131 



from each other as are the significations necessarily attached to their 

 elements. 



Thus we see that the name, Hafren, presuming it to be derived from 

 the same root as from the Celtic verb, " Hafru," " to render sluggish," is 

 sufficiently appropriate to the river, in that part of its course which must 

 always have been of the greatest social importance, * as from Worcester 

 to Kingroad no greater fall than of about 4 inches in a mile takes 

 place. 



The Latin name, to possess any meaning at all, must be derived fixtm 

 a common root with sabubim, and sahurra, "sand, or fine gravel," 

 aaid, in testimony of its perfect applicability in this sense, to a river 

 more charged with sediment than any other in Europe, we need only cite 

 Shakespeare, who, in his King Hemy IV., calls it " the sandy-bottomed 

 Severn." 



Upon the Anglo-Saxon appellation, we have already sufficiently expa- 

 tiated ; and, if in despite of the fanciful vagai-ies of some of the admirers 

 of philology, we have been able faintly to illustrate her value, as a hand- 

 maiden of history, we willingly incur the risk of being considered 

 somewhat prolix, in the hope of sho"\ving, in the present instance, how 

 notes, evoked apparently at random from various strings, may be made 

 to combine in one hanmonious chord. 



The compiler of the History, attributed to Nennius, names the ^'■Dwo 

 Rig Hafren" the two kings of Severn, as amongst the wonders of Britain, 

 representing the conflict between the ebbing and the flowing tide, to 

 which the Saxons gave the name of 'Hygre' or 'Egor,' the equivalent of 

 the Latin ^quor, or the * flood,' of the various Scandinavian and 

 Teutonic dialects, the latter being the term genei-ally applied to the phe- 

 nomenon at the present day, 'Eager' and 'Hygre' being nearly obsolete. 



Thomas Carlyle derives the term from the name of a lotun or 

 giant, who was the personified spirit of Sea Tempest, but he does not 

 state where, in old Norse literature, traces of the supposed exist- 

 ence of such a semi-deified power may be found. Another term 

 which is also frequently used for it — Bore — is clearly traceable to 

 to the Saxon word, " Beran," iio bear or caiTy, from the facilities which 

 it lent to the transit of merchandize, and for the purposes of ordinary 

 social kitercourse. 



The district to which we shall chiefly direct attention at present, 

 is that which lies between Shai-pness Point and the Hock Crib, at 



* " Sed tamen duo flumina, prseclariora ceteris fluminibus, Tamesis ac Sabrina, 

 quasi duo brachia Britanniag, per quae olim rates, vehebantur ad portando 

 divitias, pro causa negotiationis. " — Nennius. 



i2 



