The Trent is a major river in England. It rises in Staffordshire, in the west Midlands, then curves north and east past Stoke, Nottingham and Gainsborough, and joins the Ouse to form the Humber, which runs out into the North Sea. At about 300 kilometres it is one of the longest rivers in the country. Two things make the name worth knowing. First, English people use it as a rough dividing line for the country: 'north of the Trent' and 'south of the Trent' is a common informal way of splitting England into north and south, a bit like how people here talk about 濁水溪. Second, the name turns up attached to many other things — Trent Bridge, a famous cricket ground in Nottingham; Stoke-on-Trent, a city named after sitting on this river; Nottingham Trent University. Note that it takes 'the': 'the River Trent', 'we crossed the Trent'. Separately, Trent is also a man's first name, mostly American, and Trento in northern Italy is called Trent in older English writing — that is where the Council of Trent, an important sixteenth-century church meeting, gets its name.