SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 495 
Elsewhere Prince partly follows Fuller : 
He [Drake] did that at his more leisurable minutes, and, as it 
were, by the by, which was sufficient to have eternized another's 
memory: I mean that great work ever to be recorded with praise, 
his bringing a running “stream of water even all the streets of 
Plymouth from a vast distance off. 
This involves, however, an assumption beyond Fuller; for Prince 
is the only writer who—in plain defiance of all fact—credits Drake 
with distributing the water as well as providing it. And so the 
legend grows. 
Cox’s Magna Britannia (1720-1) remarks : 
The streets are very compact, and well supplied with water 
brought in to them seven Miles, at the Expense of the great Sailor 
Sir Francis Drake, who was a native of the place.* 
A Journey through England,+ 1723, amusingly minimises the 
whole story by saying that the town 
Is very well furnished with Water, which is brought in in Pipes 
at seven Miles Distance: A work worthy of that great man Sir 
Francis Drake, who sailed round the World in Queen Elizabeth’s 
Reign ; and was a Native of this Town. 
The Modern Universal British Travellert{ being more compli- 
mentary is less exact. 
The town is well supplied with water, which is conveyed from 
a spring seven miles distant. This convenience was obtained at 
the sole expense, and under the immediate inspection, of that great 
ornament of the English navy, Sir Francis Drake. 
Rural Elegance§ (1768) :— 
It is well supplied with fresh water, which was first brought 
hither from a place seven miles off, at the sole expense of Sir 
Francis Drake, who was born here. 
And so we proceed, the tradition gradually gathering strength 
until Messrs. Britton and Bayley in their Beauties of Devon! 
* P. 526. An MS. note in Mr. Prideaux’s copy of this book in the Public 
Library (? his writing) comments ‘‘ Incorrect ; Sir Francis acted here as the 
civil engineer, for which he was remunerated accordingly, as the Archives of 
Plymouth fully establish.” When this was written the name of Lampen had 
not been recovered. The blunder of Drake’s nativity has often been repeated. 
¢ Vol. ii. 3rd ed, p. 64. t p. 477. 
§ p. 141. ll p. 247, 
