24 History of Inland Transport 



teenth century the export of wool, leather, lead, tin and other 

 English commodities was in the hands almost exclusively 

 of foreign merchants, who came here both to purchase these 

 raw materials and to dispose of the products of their own or 

 other countries ; and Sturbridge Fair, as it happened, formed 

 a convenient trading centre alike for foreign and for English 

 traders, the question of inland communication being, in fact, 

 once more the dominating factor in the situation. 



Foreign goods destined for the fair were mostly brought, 

 first, to the port of Lynn, and there transferred to barges 

 in which they were taken along the Ouse to the Cam, and so 

 on to the fair ground which, on one side, was bordered by the 

 latter stream. Heavy goods sent by water from London and 

 the southern counties, or coming by sea from the northern 

 ports, reached the fair by the same route. Great quantities 

 of hops brought to the fair from the south-eastern or midland 

 counties by land or water were, in turn, despatched via the 

 Cam, the Ouse and the port of Lynn to Hull, Newcastle, and 

 elsewhere for consignment to places to be reached by the 

 Humber, the Tyne, etc. Where water transport was not 

 available the services of packhorses were brought into 

 requisition until the time came when the roads had been suffi- 

 ciently improved to allow of the use of waggons. 



In his " Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain " 

 Defoe gives a graphic account of Sturbridge Fair as he saw 

 it in 1723. By that date it had become, in his opinion, " not 

 only the greatest in the whole Nation, but in the World." 

 It covered an area of about half a square mile, had shops 

 placed in rows like streets, with an open square known as the 

 Duddery, and comprised " all Trades that can be named in 

 London, with Coffee-houses, Taverns, and Eating-houses 

 innumerable, and all in Tents and Booths." He speaks of 

 ;i 00,000 worth of woollen manufactures being sold in less 

 than a week, and of 



" The prodigious trade carry 'd on here by Wholesale-men 

 from London, and all parts of England, who transact their 

 Business wholly in their Pocket- Books, and meeting their 

 Chapmen from all Parts, make up their Accounts, receive 

 Money chiefly in Bills, and take Orders : These, they say, 

 exceed by far the sales of Goods actually brought to the Fair, 

 and deliver'd in kind ; it being frequent for the London 



