Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitionsBayley, Harold
History
Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitions
Bayley, Harold
Archaeology; England -- Antiquities
In Lancashire there is a place called Ainsworth or Cockey: in Yorkshire
there is a river Cock, and near Biggleswade is a place named Cockayne
Hatley: the surname Cockayne is attributed to a village in Durham named
Coken. In Northumberland is a river Cocket or Coquet, and in this
district in the parish of St. John Lee is Cocklaw. Cockshott is an
eminence in Cumberland and Cocks Tor--whereon are stone circles and
stone rows--is a commanding height in Devon. In Worcestershire is
Cokehill, and it is not improbable that Great and Little Coggeshall in
Essex, as also the Oxfordshire place-name Coggo, Cogges, or Coggs, are
all referable to Gog.
In Northamptonshire is a place known as _Cogenhoe_ or _Cooknoe_, and in
seemingly all directions Cook, Cock, and Gog will be found to be
synonymous. The place-name Cocknage is officially interpreted as having
meant "hatch, half-door, or wicket gate of the cock," but this is not
very convincing, for no cock is likely to have had sufficient prestige
to name a place. The Cornish place-name Cogynos, is interpreted as
"cuckoo in the moor," but cuckoos are sylvan rather than moorland
birds: the word _cuckoo_, nevertheless, may imply that this bird was
connected with Gog, for the Welsh for cuckoo is _cog_, and in Scotland
the cuckoo is known as a _gauk_ or _gowk_. These terms, as also the
Cornish _guckaw_, may be decayed forms of the Latin _cuculus_, Greek
_kokkuz_, or there are equal chances that they are more primitive. In
Cornwall, on 28th April, there used to be held a so-called Cuckoo
Feast.[205]
There is an English river Cocker: a _cocker_ was a prize fighter, and it
is possible that the expression, "not according to cocker," may contain
an allusion older than popularly supposed. There are rivers named _Ock_,
both in Berks and Devon, and at Derby there is an Ockbrook: there is an
Ogwell in Devon, a river Ogmore in Glamorganshire, and a river Ogwen in
Carnarvon. In Wiltshire is an Ogbourne or river Og, and on the Wiltshire
Avon there is a prehistoric British camp called Ogbury. This edifice may
be described as _gigantic_ for it covers an area of 62 acres, is upwards
of a mile in circuit, and has a rampart 30 to 33 feet high.[206] The
number 33 occurred in connection with the original British giants, said
to be 33 in number, and we shall meet with 30 or 33 frequently
hereafter. _Ogre_ (of unknown origin), meaning a giant, may be connoted
with the Iberian _ogro_, and with _haugr_ the Icelandic word for hill,
with which etymologers connect the adjective _huge_: the old Gaulish for
a hill was _hoge_ or _hogue_,[207] and the probability would seem to be
that Og and _huge_ were originally the same term. There is a huge
earthwork at Uig in Scotland, the walls of which, like those at Ogbury
in Wiltshire, measure 30 feet in height.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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