Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/237

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Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. i8i translation, otherwise St. Sativola's Well or Sidwell. I leave it to the erudite to decide whether St. Sativola's head gave name to the well, or whether the legend of her decapitation was invented to account for the well's name. Personally I imagine that Head is here used in the sense of chief as there were several wells in the district, among them Hened Wille or Honewell, nearer to the Magdalen Almshouses. Hened may easily be misread Heved when the u is substituted for v resembling n in ancient script. I might go so far as to suggest that Heved-tree — the d would naturally be elided before t — more easily becomes Hevitree than Avon-tree, and besides, I am curious to know where her Avon flows. She may be quite right in identifying the terminal tree with the Cornish affix tre — that is beyond me — but I do protest against the inclusion of my beloved Ottery with the common or garden trees. Otri is the earliest form I know. In Domesday Book the places along the river appear as Oteri, Otrei, Otria, Otri, Otrie and Otrit with Otritona. It is quite possible, though it would surprise me, to find Awtree in official documents of an earlier date than 1500. Otery, or its contraction, appears in the Manor Court Rolls from the time of Richard II., through Elizabeth's reign — later it occurs as Otterrie there. In Domesday Book I find the following names, beside Heavitree, of places now ending in trte'^-. — Haletrou, Lange- truua, Odetreu, Wilastreu (with Ratreu, now Rattery) in the Exeter copy, and all these end in trew in the Exchequer copy, while Plumtrei has the same ending in both. The endings of Heavitree are truua (with a little superior o) and trove. None of these have any resemblance to Oteri. I should very much Hke to know whether any place-name ending in tree takes a Latin form similar to Ottregia. Frances Rose-Troup.

  • The other trees in Devon that I have noticed are Kiletrue— Kiiiatree

in Pyworthy, Cocktree in South Tawton and Crablree in Egg Biickland- La Heaved is mentioned between Winkley and Southcote in an Inq. f>.vi, on Gilbert de Clare, 8 Ed. II. and La Hevede wi h holrygge in one on Henry de Campo Arnulfi. Holangcnmbe heued occurs in an A.-S. boundary of one of the Otri?, Perhaps Trow Hill in the Sid VaJley has a distant connection with the Domesday trove.