116 History of Inland Transport 



shore and other towns. Defoe says of this affluent of the 

 Severn : " The Navigation of this River Avon is an exceeding 

 advantage to all this part of the Country and also to the 

 Commerce of the City of Bristol. For by this River they 

 derive a very great trade for sugar, oil, wine, tobacco, iron, lead, 

 and in a word all heavy goods which are carried by water 

 almost as far as Warwick ; and return the corn, and especially 

 the cheese is brought back from Gloucestershire and Warwick- 

 shire to Bristol." 



The Wye, which enters the estuary of the Severn below 

 Chepstow, after passing through or along the borders of the 

 counties of Montgomery, Radnor, Brecknock, Hereford, 

 Monmouth and Gloucester, was, with its own tributary, the 

 Lug, not made navigable until 1661, when an Act (14 Car. II.) 

 was passed, the preamble of which set forth that 



" Whereas the making Navigable, or otherwise passable for 

 Barges, Boats, Leighters, and other Vessels the Rivers Wye 

 and Lugg and other Rivulets and Brooks falling into the said 

 Rivers in the County of Hereford and other adjacent Counties, 

 and so navigable into the River of Seaverne, may (with God's 

 blessing) be of great advantage, and very convenient and 

 necessary not onely to the said Counties, But also to the 

 Publick, By import and export of Corn and encrease of 

 Commerce and Trade, and improving the yearly value of lands 

 in the parts near adjoyning thereunto, besides the great and 

 extraordinary preservation of the High-ways, and most pro- 

 fitable and necessary to and for the City of Hereford for 

 conveyance thereby of Coles, fuel and other necessaries to the 

 said City, whereof there is now great scarcity and want, and 

 far greater hereafter like to grow, if some Help therefore be 

 not made and provided. Be it therefore," etc. 



That the merchants of Bristol derived great advantage 

 from river as well as from sea transport is well shown by Defoe. 

 Not only, he tells us, did they carry on a great trade, but they 

 did so with less dependence on London than the merchants 

 of any other town in Britain. He says : 



" The shopkeepers in Bristol who, in general, are all Whole- 

 sale Men, have so great an Inland trade among all the Western 

 Counties that they maintain Carriers just as the London 

 Tradesmen do, to all the principal Countries and Towns, 

 from Southampton in the south to the Banks of the Trent, 



