£ s. d. London 836 12 10 Boston 788 15 3 Southampton 712 3 7 Lincoln 656 12 2 Lynn 651 11 11 Hull 344 14 7 York 175 8 10 Dunwich 104 9 0 Grimsby 91 15 1 Yarmouth 54 16 6 Ipswich 60 8 4 Colchester 16 8 0 Sandwich 16 0 0 Dover 32 6 1 Rye 10 13 5 Winchelsea 62 2 4 Seaford 12 12 2 Shoreham 20 4 9 Chichester 23 6 0 Exmouth 14 6 6 Dartmouth 3 0 6 Esse 7 4 8 Fowey 48 15 11 Pevensey 16 17 10 Coton 11 11 Whitby 4 0 Scarborough 22 14 0 Selby 17 11 8 Barton 33 11 2 Hedon 18 15 9 Norwich 6 19 10 Orford 11 7 0 {158}Of these ports the majority have ceased to be available for the purposes of foreign commerce. Dunwich, once a considerable town, the seat of a bishopric, and the metropolis of East Anglia, had its harbour and its royal and episcopal palaces swept away by encroachments of the sea. Hedon, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, returned two members of Parliament in the reign of Edward I., and was a more important centre of trade and commerce than Hull; but its harbour, getting choked up by sand, was converted into a luxuriant meadow, and the ports of Hull and Grimsby now reign in its stead. Sandwich, Romney, Hythe, all the Cinque ports except Dover, and various other ports, got choked up with sand, while others that have been able to retain a certain amount of traffic are to-day only the ghosts of their former selves. It is certain that in the case of English navigable rivers of any type, much might require to be done, and spent, in order to keep navigation open. With most of them it was a matter of carrying on an unceasing warfare with elemental conditions. Patriotic men like Sandys, Mathew and Yarranton might bring forward their schemes, companies might raise and spend much money on river navigation, and municipal corporations might do what they could, within the range of their means and powers; but the inherent defects and limitations of the navigation itself were not always to be overcome by any practical combination of patriotism, enterprise and generous expenditure even when--and this was far from being always the case--the requisite funds were actually available.