H2 History of Inland Transport 



initial advantage, therefore, lay with towns located on rivers 

 which were naturally navigable and remained navigable both 

 for a considerable extent and for a considerable period, without 

 need of amendment ; though river navigation, as a whole, did 

 not attain to its highest development until, as will be shown 

 in the chapter that follows, much had been done, especially 

 in connection with streams not naturally navigable, to over- 

 come the various impediments or difficulties to effective trans- 

 port. 



All the same, the part that English navigable rivers, great 

 or small, have played in the social and economic progress of 

 the country has been one of undeniable magnitude and im- 

 portance, and offers many points of general interest. 



These considerations more especially apply to the river 

 Severn, which, in conjunction with such of its tributaries as 

 the Wye and the Warwickshire Avon, was once the great 

 highway for the trade and traffic, not only of the western 

 counties, but of, also, a considerable area in Wales and the 

 midland and northern counties, enabling the districts it more 

 directly served to attain an early development long before 

 others which were then still struggling with the disadvantages 

 of bad roads, however much they may since have outstripped 

 them in the race for industrial advancement. 



The Severn itself was naturally navigable from Welshpool, 

 " Montgomeryshire, a distance of 155 miles by a very winding 

 stream to where the river empties itself into the Bristol 

 Channel. This was the greatest length of navigation, unaided 

 by artificial means, of any river in the kingdom. The early 

 Britons passed along it in their coracles, and, as these were 

 supplemented by vessels of an improved type, trade was 

 developed, towns and cities each a storehouse or an entrepot 

 for a more or less considerable area began to arise on the 

 banks, while Bristol attained to the dignity of a great national 

 port when Liverpool was still only an insignificant fishing 

 village. 



It was in connection with the Severn that the question arose 

 as to the right of the community to regard a navigable river 

 as a public highway, the same as if it were a road dedicated 

 to general use. 



The writer of the article on " Rivers " in the " Penny 

 Cyclopaedia " (1841) observes that : "In rivers which are 



