SEVERN, The, next to the Thames in length among the rivers of England, rises at Maes Hafren on the eastern side of Plinlimmon, on the south-south-west borders of Montgomeryshire, and flows in a nearly semicircular course of about 200 miles to the sea; the direct distance from its source to its mouth in the Bristol Channel is about 80 miles. By the Britons it was called Halfren, and its old Latin name was Sabrina. Through Montgomeryshire its course is at first in a south-easterly direction, and for the first 15 miles it flows over a rough precipitous bed. At Llanidloes, where the valley widens to a breadth of one or two miles and assumes a more fertile appearance, it bends towards the north-east, passing Newtown and Welshpool. On the borders of Shropshire it receives the Vyrnwy, and then turning in a south-easterly direction enters the broad rich plain of Shrewsbury, after which it bends southward past Ironbridge and Bridgnorth to Bewdley in Worcestershire. In Shropshire it receives a number of tributaries (see Shropshire). Still continuing its southerly course through Worcestershire it passes Stourport, where it receives the Stour (left), and Worcester, shortly after which it receives the Teme (right). It enters Gloucestershire at Tewkesbury, where it receives the Avon (left), after which, bending in a south-westerly direction, it passes the town of Gloucester, 18 miles below which the estuary widens out into the Bristol Channel, at the point where it receives from the left the Lower Avon or Bristol river, and from the right the Wye....
From Newtown its fall is 465 feet, the average fall per mile being about 2 feet 3 inches, but from Ironbridge to Gloucester, a distance of about 70 miles, the fall is only about 103 feet. Between Stourport and Gloucester the breadth is 150 feet, but below that town the breadth rapidly increases and the banks become bolder and more picturesque. Owing to the gradual decrease in the width and depth of the Bristol Channel the tide enters with great force, forming a tidal wave or bore about 9 feet in height, which at certain times causes great destruction, among the more serious inundations being those of 1606, 1687, 1703, and 1883. The total area drained by the Severn is about 4500 square miles. Its navigation extends to about 150 miles above its mouth; barges can ascend as far as Stourport, and large vessels to Gloucester. Owing to the difficulties of the navigation the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal, 18 miles in length, was constructed, admitting vessels of 350 tons to Gloucester, the river only admitting vessels of 150 tons. The only other important port is Bristol, but there are a few smaller ports and fishing towns, while by means of canals the Severn has connexion with some of the principal towns of England. With the Thames it is connected by the Stroudwater and Thames and Severn Canals; by various canals it has communication with the Trent and the rivers of the north; and the Hereford and Gloucester Canal connects those two cities. The Severn is a good salmon river, and is specially famous for its lampreys.
SEVERN, Joseph (1793-1879), portrait and subject painter, was born in 1793. During his earlier years he practised portraiture as a miniaturist; and, having studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, he exhibited his first work in oil, Hermia and Helena, a subject from the Midsummer Night’s Dream, in the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1819. In 1820 he gained the gold medal and a three years’ travelling studentship for his Una and the Red Cross Knight in the Cave of Despair, a painting now in the possession of the representatives of the late Lord Houghton. He accompanied his friend Keats the poet to Italy, and nursed him till his death in 1821. In 1861 he was appointed British consul at Rome, a post which he held till 1872, and during a great part of the time he also acted as Italian consul. His most remarkable work is the Spectre Ship from the Ancient Mariner. He painted Cordelia Watching by the Bed of Lear, the Roman Beggar, Ariel, the Fountain, and Rienzi, executed a large altarpiece for the church of St Paul at Rome, and produced many portraits, including one of Baron Bunsen and several of Keats. He died at Rome August 3, 1879.
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