Severn , then , was originally the name of one of the tributaries of the Vernwy , and as in so many other instances , the tributary gave its name to the main stream .sx Cf .sx the Thames and the Thame ; and the Mississippi ( the tributary ) ousting the name Missouri , the larger river , and giving its name to the united waters of the two streams .sx This , then , is what I believe , on the evidence given above , to be the origin and progression of the name Severn .sx Originally it was one of the many Wy rivers .sx I fear Matt .sx Paris' pretty story of the jealous queen and the pretty prisoner ( based on Geoffrey of Monmouth ) has to be given up as legend in this connexion .sx USK , GAVENNY , MONNOW .sx The Roman Isca , now called Usk , represents a Welsh Is-gwy , the Lesser or Lower Wy .sx The larger Wye is , of course , well known , rising in Plynlimon and running past Hay , Hereford , Ross , Monmouth , Tintern , and Chepstow , till it flows into the Severn .sx Both the Usk and the Wye have Wy tributaries .sx That of the Usk is the Venny or Gavenny the name Aber-gavenny representing the confluence of the Venny with the Usk .sx The Romans called the Gavenny Gobannium ( Anton .sx ) and Bannio ( ) .sx Bannio is another form of Venny , which seems a contraction of Afon-wy .sx Go in Gobannium is a diminutive .sx The Wye has the tributary Monnow , whose Welsh orthography is the same as that of the town of Monmouth .sx Canon Bannister gives the name of the Monnow , in A.D. 1130 , as Mingui , Mynwy , and Monnwy ( Liber Landavensis) .sx In modern Welsh , he says , it is Mynwy .sx In my opinion this is an instance of a town getting its name from the larger river , and then giving its own name to the tributary at whose confluence it is situated .sx Minwy , the town , is so named from Min = Beside , and Wy = the river Wye .sx It is not usual to describe a tributary as being beside the larger river , but a town on its banks may be described as being beside it .sx So it was the town that was first called Minwy , and the smaller of the two streams that flow past it and join just below it , borrows its name from the town it skirts .sx We have already seen that a town can give its name to a stream , and a stream to a town .sx Monmouth , in its Welsh dress , is an instance of both .sx EXE , AXE .sx The Devonshire Isca ( Ray .sx ) or Isaca ( Ptol .sx ) , the Exe , is another Is-gwy , a Lower or Lesser Wy .sx Here , I think , it is Lower that was meant in early times .sx For there was almost certainly an Upper Wy , with which it was contrasted , and this was the river Parrett .sx Parrett has been said to be a form of the Welsh pared , a partition , and that it was the name which the Welsh people of Somerset and Devon gave to that river because it was at one time the dividing line between themselves and the Saxons .sx But it must have had a different name before the Saxons reached as far , when the river was not as yet a partition between the two peoples .sx I think this earlier name is preserved for us in the Roman name Uxella .sx Although the letter x is no longer used in modern Welsh , it was used in old Welsh orthography , and always stood for ch ; so that Uxela , in modern Welsh orthography , would be written Uchela , i.e. from the Welsh word uchel = high , or upper , and a = a shortened form of wy ; the whole Uchel-a meaning the Upper Wy .sx A stood for o and y in old Welsh orthography , as well as for its own sound .sx The Axe has been associated with the Exe and the Usk as having the same or a similar origin .sx But I believe the river Axe is not a Wy river , at least the Devonshire and Dorset Axe .sx The x in Axe again represents the Welsh ch , and the name was most likely at first pronounced Ach , and the ch , of course , pronounced in the Welsh fashion , or like the Scotch ch in loch .sx John Leland , the librarian of Henry VIII , who was given the power to search for records , manuscripts , and documents of antiquity in all the religious houses of England , has given us the forms Acle-minstre , Aclen-minster , and Aclensimonasterio , for Axminster .sx Henry of Huntingdon also gives us a form Acle , where a council meeting was once held .sx These forms help to explain the Roman name for the Axe Alaunus .sx The first letter A would represent the Ac or Ach ( which they reduced to A , possibly not being able to pronounce the Ach ) , and the -launus would be an adjectival development of the second syllable of Acle , i.e. le = a place , so that Ac-le would mean " the place of the stream , or on the stream ; or the Stream-place " .sx THE THAMES .sx The Roman Tamesa ( Tacitus ) , or Tamisa , or Tamesis ( Caesar ) represents the Welsh Tafwys ( Thames ) , which , I believe , is a shortened form of Taf-wy-is .sx Taf has been supposed to mean either silent , or spreading , expanding :sx Wy is water or river ; is is lower .sx Taf-wy-is is the lower Taf-wy .sx The upper Taf-wy , was , in all probability , the Thame , a tributary of the Thames , flowing into it on the north side at Dorchester , below Oxford .sx There is another instance of the larger river borrowing its name from the smaller stream .sx The letter f in Taf changes to m under Roman treatment ; so Taf-wy became Tam-wy , and Taf-wy-is became Tam-wy-is , and ultimately Tamesa and Tamesis of the Romans .sx The wy-is is found in the name of the island in the Thames , near Oxford , called Ous-ney , or Os-ney .sx Isis looks like a combination of the Celtic and Roman terminations .sx But Canon Bannister ( Place-Names of Herefordshire ) , under the name " Wye " , says that like the Latin form Vaga for Wye , so " the Oxford Isis is the invention of sixteenth century scholars " , and so it is neither Celtic nor Roman .sx The Thames in its Welsh form , however , introduces us to the form of another river name , and points to the origin of the word .sx OUSE .sx If wy-is means the lower or lesser wy , or water , or river , and if it is the origin of the name Ouse , then the rivers bearing that name ought to comply in some measure with the definition of wy-is , a lower or lesser river or water .sx The Romans do not seem to have mentioned the word Ouse , unless it was in the form Abus , the lower and wider part of the Yorkshire Ouse , now called the Humber .sx But we have it in many different forms in our early chronicles .sx The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ( Ingram's edition ) has Usa and Wusa Richard of Cirencester has Usa and Usca , which reminds us of Is-ca , i.e. Is-gwy .sx Matthew Paris has Usa ( Bedford ) and Uasa ( Yorks .sx ) ; Henry of Huntingdon has Usa ; Higden has Use and Ouse ; and William of Malmesbury gives us Husse .sx Here we have instances of the adjective before the noun , like Is-ca , and also after the noun as in Wy-is .sx Yorkshire Ouse .sx - There are two head-streams to the YorkshireOuse named Ure and Swale , and the name Ouse applies only to the lower waters after these head-streams have joined together below Aldburgh ( Is-uria) .sx Possibly it was at one time the name of the river all the way from Aldburgh to the sea before the estuary was called the Humber , for the Romans called that estuary Abus .sx Ab may be only a contraction of Abon , Avon .sx Ab-us = Avon + wy + is = " the stream of the lower water " .sx Warwickshire Ouse .sx There is an Ouse Brook to the west of Shottery and Stratford-on-Avon , which is formed from the junction of two head-streams called Binton Brook and Drayton Brook , near Binton , and applies only to the lower combined waters of these two streams , until their waters reach the Avon .sx Hampshire .sx Christchurch is said to have been called in olden times Twe-Oxena , which I should say was an Ouse form .sx It certainly was and is at the lower ends of both the Stour and Avon rivers .sx Christchurch Harbour is a very extensive water , into which the two rivers empty themselves , and it is quite 2 miles from their confluence before the sea is reached .sx This water may very well have been an Ouse , or lower water of the Stour and Avon .sx The Sussex Ouse was a lower wy or water in a somewhat different sense from those given above .sx It is the lowest of three Wy rivers , viz .sx the Wey , that runs into the Thames near Weybridge , the Medway , or Middle-Wy , which also runs into the Thames , nearer its mouth ; the Ouse itself being the third and lowest wy .sx Lewis , in his Topographical Dictionary , says that the town of Lewes , which is on the Sussex Ouse , is supposed to be a combination of Leaw and Ese , that is Leaw = an arm , and Isc or Isca = water ; Lewes , therefore , means " the arm in the water " .sx He does not tell us where he gets his Isca from ; but he , in this way , links the Ouse with the Roman name for Lower Wy .sx The Rev. John T. White , in his English-Latin Dictionary , gives Lesua as the Latin equivalent of Lewes , which last may very well be resolved into Le-wy-is , and Lesua might be taken as a version of Le-is-wy , both meaning " The Place on the Lower Wy " .sx The Ravenna Geographer gives two forms , Mantuantonis and Mutuantonis , which Dr. William Smith , in his Ancient Atlas .sx ( 1875 ) , identifies with the site of the modern Lewes .sx The Ouse divides a mile or so above the town of Lewes , and again unites before reaching it .sx Mantuantonis seems like the Welsh Man+ dwy+anton or avon = " the place or spot of two streams " .sx Two or three miles south of Lewes is a place called South Ease , which looks like a form of Ouse .sx The Little Ouse .sx Camden says :sx " The Little Ouse or Brandon is formed from two head-streams , the one in Norfolk , the other in Suffolk , and flows into the Great Ouse at Brandon Bridge .sx " One might infer that , in this as in other instances , the joint waters of these two head-streams may have given rise to the name Ouse .sx But the Little Ouse and Great Ouse have a history attached to them , which tends to nullify such a conclusion .sx Mr. R. E. Zachrisson , in his English Place-Names and River-Names containing the Primitive Germanic Roots Vis , Visk ( 1926 ) , p. 14 , says :sx " The rivers Wissey and Little Ouse are generally looked upon as affluents of the Great Ouse , but are in point of fact the two main branches by which the lower course of the Ouse is formed .sx The first reference Mr. Schram has found to the Little Ouse is in Holinshead , who calls it the Dune .sx " Then he again says , pp .sx 18-19 :sx " The ancient outfall of the Great Ouse was not at Lynn , but at Wisbeach , which in Anglo-Saxon was called Aet Wisanbece , i.e. the homestead on the river Wise or Ouse .sx " From this we learn that down to the sixteenth century and perhaps later , the name of the Little Ouse was Dune , according to Holinshead , and perhaps Brandon , if Camden is right ; that it joined the Wissey and formed a lower river called Ouse , which was not the present Great Ouse .sx They did not flow into the Great Ouse as they do now , because its course was different from its present one .sx When the course of the Great Ouse was altered , it was made to flow into the " Little Ouse " or Dune .sx It is , therefore , highly probable that the Dune was not called " Little Ouse " until the larger river was made to join it , and first of all assumed the name Ouse ( which was already the name of the joint Dune and Wissey ) and later the " Great Ouse " .sx I do not think that the name " Little Ouse " could have arisen before the " Great Ouse " appeared , and that it arose by way of contrast to the river that was called " Great " .sx