River Otter, Devon predominantly rural area, with small cattle, sheep and dairy farms. The largest town in the Otter Valley is Honiton. Tourism and leisure play important roles in the economy. For much of its length, the river flows through two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) – The Blackdown Hills AONB (to the north of Honiton) and East Devon AONB (to the south of Ottery St Mary). The river passes through or by Upottery, Rawridge, Monkton, Honiton, Alfington, Ottery St Mary, Tipton St John, Newton Poppleford and Otterton before reaching the Otter Estuary to the east of Budleigh Salterton. The Otter Estuary
To the River Otter of 18th-century poems dealing with rivers, including many poems within Egerton Brydges's "Sonnets and Other Poems", Charlotte Smith's "Elegiac Sonnets", and Thomas Warton's "To the River Lodon". These, in turn, establish the tradition that William Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" would later join. The opening of "Tintern Abbey" is related to how Coleridge opens "To the River Otter" and how Warton opens "To the River Lodon". According to William Wimsatt, nature is connected to humanity, and the poem relies on the river to talk about childhood. However, Hendrik Rookmaaker points out that there is little evidence to read the poem in such