Hath nobly held; our severed navy too Have knit again, and float. Id. Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra. This axiom is of large extent, and would be severed and refined by trial. Bacon. There was a nobleman that was lean of visage, but immediately after his marriage he grew pretty plump and fat. One said to him, Your lordship doth contrary to other married men; for they at first wax lean, and you wax fat. Sir Walter Raleigh stood by and said, There is no beast, that if you take him from the common, and put him into the several, but will wax fat. Id. The jointure or advancement of the lady was the third part of the principality of Wales, the dukedom of Cornwall, and the earldom of Chester, to be set forth in severalty. Id. The conquest of Ireland was made piece and piece, by several attempts, in several ages. Davies's History of Ireland. Having considered the apertions in severalty, according to their particular requisites, I am now come to the casting and contexture of the whole work. Wotton. Those rivers inclose a neck of land, in regard of its fruitfulness not unworthy of a severance. Carew's Survey of Cornwall. This country is large. having in it many poople, and several kingdoms. Abbot's Description of the World. That will appear to be a methodical successive observation of these severals, as degrees and steps preparative the one to the other. Hammond's Fundamentals. I could not keep my eye steady on them serally, Each might his sev'ral province well command, Would all but stoop to what they understand. Pope. SEVER (St.), a considerable town of France, the chief place of an arrondissement in the department of the Landes. It is not a seaport, but stands on the Adour, has 9000 inhabitants, and carries on a considerable trade in wine and brandy. Twenty-four miles east of Dax, and seventy-three south by east of Bourdeaux. Also a small town of France, in Normandy, department of Calvados, near the forest of St. Sever. Population 1500. Six miles west of Vire, and thirty-one south-west of Caen. SEVERANCE, in law, is the singling or severing two or more that join or are joined in the same writ or action. As if two join in a writ, de libertate probanda, and the one be afterwards nonsuited; here severance is permitted, so as, notwithstanding the nonsuit of the one, the other of the tenants in assize, when one, two, or more may severally proceed. There is also severance disseisees appear upon the writ, and not the other. And severance in debt, where two executors are named plaintiffs, and the one refuses to prosecute. We also meet with severance of summons, severance in attaints, &c. An estate in joint-tenancy may be severed and destroyed by destroying any of its unities. 1. That of time, which respects only the original commencement of the joint estate, cannot indeed, being now part, be affected by any subsequent transaction." But, 2. The joint tenants' estate may be destroyed without any alienation, by merely disuniting their possession. 3. The jointure may be destroyed, by destroying the unity of title. And, 4. By destroying the unity of interest. SEVERE', adj. Fr. severe; Lat. severus. SEVERELY, adv. Sharp; rigorous: hard; riSEVERʼITY, n. s. gid; not lax: hence censorious: austere; grave; sober; sedate: the adverb and noun substantive corresponding. I laugh to see your ladyship so fond, To think that you have aught but Talbot's shadow Whereon to practise your severity. Shakspeare. Never were so great rebellions expiated with so little blood; as for the severity used upon those taken in Kent, it was but upon a scum of people. Bacon. Let your zeal, if it must be expressed in anger, be always more severe against thyself than against others. Taylor. Soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve: What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe? Milton. Truth, wisdom, sanctitude, severe and pure, Severe, but in true filial freedom placed. Id. Id. These piercing fires are soft, as now severe. Though nature hath given insects sagacity to avoid the winter cold, yet its severity finds them out. Hale's Origin of Mankind. Your looks must alter, as your subject does, From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe. Walier. Their beauty I leave it rather to the delicate wit of poets, than venture upon so nice a subject with my severer style. More. What made the church of Alexandria be so severe SEVERINA (St.), a considerable town in the south part of Naples, in Calabria Ultra, situated on a rocky eminence near the Neto. It is the see of an archbishop, and contains 6000 inhabitants. Eighteen miles south of Cosenza, and ninety-three north-east of Reggio. SEVERN, a river of England and Wales, which rises in the mountain of Plynlimmon, in Montgomery and Cardiganshires, and flows, first, across the south side of Montgomeryshire, then, turning northward, enters Salop, above the Brythen Hills, at its confluence with the Wirnew. In its course it flows by Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Worcester, Tewksbury, and Gloucester, and, entering the sea, its mouth, at its confluence with the Avon, ten miles below Bristol, is called the Bristol Channel. This