154 Tue Kerr oF Morrat. 
When I was a boy the Kerr was neither more nor less than a 
swamp, with deep holes in it, which were known to every boy in 
Moffat as the “ Kerr lakes.’? The Annan, when in flood, has 
burst its banks so often during my recollection, and flooded these 
lakes with gravel, that they are now non-existent. However, we 
require to go back beyond the recollection of even the oldest 
inhabitant to understand the full force and aptitude of Professor 
Veitch’s “curve or bend,’’ and I have had the privilege of in- 
specting a map prepared about the same time as the one of 1758. 
This map is to a smaller scale, but it shows the course of the river 
and all the fields divided somewhat similar to what they are 
to-day, and from it we see that the Annan, instead of running in 
a practically straight course past the town till it joined Ellerbeck 
as it now does (the course was straightened over 80 years ago), 
was a river of curves and bends, and one might also say loops, so 
serpentine was its course, and I have no doubt that it was from 
these topographical features of the “swampy ground 
bordering a stream’’ and its “curving course’’ that the 
first inhabitants of the district who called it “car’’ derived its 
expressive name. Local pronunciation, when examined, also 
favours the term “car.’’ ‘To-day in Moffat the surname Kerr is 
pronounced with the the £ soft, as it is spelt, but the pronuncia- 
tion is so on account of the great intercourse the inhabitants have 
had, as residents in a popular watering-place, with strangers 
having in a great measure destroyed the local twang. My own 
recollection of the pronunciation of the name by some of our old 
residenters now departed was Karr, and we require to go no 
further away than the adjoining parish of Crawford to find this 
pronunciation of the word in full force and vigour at the present 
time, and I am informed that in Ayrshire it is the same, spelt 
Kerr, but pronounced “ Karr.’’ Perhaps some of the Society’s 
philological experts may be able to throw some further light on the 
subject. For the fort theory for the name there is absolutely 
nothing to go upon except the bare name of Kerr itself, while the 
evidence from the topographical features of either the marshy 
ground or curving river seem to be conclusive that it is to these 
features the Moffat Kerr owes the name it has borne for hundreds 
of years. 
