90 HOW SALMON-POOLS AEB NAMED 



XI 



The contemplative man in pursuing his special recrea- 

 tion — angling — must often fall to speculating 

 stumon- upon the origin of the names attached to 

 pools are salmon pools in a river. Often they consist 

 simply of the name of the adjacent land or farm, 

 as the far-famed Birgham Dub on the Tweed, associated 

 for all time with the treaty of Birgham, source of three 

 centuries of war between England and Scotland. Others 

 bear descriptive titles, such as, a mile or so below Birgham, 

 that excellent cast the Kirkend, where the river chafes 

 against the rocks on the English banks which support the 

 west end of Carham church. But who shall unravel the 

 secret hidden in the names of other salmon -pools on 

 Tweed — Bloody Breeks, Flummie, The Webs, Jock Sure, 

 The Hen's Leg, and so on ? They are indelible ; so long 

 as men shall continue to cast angle in these waters they 

 will continue to use these names and never seek to invent 

 others. 



Occasionally, at very long intervals, the need arises for 

 a name to distinguish a new pool from its fellows, and the 

 commonest, because the simplest, expedient is to associate 

 it with the lucky angler who first lands a salmon from its 

 depths. It is a sure road to immortality for that indi- 

 vidual, but not an easy one. Non cuivis contingit — new 

 salmon-pools resemble the pool of Bethesda in this, that 

 some other fellow generally gets there before you, and 

 that fellow's name will remain a household word for un- 

 numbered centuries. Just opposite Dryburgh Abbey is 

 a cast known as Jockie's Hole ; who this particular Jockie 

 was, none now may know or tell ; but Jockie's name is as 



