PRINCIPAL R1V.EKS IN ENGLAND. 151 



The second river of note is the Severn, which 

 has its beginning in Plinilimon-hill, in Montgo- 

 meryshire, and its end seven miles from Bristol ;. 

 washing in that space the walls of Shrewsbury, 

 Worcester, Gloucester, and divers other places 

 and palaces of note. It receives greater rivers, 

 and is farther navigable than the Thames, but 

 does not equal it for the quantity and quality of 

 its fish. 



3. The Trent (so called on account of the 

 thirty different kinds of fish which are found iu 

 it> or because it receives thirty small rivers) has 

 its fountain in Staffordshire, and gliding through 

 the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, 

 and York, augments the turbulent current of the 

 Humber, the most violent stream of all the isle. 

 The Humber is not a distinct river, because it 

 has not a spring head of its own, but is rather 

 the mouth or astuarium of divers rivers meeting 

 together; among which, besides the Trent, are 

 the Darvent and Ouse. 



4. The Medway, a Kentish river, rises near 

 Tunbridge, passes by Maids tone, runs by Ro- 

 chester, and discharges itself into the mouth of 

 the Thames, by Sheerness ; a river chiefly re- 

 markable for the dock at Chatham, where ships 

 of the first rate are built and repaired for the 

 use of the English navy. 



o. The Tweed, the north-east boundary of 

 England, on whose banks are seated the strong 

 and almost impregnable town of Berwick. 



6 % . The Tyne, famous for Newcastle and its in- 

 exhaustible coal-pits. These and the rest of 

 principal note, are thus described in one of Mr* 

 Drayton's sonnets; 



