THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
07 
in place, is scattered all over the county, and is not predominant 
anywhere, though somewhat less frequent in the north-west than in 
the south. The " stocks " — stockaded or palisaded enclosures — are 
commonly associated with the navigable rivers, then the great high- 
ways of piratical marauders, and needing rallying points and 
strongholds, especially when Danish inroads became periodical. 
The " burys " bear a distinctively warlike or defensible character, 
but these again, in many cases, are not of Saxon origin, and mark 
the site of some old earthwork. 
The three most notable and distinctive marks of Saxon occupation 
are, however, to be found in the words "worthy," "cot," and "hay," 
which have a very peculiar and suggestive distribution. 1 ." Worthy" 
is most common on the borders of Dartmoor, and particularly to 
the south and west; "cot" is almost peculiar to the west and 
north-west ; " hay " has its chief centre in the east. Of the three, 
" cot " is the most frequent, as it is the most distinctively personal 
and individual ; " hay " comes next in order, and " worthy " last. 
I believe the names thus compounded are of comparatively late 
date, so that the chief extension of Saxon occupation may not 
have been reached long anterior to the Norman Conquest. The 
"tun" and the "stock" may be of any age, but the "worthy," 
" cot," and " hay," with the somewhat infrequent " ham," are 
distinctively indicative of somewhat settled conditions. The 
" worthy " is the only one of the group that includes the idea of 
protective enclosure, and though there are few words of Saxon 
origin that have had such diverse interpretation, the weorth or 
weorthig was probably in the main a farm-place, with enclosures to 
protect the stock from the ravages of wild beasts. The "hays" 
were rather enclosures in the nature of fields, and more distinctly 
agricultural. Both, however, belong to fairly quiet times. " Cot " 
explains itself. I have suggested elsewhere that the occupants of 
the " worthy " and of the " cot " may have had at times some such 
relationship as that of the modern farmer and labourer 2 — the cotters 
being the villein class. But be that as it may, the ' ' cot " sho ws at once 
the fullest evidence of individual action, and on the smallest scale. 3 
1 See note ante p. 45 for Mr. Kerslake's view. 
2 "Hist. Con. Devon. Place-names." 
3 The "worthys" are all probably of purely Saxon date, but the "cots" 
may be of almost any age, for names of this class have been currently given 
down to recent times, though "cot" is now supplanted by the fuller " cottage." 
