Lavant

Lavants, are land springs, which break out much, on the downs of Sussex, Hants, and Wilts. The country people say, that when the Lavants rise, corn will be dear; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send[…]

In this part of Hampshire a bourn is called a lavant, and after long internals when a lavant rises at Hambledon, some of the springs rise from, or quite close to[,] the churchyard itself.

About five miles south of Petersfield, in a valley among the chalk hills, is the village of Charlton. No permanent stream flows through this vallet, but eastward of the village a remarkable "lavant" occurs. This lavant is a flow of water from springs in the chalk of an uncertain and intermittent nature, which occur in the winter or early spring, depending on the time and degree of the winter rainfall and the consequent saturation of the chalk. The lavant springs occur at varying elevations, depending on the nature of the seasons; the higher the lavant, the greater is the flow of water, […]

[…] an intermittant stream (locally known as a "lavant," but in many parts called a "bourne") appears in the valley bottom […]

The cold wet weather continued unabated during February and the underground springs ('lavants') began to break out of the chalk hills ominously early.

How it did rain! It ran down the street in a lavant.