Notes on the way
through Ayrshire - 100 years
ago
AUCHINLECK PARISH.
South of
Muirkirk, Sorn, and Mauchline. The town of Auchinleck stands on the
north side of Auchinleck Burn, three-quarters of a mile above its
confluence with the Lugar, and one mile and a-quarter north-west of Old
Cumnock. It consists of one street of partly two-story and partly
one-story houses, half-a-mile in length, with a short transverse street
at its south end, where the Established Church marks the original centre.
It has also a United Original Secession Church, a large public school, a
boarding school for young ladies; a post office, with money order and
savings bank departments; numerous shops at intervals along its length;
and a railway station, where a branch line goes off to Muirkirk.
Population in 1871, 1199; in 1881, 1528. William
Murdoch, the inventor of gas, was
born in the parish, 1754. Either from want of capital or want of
selfishness, he did not get his brilliant invention patented; and after
he had brought it to practical use by a great amount of ingenious labour,
it was absolutely snatched from his hands by wealthy firms and
companies, who pocketed large dividends; and while the nations of the
world were laughing with amazement at the beauty and convenience of the
new light, the poor toiling inventor remained as obscure and unheard-of
as if he had never existed. Watt, recognising his inventive power, got
him employed in his works at Birmingham. It is not known to what extent
the perfection of Watt’s steam engine is due to Murdoch, though he
gets credit for having invented the slide valve; also the oscillating
cylinder, so valuable for marine engines; and what is far greater, the
locomotive. Without gas and the locomotive, what would this brilliant,
progressive nineteenth century all over the world have been? How strange
that most of its surpassing greatness should have come a free gift from
the head and horny hands of that poor working man ! and how strange,
too, that a little bit of a stone should never be raised to his memory
in his native parish ! John M‘Gavin,
author of '‘ The Protestant," was born at Darnlaw, less
than a mile from Auchinleck, on the road to Mauchline. He received a
little education at the parish school before removing with his parents
to Paisley, where he worked as a draw-boy in a silk factory; after-wards
as a printer’s boy. Persevering with his own education, be became an
assistant teacher in a school; afterwards engaged in business as a silk
manufacturer; failing in that, obtained a situation in a Glasgow
shipping house, of which he became a partner in 1813; was appointed to
the Glasgow agency of the British Linen Company Bank in 1822; completed
the publication of " The Protestant," in four volumes, the
same year. Mr. M‘Gavin also published editions of Knox’s "
Reformation " and Howie’s "Scots Worthies," besides
working as a lay preacher. Died 1832, aged 59. A large and highly ornate
monumental structure bearing his statue has been erected in Glasgow
Necropolis by his fellow-citizens.
Auchinleck House
stands amid fine wooded scenery three miles west of the town, with the Whirr
Loch on its east, the Swan Loch on its south, and the ruins
of Auchinleck Old Castle, at the junction of Lugar Water and nipple
Burn, on its west-all within half-a-mile. Dr. Johnson well describes
it as "a house ‘of hewn stone, very stately and durable."
And of the old castle he says:-" I was, however, less delighted
with the elegance of the modern mansion than with the sullen dignity of
the old castle. I clambered with Mr. Boswell among the ruins, which
afford striking images of ancient life. It is like other castles, built
upon a point of rock, and was, I believe, anciently surrounded with a
moat, There is another rock near it, to which the drawbridge, when it
was let down, is said to have reached," A peculiar interest
attaches to it as having been the property and residence of Boyde
of Auchinleck, whose wife was one
of the two daughters of Sir
Rannald Crawford, Sheriff of Ayr,
and sister of the mother of Sir
William Wallace.
The two sisters were named Margaret and Joan, but which of them was the
hero’s mother seems to remain uncertain. The Boswell family lived in
the old castle from the time of James IV. till it became uninhabitable.
Several members of this family are known to fame. James
Boswell, the biographer of
Johnson, eldest son of the Judge, Lord
Auchinleck, who built the modern
mansion, was born 1740. At the age of 22 he published a poem entitled
"The Club at Newmarket: a Tale;" first met with Dr. Johnson,
1763; published "Account of Corsica, with Memoirs of General
Paoli," 1768. In 1790 appeared his great work, "The Life of
Samuel Johnson, LL.D.-a work which describes the career of the renowned
lexicographer, depicts his tastes and habits, and reproduces his
remarkable conversations of wit and wisdom with his many and versatile
literary friends with such minuteness, dramatic vivacity, and felicity,
as clearly to place it above comparison with any other work of its kind.
Died in London, June 19, 1795, aged 55. Sir
Alexander Boswell, Bart., poet,
eldest son of the preceding, was born October 9, 1775. He possessed all
the humour and vivacity of his father, but seems to have lacked somewhat
of his conciliatory disposition. At the age of 27 he published a small
volume entitled "Songs, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect."
