The Folklore of Devon

are sufficient for most people, and the more important and more interesting things are overlooked. Devon is the third largest county in England, and it is an area of variety and contrast. There are two cities, two coastlines and two National Parks moors. Place-names and population are predominantly Anglo-Saxon though the submerged Celtic element is stronger than used to be supposed. The principal occupation is agriculture, but the wealth of Devon now depends mainly on the summer holiday trade concentrated along the coasts. Another twentieth-century feature of Devon is the custom of retiring here; so the towns, especially the coastal ones, are surrounded by bungalow suburbs inhabited by elderly people mostly from outside Devon. These great 'estates' spread outwards and engulf nearby villages which are left fairly intact and the old inhabitants still live on, their memories undisturbed as yet. Between the northern coastline and Dartmoor, there is a wide area of decreasing population; because of poor communications, no electricity or water in the remoter hamlets, it is very hard to make a good living by modern standards; so the young go off in search of work, and only the old remain, undisturbed here by the boom in retirement bungalows or tourists in search of cream teas and brass pixies, and it is here that much of my best material can be found. In fact Devon is remarkable as a county with an ageing population. To whittle down the vast amount of lore that has been gathered, it may be convenient to concentrate mostly on those items that appear attached to the land. L 145

Archaeology · Folklore · Geography · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History

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