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:
“The most welcome joke to me is the one that takes the place of a heavy, not altogether innocuous thought, at once a cautionary hint of the finger and a flash of the eye.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“At night thousands of names and slogans are outlined in neon, and searchlight beams often pierce the sky, perhaps announcing a motion picture premiere, perhaps the opening of a new hamburger stand.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“If someone were to put a proposition before men bidding them choose, after examination, the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly select its own.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)