I2O History of Inland Transport 



which stood either upon the Ouse itself or upon one of the 

 other rivers connecting with it were, he proceeded, all depend- 

 ent on its navigation, and all of them were supplied by the 

 merchants of Lynn with what he described as " maritime 

 commodities." " Their Exports and Imports," he declared, 

 " enrich and Furnish the Country ; and raise a great Revenue 

 to the Government, and in all National advantages the Port 

 of Lyn is equalled by few Ports of this Kingdom." But, 

 owing to neglect of the Ouse, there was the risk that the river 

 would " in a very short time " be " lost to navigation," and all, 

 he continued, agreed that " If something be not done this 

 Country will be rendered uninhabitable, and the Navigation of 

 the Port of Lynn will be lost, and the University of Cambridge, 

 and all the great Towns situate on the Rivers for the benefit 

 of Navigation must with it decay and become impoverished ; 

 and the Customs and Duties of the State be in Consequence 

 thereof greatly lessened." 



Happily our national well-being has not depended on 

 navigable rivers, as Badeslade thought it did, and, though the 

 condition of the Bedford Ouse has got far worse than it was 

 when he wrote, the University of Cambridge and the various 

 towns in question still, happily, survive. But even in Bades- 

 lade's time the Ouse was beginning to get, as he says, " choaked 

 up," and he recalls the year 1649 when " keels could sail with 

 Forty Tun freight 36 miles from Lynn towards Cambridge at 

 ordinary Neip-Tides, and as far as Huntingdon with Fifteen 

 Tun Freight. And Barges with Ten Chaldron of coals could 

 sail up Brandon River to Thetford ; and as far in proportion 

 up the Rivers Mildenhall, &c., &c. By all which Rivers the 

 Port of Lynn was capable of the most extensive Inland 

 navigation of any Port of England." 



How Lynn served as the port for the great quantities of 

 foreign produce and, also, for the hops and other com- 

 modities sent from London and the south-western counties 

 for the Sturbridge fair at Cambridge has already been told 

 (see page 24). It was, also, through Lynn and Boston that 

 a large proportion of our commerce with Normandy, Flanders 

 and the Rhine country was conducted ; and Lynn, especially, 

 grew in wealth and importance, and further developed, as 

 Defoe found, into a town having considerable social attractions. 



Concerning the Witham, Joseph Priestley says, in his 