river, by means of its numerous canals, extends its navigation to all the principal trading districts of the kingdom, being united with the Thames on the east, and with the Trent, Mersey, and Humber, on the north. SEVERUS (Alexander), an excellent Roman emperor. See ALEXANDER SEVERUS, and ROME. SEVERUS (Lucius Cornelius), an ancient Latin poet of the Augustan age; whose Etna, together with a fragment De morte Ciceronis, were published, with notes and a prose interpretation, by Le Clerc, 12mo., Amsterdam, 1703. They were before inserted among the Catalecta Virgilii published by Scaliger; whose notes, with others, Le Clerc has received among his own. SEVERUS I. (Lucius Septimius), a Roman emperor, who has been so much admired for his military talents that some have called him the most warlike of the Roman emperors. As a monarch he was cruel; and it has been observed that he never performed an act of humanity, or forgave a fault. In his diet he was temperate; and he always showed himself an open enemy VOL. XX. to pomp and splendor. He loved the appellatior. of a man of letters, and he even composed a History of his own reign, which some have praised for its correctness and veracity. However cruel Severus may appear in his punishments and in his revenge, many have endeavoured to exculpate him, and observed that there was need of severity in an empire where the morals were so corrupted, and where no fewer than 3000 persons were accused of adultery during the space of seventeen years. Of him, as of Augustus, some say that it would have been better for the world he had never been born, or had never died. See ROME. SEVERUS II. (Flavius Valerius), a short-lived emperor, who was raised to the purple by Galerius; but, being deserted by his soldiers when ready to engage Maxentius, he killed himself, A. D. 307. See ROME. SEVERUS III., called also Olybius, another short-lived emperor, who was saluted Augustus at Ocavenna, on the death of Majorianus and Anthemius; and his election was approved by the senate; but he was soon after poisoned, A. D. 461. See ROME. SEVERUS, in church history, a sectary of the second century, a follower of Tatian, and chief of the sect of the Severians. He flourished about A. D. 178. SEVERUS (Sulpicius), a historian who flourished in the beginning of the fifth century, and by his writing acquired the title of the Christian Sallust. He was born at Aquitain, entered into orders, and built a church at Primuliacum. His principal work is Sacred History, which reaches from the Creation to A. D. 400. SEVERUS'S WALL, in British topography, the fourth and last barrier erected by the Romans against the incursions of the North Britons. See ADRIAN and ANTONINUS'S WALLS. We learn from the Roman historians that the country between the walls of Adrian and Antoninus continued to be a scene of perpetual war and subject of contention between the Romans and Britons, from the beginning of the reign of Commodus to the arrival of the emperor Septimius Severus in Britain, A.D. 206. This last emperor, having subdued the Mæatæ and repulsed the Caledonians, determined to erect a stronger and more impenetrable barrier than any of the former against their future incursions. Though neither Dio nor Herodian makes any mention of a wall built by Severus in Britain for the protection of the Roman province, yet we have abundant evidence from other writers of equal authority that he really built such a wall. He fortified Britain,' says Spartian, with a wall drawn cross the island from sea to sea; which is the greatest glory of his reign. After the wall was finished, he retired to the next station, York, not only a conqueror, but the founder of an eternal peace.' To the same purpose Aurelius Victor and Orosius, to say nothing of Eutropius and Cassiodorus: Having repelled the enemy in Britain, he fortified the country, which was suited to that purpose, with a wall drawn cross the island from sea to sea.''Severus drew a great ditch, and built a strong wall, fortified with several turrets, from sea to sea, to protect that part of the island I which he had recovered from the yet unconquered nations.' As the residence of the emperor Severus in Britain was not quite four years, it is probable that the two last of them were employed in building this wall; according to which account, it was begun A. D. 209, and finished A. D. 210. This wall of Severus was built nearly on the same tract with Adrian's rampart, at the distance only of a few paces north. The length of this wall, from Cousin's House, near the mouth of the Tyne on the east, to Boulness on the Solway Frith on the west, hath been found, from two actual mensurations, to be a little more than sixty-eight English miles, and a little less than seventy-four Roman miles. To the north of the wall was a broad and deep ditch, the original dimensions of which cannot now be ascertained, only it seems to have been larger than that of Adrian. The wall itself, which stood on the south brink of the ditch, was built of free-stone; and, where the foundation was not good, it is built on piles of oak: the interstice between the two faces of this wall is filled with broad thin stones, placed