April, 1892. 
THE SEVERN BORE. 
79 
NOTE ON THE SEVERN BORE.* 
BY W. R. HUGHES, F.L.S. 
On Saturday, the 19tli of September last, I accepted the 
invitation of my old friend, Mr. F. J. Cullis, F.G.S., to spend 
a few hours with him in his house-boat “ Nautilus,” which 
was moored at Frampton-on-Severn, on the Gloucester and 
Berkeley Canal, the principal attraction of my visit being to 
witness the famous Severn bore. 
I left Birmingham by a so-called fast train to Gloucester, 
purporting to start from New Street at 1.83, but it was half- 
an-hour late; and thus I had little time to examine the 
interesting old city, of which, from the number of its religious 
houses in olden times, it was a common saying. “As sure as 
God’s in Gloucester.” 
Furthermore, the forecast of that excellent institution the 
Meteorological Office, “ Unsettled,” was verified to the letter, 
and we had to contend with “ showers locally ”—a not 
infrequent occurrence during the long-to-be-remembered 
abnormally wet year of 1891. The little screw-steamer 
“ Wave ” was timed to leave the docks at Gloucester at 
4 p.m., and in our course down to Frampton—about nine 
miles distant—we noticed the great quantity of foreign 
timber stacked on the banks of the canal, and the numerous 
and commodious granaries through which, Mr. Cullis tells me, 
most of the imported corn passes after its arrival in England. 
My friend is always very eloquent and enthusiastic about 
this fine canal, which, at its junction with the Severn, he 
describes (in an interesting paper read some time since to the 
Mason College Union) as “ The Sea Gate of Birmingham ;” 
contending that this important navigation, so boldly designed 
by Midlandmen a century ago, is still the most natural water¬ 
way between Birmingham and the sea. 
We arrive at Frampton soon after five, and are hospitably 
entertained on board the “Nautilus,” a very appropriate name 
for a floating house, in a district of the Lias, and strongly 
suggestive of its prototypes, the Ammonites of that formation. 
Frampton lies in a very pretty part of the Severn Valley, 
flanked by the Cotswolds on the east, and by the hills of the 
Forest of Dean and the distant Welsh mountains on the 
westward. Its village is quiet and picturesque, with old 
timbered houses, and has a fine open green nearly a mile in 
* Read before the -Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical 
Society, October 20th, 1891. 
