CHAP. v. i-'i-: in: n-:s AND NAYKIAMLI-: IIIVKKS. 301 



In 1 (>:>(> we find one Francis Mathew addressing 

 ( Yomwrll and his .Parliament l on the immense advantage 

 of opening up a water-communication between London 

 and Bristol. But he only proposed to make the rivers 

 I sis and Avon navigable to their sources, and then either 

 to connect their heads by means of a short sasse or canal 

 of about three miles across the intervening ridge of 

 country, or to form a fair stone causeway between the 

 heads of the two rivers, across which horses or carts 

 might carry produce between the one and the other. 

 His object, it will be observed, was mainly the opening 

 up of the existing rivers ; " and not," he says, " to have 

 the old channel of any river to be forsaken for a shorter 

 passage." Mathew fully recognised the formidable cha- 

 racter of his project, and considered it quite out of the 

 question for private enterprise, whether of individuals or 

 a n v corporation, to undertake to execute it ; but he ven- 

 tured to think that it might not be too much for the power 

 of the State to construct the three miles of canal and carry 

 out the other improvements suggested by him, with a rea- 

 sonable prospect of success. The scheme was, however, 

 too daring for Mathew' s time, and another century 

 elapsed before a canal was made in England. 



A few years later, in 1677, a curious work was pub- 

 lished by one Andrew Yarranton, gentleman, 2 in which 

 he strongly pointed out what the Dutch had done by 

 means of inland navigation, and what England ought to 

 do as the best means of excelling the Dutch without 

 lighting them. The main feature of his scheme was the 

 improvement of our rivers so as to render them navigable, 

 and the inland country thus more readily accessible to 

 cnnnnerce. For in England, said he, there are large 



1 ' Of the Opening of Rivers for 



Navigation; tlu- U-nriit exemplified 



liy the t\vii Avoiis of Salisbury and 



\vi a 



Mediterranean 



i,v Water for Ellandere of Thirty Ton 



2 ' England's Improvement by Sea 

 and Land : To outdo the Dutch with- 

 out fighting, to pay Debts without 

 Moneys, to set at work all the Poor 

 of England with the growth of our 



between Bristol and London, with the j own Land,' &c. London, 1677. 



ivsulls.' London, 1 <!."",<!. 



