Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/721

  'the Third, entitled, An Act for making navigable the Rivers Wye and Lugg, in the county of Hereford, and for making the same more effectual.' But as it appeared the powers vested in the trustees by these acts, were insufficient for carrying into execution the respective provisions, another act was applied for in 1809, and which received the royal assent on the 20th May, in that year; it is entitled, 'An Act for amending several Acts for making navigable the Rivers Wye and Lugg, in the county of Hereford, and for making a Horse Towing-Path on certain Parts of the Banks of the said River Wye.' By this act Sir George Cornewall and Sir John Geers Cotterell, Baronets, and thirty-one other gentlemen, together with the trustees appointed in pursuance of the above-recited acts, were incorporated by the name of "The Company of Proprietors of the Rivers Wye and Lugg Navigation and Horse Towing-Path," with power to contribute amongst themselves the sum of £6,000, in one hundred and twenty shares of £50 each, and a further sum of £3,000 if necessary. The act authorizes the company to make a horse towing-path between Hereford and Lidbrook, a distance of thirty-seven miles, and on which part of the river only, they are entitled to the following tolls.

HORSE TOWING PATH TOLLS.
Vessels haled by Men are free of Toll.

By reason of the Wye extending nearly one hundred miles into the interior of Wales, and through the rich agricultural districts of the county of Hereford, it is found exceedingly useful, from the facility it affords of shipping the extra produce to the more populous mineral districts of Glamorganshire, as well as Bristol and its neighbourhood. The navigation, however, of the lower part of this river is, during spring tides and when the wind blows fresh from the south-west, attended with no inconsiderable risk, as the tide, at its confluence with the Severn, sometimes reaches the extraordinary perpendicular elevation of 60 feet, which necessarily causes a tremendous and overpowering rush of water up the narrow channel of the Wye.