not perpendicularly, but obliquely, on their edges; the running mortar or cement was then poured upon them, which, by its great strength and tenacity, bound the whole together, and made it firm as a rock. But, though these materials are sufficiently known, it is not easy to guess where they were procured; for many parts of the wall are at a great distance from any quarry of free-stone, and, though stone of another kind was within reach, yet it does not appear to have been any where used. The height of this wall was twelve feet besides the parapet, and its breadth eight feet, according to Bede, who lived only at a small distance from the east end of it, and in whose time it was almost quite entire in many places. Such was the wall erected by the command and under the direction of the emperor Severus in the north of England; and considering the length, breadth, height, and solidity, it was certainly a work of great magnificence, and prodigious labor. But the wall itself was but a part, and not the most extraordinary part, of this work. The great number and different kinds of fortresses which were built along the line of it for its defence, and the military ways with which it was attended, are still more worthy of our admiration, and come now to be described. The fortresses which were erected along the line of Severus's wall for its defence were of three different kinds, and three different degrees of strength; and were called by three different Latin words, which may be translated stations, castles, and turrets. Of each of these in their order. The stationes, stations, were so called from their stability and the stated residence of garrisons. They were also called castra, which has been converted into chesters, a name which many of them still bear. These were by far the largest, strongest, and most magnificent of the fortresses which were built upon the wall, and were designed for the head-quarters of the cohorts of troops which were placed there in garrison, and thence detachments were sent into the adjoining castles and turrets. These stations, as appears from the vestiges of them which are still visible, were not all exactly of the same figure nor of the same dimensions; some of them being exactly squares, and others oblong, and some of them a little larger than others. These variations were no doubt occasioned by the difference of situation and other circumstances. The stations were fortified with deep ditches and strong walls: the wall itself coinciding with and forming the north wall of each station. Within the stations were lodgings for the officers and soldiers in garrison; the smallest of them being sufficient to contain a cohort, or 600 men. Without the walls of each station was a town, inhabited by laborers, artificers, and others, both Romans and Britons, who chose to dwell under the protection of these fortresses. The number of the stations upon the wall was exactly eighteen; and, if they had been placed at equal distances, the interval between every two of them would have been four miles and a few paces: but the intervention of rivers, marshes, and mountains; the conveniency of situations for strength, prospect, and water; and many other circumstances to us unknown, determined them to place these stations at unequal distances. The situation which was always chosen by the Romans, both here and every where else in Britain where they could obtain it, was the gentle declivity of a hill, near a river, and facing the meridian sun. Such was the situation of the far greatest part of the stations on this wall. In general the stations stood thickest near the two ends and in the middle, probably because the danger of invasion was greatest in these places. But the reader will form a clearer idea of the number of these stations, their Latin and English names, their situation and distance from one another, by inspecting the following table, than we can give him with equal brevity in any other way. The first column contains the number of the station, reckoning from east to west; the second contains its Latin, and the third its English name; and the last three its distance from the next station to the west of it, in miles, furlongs, and chains. The castella, or castles, were the second kind of fortifications, which were built along the side of this wall for its defence. These castles were neither so large nor strong as the stations, but much more numerous, being no fewer than eighty-one. The shape and dimensions of the castles, as appears from the foundations of many of them which are still visible, were exact squares of sixty-six feet every way. They were fortified on every side with thick and lofty walls, but without any ditch, except on the north side; on which the wall itself, raised much above its usual height, with the ditch attending it, formed the fortification. The castles were situated in the intervals between the stations, at the distance of about seven furlongs from each other; though particular circumstances sometimes occasioned a little variation. In these castles guards were constantly kept by a competent number of men detached from the nearest stations. The turres, or turrets, were the third