For some fourteen miles below Worcester the Severn flows through its wide and pleasant valley without passing near any place of special interest, unless it be Kemsey, with its fine church standing within the enclosure of a Roman camp, or Upton, which makes much vinegar and enjoys, besides, considerable traffic up and down the river; for its bridge, in place of a central arch, has a platform which can be raised to let vessels pass. But the foreground scenery, fertile and wooded, is often very pretty: the scarp bounding the limestone uplands of the Cotswolds is pleasant to see, and the range of the Malverns is always beautiful. Passing thus through a fertile land, we come to Tewkesbury, with its abbey church, less magnificent but hardly less interesting than the Cathedral of Worcester, and its black-timbered houses not far behind those of Shrewsbury. But as this town belongs to the Avon even more than to the Severn, it shall be described in connection with the former river. [Illustration: THE SEVERN AT TEWKESBURY.] [Illustration: _Photo: E. H. Speight, Rugby._ THE AVON NEAR RUGBY (_p. 108_).] THE SEVERN. CHAPTER II. THE UPPER OR WARWICKSHIRE AVON. The Watershed of Central England--Naseby--Rugby--The Swift--Lutterworth and Wiclif--Stoneleigh Abbey and Kenilworth Castle--Guy's Cliff--The Leam--Warwick and its Castle--Stratford-on-Avon and its Shakespeare Associations--Evesham--Pershore--Tewkesbury. The Avon is a typical river of the English lowlands, and it is surpassed by few in the quiet beauty of its scenery or in the places of interest on its banks. It rises in the northern part of Northamptonshire, on an elevated plateau, the highest spot on which is nearly 700 feet above sea-level. This forms the watershed of Central England, for on it also the Welland and the Nen begin their courses to the Wash. But it is not only the source of an historic stream, it is also the scene of an historic event. Almost on the highest ground is Naseby Church, and to the north of that, quite in the corner of the county, is the fatal "field" where the forces of Charles and of Cromwell met in a death-grip and the King's cause was hopelessly lost. It was more than a defeat, it was an utter rout. Henceforth Charles was "like a hunted partridge, flitting from one castle to another."