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SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 497 
This is a statement which I am utterly unable to comprehend ; 
for it seems in defiance of Euclid to assert that a straight line is 
not the shortest distance between two points, or that the reduction 
from twenty-five miles to eighteen left matters pretty much as they 
were before. Barrow wrote clearly enough, on matters within his 
own knowledge, and there is, of course, here, some slip of the pen. 
It is only curious that Drake should be the subject of so many. 
We may be certain that if Barrow had had the evidence which 
we now possess before him, his wonder at the work and at the time 
of its execution would have been greatly lessened. Wanting the 
original authority, he had, like all other writers of later date, to 
fall back upon mere hearsay, and to repeat what he found in print 
already. For his main facts he studied the national records so far 
as they were then accessible; for his local references he had no 
such aid. 
Errors of long standing have peculiar vitality, and the almost 
unquestioned character of the Drake Water Myth over centuries 
has led it to be regarded with peculiar respect. A presentation of 
the facts, such as is here attempted, must however in the end lead 
to a restoration of the true historical faith, however reluctant many 
of us may be to abandon a long-cherished belief. 
APPENDIX. 
THERE are some interesting points in the accounts of the water 
property and Drake’s connection therewith, given in our older 
guide books. No two agree! 
The Picture of Plymouth* states: ‘‘The inhabitants of the town 
are well supplied with fresh water, and are indebted for it to the 
famous Sir Francis Drake, by whose skill and exertion it was 
brought in a channel from the river Mew, on the borders of 
Dartmoor by,.a devious course of nearly 24 miles. Prior to this 
period they had to rely wholly upon the springs of the town, 
which afforded an inadequate supply when the town increased in 
size and population. The water has ever been vested in the Mayor 
* (Mr. Henry Woollcombe), pp. 8, 9. (1812.) 