and last kind of fortifications on the wall. These were still much smaller than the castles, and formed only a square of about twelve feet, standing out of the wall on its south side. Being so small they are more entirely ruined than the stations and castles, which makes it difficult to discover their exact number. They stood in the intervals between the castles; and from the faint vestiges of a few of them it is conjectured that there were four of them between every two castles, at the distance of about 300 yards from one another. According to this conjecture the number of the turrets amounted to 324. They were designed for watch-towers and places for sentinels, who, being within hearing of one another, could convey an alarm or piece of intelligence to all parts of the wall in a very short time. In these stations, castles, and turrets, a very considerable body of troops was constantly quartered for its defence. The usual complement allowed for this service was as follows: 1. Twelve cohorts of foot, consisting of 600 men each 7,200 600 600 1,600 10,000 For the conveniency of marching these troops from one part of the wall to another, with the greater ease and expedition, on any service, it was attended with two military ways, paved with square stones in the most solid and beautiful manner. One of these ways was smaller, and the other larger The smaller military way ran close along the south side of the wall, from turret to turret, and castle to castle. The larger way did not keep so near the wall, nor touch at the turrets or castles, but pursued the most direct course, and was designed for marching larger bodies of troops. There have been discovered, in or near the ruins of this wall, a great number of small square stones, with very short and gene rally imperfect inscriptions upon them; men. tioning particular legions, cohorts, and centuries. Of these the reader may see no fewer than twenty-nine among the Northumberland and Cumberland inscriptions in Mr. Horsley's Britannia Romana. It is highly probable that they have been originally placed in the face of the wall. From the uniformity of these inscriptions they were all intended to intimate that the adjacent wall was built by the troops mentioned in them. This great work was executed by the second and sixth legions, these being the only legions mentioned in these inscriptions. Now if this prodigious wall, with all its appendages of ditches, stations, castles, turrets, and military ways, was executed in the space of two years by two legions only, which, when most complete, made no more than 1200 men, how greatly must we admire the skill, the industry, and discipline of the Roman soldiers, who were not only the valiant guardians of the empire in times of war, but its most active and useful members in times of peace! This wall of Severus, and its fortresses, proved an impenetrable barrier to the Roman territories for nearly 200 years. But about the beginning of the fifth century, the Roman empire being assaulted on all sides and the bulk of their forces withdrawn from Britain, the Mæate and Caledonians, now called Scots and Picts, became more daring; and some of them breaking through the wall, and others sailing round the ends of it, they carried their ravages into the very heart of Provincial Britain. These invaders were indeed several times repulsed after this by the Roman legions sent to the relief of the Britons. The last of these legions, under Gallio of Ravenna, having, with the assistance of the Britons, thoroughly repaired the breaches of Severus's wall and its fortresses, and exhorted the Britons to make a brave defence, took their final farewell of Britain. It soon appeared that the strongest walls and ramparts are no security to an undisciplined rabble, as the unhappy Britons then were. The Scots and Picts met with little resistance in breaking through the wall, while the towns and castles were tamely abandoned to their destructive rage. In many places they levelled it with the ground, that it might prove no obstruction to their future inroads. From this time no attempts were ever made to repair this noble work. Its beauty and grandeur procured it no respect in the dark and tasteless ages which succeeded. It became the common quarry for more than 1000 years, out of which all the towns and villages around were built; and it is now so entirely ruined that the penetrating eyes of the most poring and patient antiquarian can hardly trace its vanishing foundation. SEVIGNE' (Mary de Rabutin, marchioness of), a French lady, born in 1626. When only a year old she lost her father, who was killed in the descent of the English on the isle of Rhé, where he commanded a company of volunteers. In 1644 she married the marquis of Sevigné, who was slain in a duel by the chevalier d'Albert in 1651. She had by him a son and a daughter, to the education of whom she afterwards devoted her whole attention. Her daughter was married in 1669 to the count of Grignan, who conducted her to Provence. Madame de Sevigné consoled herself by writing frequent letters to her daughter. She fell at last the victim to her maternal tenderness. In one of her visits to Grignan she