Place Names and Customs
Devon's place names include many with the endings "coombe/combe" and "tor" – both 'coombe' ("valley" or hollow cf. Welsh cwm) valley or hollow and 'tor' (Old Welsh twrr and Scots Gaelic tòrr from Latin turris ; 'tower') used for granite formations, particularly found on Dartmoor, are rare Celtic loan-words in English and their frequency is greatest in Devon, where they are very common place name components. Ruined medieval settlements of Dartmoor longhouses indicate that dispersed rural settlement (OE tun, now often -ton) was very similar to that found in Cornish 'tre-' settlements, however these are generally described with the local placename -(a)cott, from the OE for homestead, cf. cottage.
Devon has a variety of festivals and traditional practices, including the traditional orchard-visiting Wassail in Whimple every 17 January and the carrying of flaming tar barrels in Ottery St. Mary, where people who have lived in Ottery for long enough are called upon to celebrate Bonfire Night by running through the village (and the gathered crowds) with flaming barrels of tar on their backs. Berry Pomeroy still celebrates "Queen's Day" for Elizabeth I.
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Famous quotes containing the words place, names and/or customs:
“Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.”
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“No, no! I don’t, I don’t want to know your name. You don’t have a name, and I don’t have a name, either. No names here. Not one name.”
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“The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be profitably imitated by us, for they at least go through the semblance of casting their slough annually; they have the idea of the thing, whether they have the reality or not.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)