INTRODUCTION. 13 



is the only river of any size in England, running north 

 and south. It rises in Wales, at the foot of Plinlimnon, 

 and winding through some of the finest plains on the 

 island, waters the town of Shrewsbury, Worcester, Tewks- 

 bury, and Gloucester. How familiar are all these names 

 to American ears; how the scroll of history unfolds 

 before the mind's eye as we read their titles ! During 

 the last century the importance of the Severn, in a com- 

 mercial sense, was very great indeed; the movement 

 on the broad estuary by which it flows into the ocean, 

 being perhaps greater, at that period, than that of any 

 other European river, with the single exception of the 

 Thames. Many have been the naval expeditions of im- 

 portance which have sailed from the Severn ; the Cabots 

 when bound on the daring voyage which first threw the 

 light of civilization upon the coast of North America, 

 embarked from the wharves of Bristol. Perchance the 

 scanty sails, and heavy hull of their craft, as it made its 

 way sea-ward, may have been watched by some wondering 

 peasant, toiling in the same fields to which the Naturalist 

 has introduced us. 



The mountains of Wales, filling the back-ground of 

 the picture sketched in the author's opening pages, are 

 very different from those with which American eyes are 

 familiar. Bare and bleak, they are usually wholly shorn 