fatigued herself so much during the sickness of her daughter that she was seized with a fever, which carried her off on the 14th of January 1696. The Compte de Bussi describes her as a lively gay coquette, a lover of flattery, fond of titles, honors, and distinction: M. de la Fayette as a woman of wit and good sense, as possessed of a noble soul, formed for dispensing benefits, incapable of debasing herself by avarice, and blessed with a generous, obliging, and faithful heart. Both these portraits are in some measure just. That she was vain-glorious appears from her own letters, which also exhibit undoubted proofs of her virtue and goodness of heart. She was acquainted with all the wits of her age. She decided the famous dispute between Perrault and Boileau concerning the preference of the ancients to the moderns, thus, The ancients are the finest, and we are the prettiest.' She left behind her a most valuable collection of letters, the best edition of which is that of 1775, in 8 vols. 12mo. These letters,' says Voltaire, are filled with anecdotes, written with freedom, and in a natural and animated style; are an excellent criticism upon studied letters of wit, and still more upon those fictitious letters which aim at the epistolary style, by a recital of false sentiments and feigned adventures to an imaginary correspondent.' What makes them in general so interesting is that they are in part historical. They are a record of the manners, the ton, the genius, the fashions, the etiquette, which reigned in the court of Louis XIV. They contain many curious anecdotes no where else to be found. A volume entitled Sevigniana was published at Paris in 1756, which is a collection of the fine sentiments, literary and historical anecdotes, and moral apophthegms, scattered throughout these letters. SEVILLE, a beautiful province of Spain, forming the western half of Andalusia, and still retaining the title of kingdom. Its form, though irregular, is compact, containing an area of 9500 square miles. The ecclesiastical division is into two dioceses; the civil into ten districts. The chief towns are: by cool breezes from the sea or from the mountains: the solano or hot African wind, though not so prevalent as in other provinces, is at times scorching, and blights the crop on the ground in a few hours. The chief hazards to the labors of the husbandman arise from drought. The winter may be compared to a mild spring in the south of England. The basis of most of the mountains is limestone or marble; and mines of gold and silver are said to have been formerly wrought. The seil differs greatly according to situation, being in some places very stony and unproductive, in others a fine black mould. Agriculture is extremely backward. The pasturage is good in those situations where either the frequency of rain, the height of the fields, or the use of irrigation, protects it from intense heas: the climate is very favorable to vines, and the environs of Xeres produce the well known sherry wine; those of Rota, tent wine (vino tinto); of St. Lucar, the mancinillo. Large tracts in the southern districts are covered with oranges, lemons, citrons, and limes; but other tracts of equal extent are almost desolate; and this in a great measure from the old provincial laws and usages confining the culture of oil and wine to certain families. The price of oxen is generally moderate, but the town dues on butcher's meat at Seville make it cost as much as in London. The chief export is bay salt, prepared and shipped from Cadiz. The silk manufacture of the province is chiefly conducted in the capital: in other parts there are also manufactures on a small scale of coarse woollen, linen, leather, soap, pottery, and hats, all for home consumption. The export trade is carried on at Cadiz, and consists chiefly in the article of wine sent to England, and of miscellaneous articles to America. The chief sea-port in the south is Algesiras. To the bad government, and the other drawbacks of Spain in general, this province has to add causes of peculiar suffering; the disturbances since 1810 in the colonies with which its trade is carried on; and the repeated occurrence of pestilential disease in Cadiz and the neighbourhood. The SEVILLE, a large city of Spain, in Andalusia, the capital of the province of this name, stands in a fine plain on the left bank of the Guadalquivir, surrounded by an old wall of considerable height, having twelve gates, and 166 turrets. Its circuit is between five and six miles. population is commonly stated at 100,000. The streets are in the Moorish style, being often so narrow that a person can touch the houses on either side by extending his arms. This mode of building was said to be adopted for the sake of coolness, and to prevent the rays of the sun from penetrating. The streets are in general badly paved; but most of them have a fountain in the centre: as the water however is seldom cool, the inhabitants are largely supplied from stalls, in different parts of the town, for the sale of filtered water. There are here several beautiful public walks; one in particular on the bank of the Guadalquivir. The suburbs are tolerably built. |