Cultural clues to locations/origins

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 22713

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> I don't know how to ask the question more specifically because 
these 
> cultural clues are invisible to my American eyes.  But it comes up 
> now and then--e.g. someone recently said Ottery St. Catchpole 
sounded 
> like it was in the West Country.  Are you all carrying around 
secret 
> information about where Little Hangleton and Cokeworth are and 
where 
> Dean and Lee and Madam Pomfrey hail from?  Say more, please!  


Al got there before I did on most of Amy's questions - particularly 
Cokeworth, which I also compared to "Hard Times."  However, as 
someone else mentioned how Hogsmeade sounded Cumbrian, I have another 
theory about how the name evolved.  Hogwarts = the school very close 
to Hogsmeade.  The school gates are flanked by winged pigs, the 
symbolism of which currently eludes me, but because of this I was 
assuming that the name Hogwarts preceded the name Hogsmeade.  Mead = 
an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey.  So I was wondering 
whether one of the first establishments to grow up in Hogsmeade was a 
pub for the teachers to visit in their spare time - that Hogsmeade 
grew up as a kind of accolite to Hogwarts, and the name Hogsmeade 
developed from Hog's (Hogwarts, the professors there) mead (their 
favourite tipple in bygone times).  

As plausible as anything else, I suppose!

Catherine