Avon

Avon, a Keltic word meaning river, and probably allied to Aa, which has attached itself to many streams in England, Scotland, Wales, and on the Continent.

1. Shakespeare's Avon rises in Northamptonshire near Naseby, traverses Warwickshire, having Rugby, Warwick, with its castle, and Stratford on its banks, touches Worcestershire, and entering Gloucestershire joins the Severn, after a course of 100 miles, at Tewkesbury. 2. A river that rises in Wiltshire, and passing Stonehenge and Salisbury, skirts Ringwood Forest in Hants, and falls into the Channel near Christchurch. 3. The Bristol Avon rises also in Wiltshire, flowing N. past Bath and Bristol and falls into the Bristol Channel, being navigable up to the city. 4. Another Avon flows down from the mountains of Glamorgan and enters the Bristol Channel at Aberavon. In Scotland there are three Avons: one in Banff, a tributary of the Spey; a second in Lanark, that joins the Clyde near Hamilton, and a third falling into the Firth of Forth, W. of Borrowstounness. In France two Avons are in the Loire Basin, and two others are tributaries of the Seine.