The navigation, as far as Godalming, of the Wey, which falls into the Thames at Weybridge, opened up a great part of Surrey and the adjoining counties to water communication with London. In recording his visit to Guildford, Defoe says of the Wey that a very great quantity of timber was carried along it, such timber being not only brought from the neighbourhood of that town, but conveyed by road from "the woody parts of Sussex and Hampshire above 30 miles from it"; though he significantly adds that this was done "in the Summer," the Sussex roads being, as I have already shown, probably unequalled for badness, and especially in the winter, by those of any other county in England. Defoe further says in regard to the Wey that it was "a mighty support" to the "great corn-market" at Farnham. Meal-men (as he calls them) and other dealers obtained corn at Farnham, and brought much of it by road to the mills on the Wey, a distance of about seven miles. In these mills it was ground and dressed, and it was then sent in barges to London, "as is practiced," Defoe adds, "on the other side of the Thames for above fifty miles distance from London." The Medway was another means of communication between a considerable extent of country and the Thames. It was utilised, not alone for sending timber from the woods of Sussex and Kent to the port of London or elsewhere, but, also, for the distribution of general produce. Defoe says of Maidstone, the chief town on the Medway, that "from this Town and the Neighbouring Parts London is supplied with more particulars than from any single market Town in England." In addition to these great groups of rivers, many single and minor rivers led to the opening up of inland ports which served in their day a most useful purpose. {127}The Exe allowed of Exeter carrying on a considerable foreign trade. Defoe tells of the "vast quantities" of woollen manufactures sent from Exeter direct to Holland, as well as to Portugal, Spain and Italy. The Dutch, especially, gave large commissions for the buying of Devonshire serges, which were made not only in Exeter but at Crediton, Honiton, Tiverton and in all the north part of the county, giving abundant employment to the people. Defoe speaks of the serge-market at Exeter as, next to that at Leeds, "the greatest in England." He had been assured, he says, that in this market from £60,000 to £100,000 worth of serges had been sold in a week. In the neighbouring county of Somerset, Taunton was the inland port to which coal conveyed in sea-going vessels from Swansea to Bridgwater was taken in barges along the navigable Parrett. Heavy goods and merchandise from Bristol--such as iron, lead, flax, pitch, tar, dye-stuffs, oil, wine, and groceries of all kinds--were received there in the same way. From Taunton these commodities were distributed, by packhorse or waggon, throughout the county.