The River Yare Runs Through This City, And Is Navigable Thus Far
Without The Help Of Any Art (That Is
To say, without locks or
stops), and being increased by other waters, passes afterwards
through a long tract of the
Richest meadows, and the largest, take
them all together, that are anywhere in England, lying for thirty
miles in length, from this city to Yarmouth, including the return
of the said meadows on the bank of the Waveney south, and on the
River Thyrn north.
Here is one thing indeed strange in itself, and more so, in that
history seems to be quite ignorant of the occasion of it. The
River Waveney is a considerable river, and of a deep and full
channel, navigable for large barges as high as Beccles; it runs for
a course of about fifty miles, between the two counties of Suffolk
and Norfolk, as a boundary to both; and pushing on, though with a
gentle stream, towards the sea, no one would doubt, but, that when
they see the river growing broader and deeper, and going directly
towards the sea, even to the edge of the beach--that is to say,
within a mile of the main ocean--no stranger, I say, but would
expect to see its entrance into the sea at that place, and a noble
harbour for ships at the mouth of it; when on a sudden, the land
rising high by the seaside, crosses the head of the river, like a
dam, checks the whole course of it, and it returns, bending its
course west, for two miles, or thereabouts; and then turning north,
through another long course of meadows (joining to those just now
mentioned) seeks out the River Yare, that it may join its water
with hers, and find their way to the sea together
Some of our historians tell a long, fabulous story of this river
being once open, and a famous harbour for ships belonging to a town
of Lowestoft adjoining; but that the town of Yarmouth envying the
prosperity of the said town of Lowestoft, made war upon them; and
that after many bloody battles, as well by sea as by land, they
came at last to a decisive action at sea with their respective
fleets, and the victory fell to the Yarmouth men, the Lowestoft
fleet being overthrown and utterly destroyed; and that upon this
victory, the Yarmouth men either actually did stop up the mouth of
the said river, or obliged the vanquished Lowestoft men to do it
themselves, and bound them never to attempt to open it again.
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