TOPOGRAPHICAL ETYMOLOGY. TER 
others will help to render complete this much-needed 
addition to our county history. 
That part of the county of Somerset which lies west 
of the Parret, belonged to the district known to the 
ancient Britons as Dyvnaınt. This the Romans called 
DumnonIuMm, adopting with some slight modification as 
their custom was, the names in use among the natives of 
the country. It requires very little philological skill to 
identify DyvnaınTt with Dumnonıum ; and both with 
Devon of the present day. That, however, which gives 
significance and meaning to the name must be sought for 
in the language of the ancient Britons ; and nothing could 
be more descriptive ofthe distriet than the name it bears— 
Dyvn-NAInT—“ the country of the deep vallies.” 
Frequently among the Quantocks—indeed all over the 
county—we meet with a genuine British word, Cwm, for 
avalley. Atthe foot or opening of one of the Coombes 
on the Quantocks, we find a striking British name in 
TRESCOMBE, which is composed of TRE-Is-Cwm—“ the 
dwelling beneath, or at the foot ofthe vale,” and the hill 
at the head of another Cwm, is called Buncombe Hill, 
which is no other than the British BEn-CWM, the vale head. 
The QUANTOcKS themselves have a very descriptive 
name, especially when they are regarded in respect to 
the physical characteristics which they present on their 
northern side ;—GwANnToG— “abounding in openings.” 
The great number, comparatively, of deep dells, almost 
amounting to ravines, which open among the Quantocks 
towards the Bristol Channel, and thus “divide ” the range 
of hills, would naturally give rise to their ancient name. 
On one of the loftiest eminences in this range, stands the 
extensive British encampment sometimes called Danes- 
borough, but by the peasants of the neighbourhood 
