Rivers and River Transport 125 



passed through the port of Bawtry and thence along the 

 river Trent. 



The Thames, England's greatest river, does not, so far as 

 it serves the port of London and facilitates the immense trade 

 there carried on, enter so much into consideration from the 

 point of view of strictly " internal communication " as some 

 of the lesser rivers already mentioned, the position alike of 

 London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton, etc., relating 

 to ports, docks, harbours and commerce in general rather than 

 to the particular forms of inland transport here under review. 

 One must not forget, however, that, above the port of London 

 itself the navigation of the Thames was, from very early 

 times, of the greatest advantage to a considerable extent of 

 country, and that the value of these services was further 

 increased by various tributaries of the Thames. 



The fact that settlement originally followed the course of 

 rivers is abundantly shown by the number of cities, towns, 

 monasteries, abbeys and conventual establishments set up 

 of old in the Thames valley. The convenience, also, of water 

 transport must have had much to do with the locating of a 

 University at Oxford, on the Thames, just as it did with the 

 establishment of a University at Cambridge, on the Cam, 

 each being thus rendered accessible to scholars from Scotland 

 and elsewhere who would have found it impracticable to make 

 so long a journey under the early conditions of road travel. 

 The Thames became, further, the main highway for the various 

 counties through which it flowed, included therein being some 

 of the most fertile districts in the land ; and, though London 

 may owe its pre-eminence mainly to foreign trade, passing 

 between the port of London and the sea, the facilities for 

 communication offered above the port of London by the 

 Thames for the full extent of its navigable length were, in the 

 pre-railway days more especially, of incalculable advantage 

 both to the districts served thereby and to the Metropolis 

 itself. 



This advantage becomes still more striking when we take 

 into account the rivers that form important tributaries of the 

 Thames. 



The Lea was described in a statute of 1424 as " one of the 

 great rivers, which extendeth from the town of Ware till the 

 water of the Thames, in the counties of Hertford, Essex and 



