XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: mb@nospam.net   
      
   On 28/06/2024 06:58, Charles Ellson wrote:   
   > I don't think anyone is so gauche as to stick -shire   
   > on the end of Somerset or Cornwall.   
      
      
   I did a quick newspaper search and lots of examples of Somersetshire.   
      
   Cornwallshire does also occasionally appear.   
      
      
      
      
      
   Western Morning News - Tuesday 19 December 1950   
      
   WHY WHY 'DEVONSHIRE'?   
      
   Doidge's Annual answers nomenclature query   
      
   Why " Devonshire" and never "Cornwallshire" ? This frequent query is one   
   of many answered in the 1951 edition of Doidge's Annual,  published by "   
   The Western Morning News," Plymouth, at 3s. 6d.   
      
   In an article on "Devon or Devonshire." "S. H." says that strictly   
   speaking the "shires" of England are, with a few notable exceptions,   
   those new divisions of land which were made after the Saxons, or   
   English, had won their land back from the Danes, when "shires" were made   
   by "shiring" or "shearing" the recovered land into new districts.   
      
   In later days the "shire-courts," presided over by the shire-reeve,   
   gereta or sheriff, were imposed on the older divisions, as on the newer   
   ones, but that did not make them "shires" any more than the holding of   
   "County" courts at Exeter or Plymouth makes those cities "counties."   
      
   As Devon was the name of the county in the 7th century, it is   
   territorially, much older than the "shires." When used as an adjective.   
   e.g., Devonshire cream, Devonshire cattle, the "shire" affix may be used   
   correctly, but when a noun is intended, "Devon" is the correct term.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)