AT various places around our moors, there appears the name Hagg (with two Gs) or Hag (with one G). Examples include Ness Hag Wood near Loftus, several Hagg Houses, Hagg Farms, Hagg Halls, Hag Ends or Haggit Hill, Oswaldkirk Hag, Haggersgate and Haggerlythe at Whitby, Hag's Wood and Abbot's Hag near Rievaulx, Greencliffe Hag Wood near Hawnby and Collier Hag Wood above Helmsley. My sister used to live in a house called The Haggin and I am sure there are other locations, some of whose names may be very localised.

The meaning of Hag or Hagg may therefore vary from place to place, but in some of the examples given above, there are common features - these are often a combination of trees and rocky cliffs or hillsides. Many of the hags (and I will use one G now) comprise mixed woodlands which are growing on steep hillsides on the edge of the moor but the name might indicate a particular purpose for the woodland in question.

It is possible that hag refers to woodland which, in times gone by, was set apart by an estate for the use of tenants. Tenants could freely enter such woods to collect timber or even fell trees for construction purposes, in addition to taking home smaller pieces for fire lighting and fencing. It may be relevant that such hags or woods were on rough landscape, usually craggy hillsides which made access difficult.

Hag may be linked to an old name for the oak tree, and there may be some woodland hags which are on level ground but if there are, then I do not know of them, nor do I know whether or not the term appears in other parts of England.

However, hag has other meanings. One refers to boggy areas, or patches of marshland, and in some areas, a haggin or hag means an area of higher or drier land which is raised above the surrounding bog. Quite often, a hag contains lots of thick hummocks of grass which rise above the soft boggy ground and these are usually found on open moorland. Sometimes, a hag (meaning bog) will be present at the foot of a rocky cliff where the water is unable to flow freely away, and so there is an association between a wild cliff and a bog. A peat hag is therefore self-explanatory; it will sometimes include portions of moorland left untouched during the digging process.

In researching the meaning of such names, which are often very localised and used in dialect speech, it is interesting to compare references in conventional dictionaries. In this case, my Concise Oxford defines hag as a soft place in moorland, or a firm place in a bog, while making no references to woods or rocky cliffs. I have a large Universal Dictionary which confirms this, saying that hag is a boggy area on a moor, a piece of firmer ground in boggy land or a place where peat has been dug from a bog. This dictionary suggests the origin of the word may be connected with a chasm or a gap, probably coming from the Old Norse hogg, meaning a gap or cutting blow. Like the Concise Oxford, it makes no reference to woodlands or rocky cliffs.

Within our northern dialects, however, there is another term which is associated with woodland, and that is hagman. This was a man hired especially to cut timber or chop wood and I believe there used to be a song, probably restricted to Swaledale, which contained the words "hagman heigh". Added to this is that fact that the stubs or stumps of felled trees and bushes were often called hagsnars, the hag element referring to the chopping, and snar meaning a coppice.

Those patches of woodland known as hags also gave rise to other names, such as the hag berry or hag cherry (the bird-cherry tree which thrives in the North and seems to like rocky canyons); the hagthorn or hag tree (another name for the hawthorn which also thrives in rocky places) and the hag worm. Although some references suggest the latter applies to all snakes, in North Yorkshire it is another name for the adder in particular, which is also known as the viper.

Yet another meaning of hag is that which means an ugly old woman or a witch. Shakespeare wrote of "black, and midnight hags", and if a person was tormented with nightmares or bad dreams, he or she was said to be hag-ridden, although this term could also be used to describe a man who suffered from the unwanted attentions of a love-sick woman. Around the moors, one could also find hag-stones; these were stones or pieces of flint with a natural hole in the centre, and country people of former times thought they were lucky charms.

By wearing them on a string around the neck, or hanging them near the house doorway, they would keep witches at bay, ward off diseases and prevent nightmares.

WEATHER permitting, we should be seeing the first of the season's snowdrops around this time, either in the wild or in our gardens. Some might have blossomed a week ago or even earlier, and it is not without reason that this beautiful, delicate white flower is often known as the snow-piercer. Quite often, it makes an appearance on or about February 2 which is the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, otherwise known as Candlemas, and so the flower used to be called the Purification Flower, or even the Fair Maid of February.

Its appearance is one of the miracles of nature because it seems to defy the ravages of winter, thrusting its way through the snow-covered ground and even coping with hard frosts, and yet its dainty white flower-head seems too fragile and delicate to withstand any kind of harsh treatment.

Even more surprising is that bees will venture from their winter quarters to pollinate these flowers and even though we might be tempted to associate these events with spring, we must not allow ourselves to be persuaded that winter is over.

We're "nobbut halfway", as a countryman reminded me.

Although the snowdrop is both a symbol of hope and purity, it is also associated with death and even in this modern age, a lot of people will never allow a snowdrop in their houses. This stems from an ancient belief that the flowers represent shrouds, or that the flower as a whole looks like a corpse in its shroud. The belief was that if a snowdrop - a single one as a rule - was taken into the home, it heralded a death within the family.

Within the last 20 years, I saw a man throw a bunch of snowdrops out of an office window because he believed in that superstition. In some areas, I believe a single snowdrop within the house is still regarded as an ill omen, whereas in other cases, it requires a bunch of them to be effective! And, in rural Wales, snowdrops were - and perhaps still are - considered harmful to hens and should not be brought to the proximity of hens while they are sitting on their eggs.

WHAT is the correct pronunciation of Coverdale? This topic arose during a recent visit to Wensleydale when there was some discussion as to whether it the "Cover" prefix should rhyme with lover, or whether it should sound more in keeping with hover? People living in the area pronounce it "Covverdale" while outsiders often refer to it as "Cuvverdale".

The same sounds might be given to the River Cover which flows down the dale, passing Bradley (pronounced Bradely) and Woodale, (pronounced Woodle,) before entering the Ure (sometimes pronounced Yore). Woodale, by the way, means the valley of the wolves, and there is also a Woodale Beck near Westerdale, meaning a stream through the valley of the wolves.

There used to be another variation of Coverdale. In the sixteenth century, the name was Coferdale, although as far back as the thirteenth century, the dale was called by its present name.

The River Cover, however, was once called the Cour or Couer, with Coverham being shown variously as Couvreham, Covreham and even Couerhaim. The latter names all refer to a farm on the River Cover, this being the origins of the village of Coverham.