Re: Re: Tor=Plateau? Tor=Rock?

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 13:10:11 +0000 (GMT)

> Out of interest, (an old) Roget has:
>
> HIGH LAND, surface relief, height, highlands,
> heights, uplands, wold,
> moor, downs, rolling country; rise, bank, brae,
> slope, climb; knap,
> hill, eminence, mount, mountain; fell, scar, tor;
> mountain range,
> sierra, massif; ridge, hog's back, col, saddle;
> hilltop, summit;
> precipice, cliff; crag, bluff, steep, escarpment;
> chine, valley;
> mesa, plateau, tableland.

Isn't the English language wonderful? Half of those are the same thing in slightly different localised dialects!

The south-west has Moors (as does Yorkshire). The Lakes have fells. Chines seem to happen on the south coast (though a "chine" is a narrow valley with a stream running down it, not any sort of plateau). "Wold" - that's Lincolnshire. "Brae" - Scotland. And many of the rest I only recognise from geography textbooks.

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Jane Williams