreement with them were at the end of 67 years to revert to 
the Corporation, but meanwhile were to be enjoyed by him and his 
successors? Drake was the last man to act aimlessly ; and is there 
a better explanation of his motive to be given ? 
“J. P.” [John Prideaux ], the ‘‘ Perambulator” of the South Devon 
Museum, had a very shrewd notion of the truth, though wanting 
direct evidence, nigh 50 years ago, when he speaks of ‘ Sir Francis 
having very probably been a more expert calculator of probabilities 
and capabilities than the worshipful magistrates of the borough ;” 
that “having brought the water in, he well knew what to do with 
it ;” and that his mill rental was ‘‘a very pretty thing in those 
times.” Indeed ‘‘ Perambulator” went so far as to suggest that 
“ Sir Francis screwed his bargain tight up.”* 
That Drake made an excellent bargain there is indeed no doubt; 
that the Corporation made a very bad one is equally evident. 
During almost the entire continuance of the Drake lease in the 
leat mills the revenues derived by the Corporation from the water 
were not enough to meet the mere charges of maintenance. The 
town was always out of pocket. When the mills at length fell in 
hand, they were worth at least £200 a year—for in 1660-61 three- 
fourths of the profits are set down at £233 16s. 114d.—if we 
estimate the mills at Millbay as worth a third of the whole. That 
is to say, for 67 years Drake and his representatives under the 
lease were receiving at the rate of something like £1,000 a year— 
* Vol. iv. 168; 