Several of these songs obtained popularity, and one at least, "
Jenny’s Bawbee," is a permanent favourite. In 1810 he published,
under the assumed name of "Simon Gray," a poem in Scotch,
entitled "Edinburgh, or the Ancient Royalty: a Sketch of Former
Manners." "Skeldon Hauchs, or the Sow is Flitted," a tale
in Scotch verse, founded on an old Ayrshire tradition of a feud between
the Crawfords and the Kennedys, was published in 1816. The honour of
knighthood was conferred on Mr. Boswell in 1821. During a period of
political excitement, in which Sir Alexander took active part, some
satirical poems and letters having appeared in the Sentinel, attacking
personally James Stuart,
Esq., younger of Dunearn, and that gentle-man having traced their
authorship to Sir Alexander, he challenged him to fight a duel. The
antagonists met at Auchtertool, in Fife, Sir Alexander’s second being
the Hon. John Douglas, brother to the Marquis of Queensberry, and Mr.
Stuart’s second the Earl of Rosslyn. Both having fired, the bullet
from Mr. Stuart’s pistol entered the poet’s neck, shattering his
collar bone. He died next day. This unfortunate event took place March
27, 1822.
THE VILLAGE Of
LUGAR stands on Lugar Water, two
Lugar Water
flows "mang moors and mosses many" till it approaches
the village, and thence winds past the town of Cumnock, through a
fine cultivated sylvan vale, past Dumfries House, Ochiltree,
Auchinleck Old
Castle, and meets the Ayr at Barskimming Mill, one
mile and a quarter south of Mauchline.
The village of COMMONDYKE
is one mile north-west of Lugar. Population in 1871, 396; in
1881, 1048. A Roman Catholic Chapel is at Birniknowe, a little
west of it; and a mile north of it is the village of DARNCONNAR,
which has a provision store, a public school, and a new iron church.
Population, 928. The village of CRONBERRY, with a public school
and a railway station, is one mile north-east of Lugar. Population, 799.
The village of GASWATER, or GRASSWATER, is two miles from
Lugar.
All these mining
villages are near the border of the dark region of Aird’s Moss,
where, on the 20th of July, 1680, a number of devout Covenanters,
along with Richard Cameron,
their minister, were engaged in worship under a covering of mist, and
were stealthily surrounded by a troop of dragoons commanded by Bruce
of Earlshall, who had been hunting
them from Sanquhar through the upland wilds of New Cumnock,
Auchinleck, and Muirkirk for many days. Of the small band of
religious patriots, numbering 63, who had fled to the Moss for
safety, only a very few of the strongest and swiftest escaped. These
having fought till most of their brethren had fallen, cut their way
through the solid circle, and took to their heels in different
directions through the Moss Hags, pursued by the soldiers, who
had left their horses at the edge of the Moss. One of these was the
famous covenant warrior, James M
‘Michael, a man of giant
stature, younger brother of Daniel
the martyr. Of the soldiers who
pursued him, all were quickly outrun except one, a powerful athlete, who
managed to overtake him, when a desperate combat took place, which
lasted until some of the breathless soldiers had come up so near them as
to be able to report that the unevenness of the ground caused their
comrade to stumble, when he received the thrust from M
‘Michael’s sword which laid
him lifeless on the heather. This is the tradition as handed down in the
M ‘Michael family, which is slightly different from that given by
Dr. Sympson, apparently from a
different connecting line. Mr.
Cameron being amongst the dead,
the soldiers cut off his head and right hand, and carried them to Edinburgh,
where his father, a small shopkeeper from Falkland, was lying in
prison for nonconformity. They showed the head and hand to the poor old
man, asking if he knew to whom they had belonged. "I know, I
know them; they are my son’s-my own dear son. It is the Lord ! blessed
be the name of the Lord ! " The mutilated body of Mr.
Cameron was buried here, in Aird’s Moss, along with
the rest of the slain, the names of eight of whom are on the
monument
" Where
Cameron’s sword and his Bible are seen, Engraved on the stone where
the heather grows green." About four miles east of Lugar, up Glenmuir
Water, where " In Glenmuir’s wild solitude, lengthened and
deep, Were the whistling of plovers and bleeting of sleep,"
stand the modern
mansion and old farm steading of
Dalblair, where James
Hislop, the poet, lived as a feed
boy, herding sheep. He is author of "The Cameronian’s
Dream," from which we have been quoting, a poem that has shed a
hallowed, charm over the whole district. He was born in the parish of Kirkconnel,
Dumfriesshire, 1798, his father being a customer weaver. By
educating himself, the poetic youth was able to teach an evening school
before going to Greenock, at the age of 21, to teach a day
school. Two years later "The Cameronian’s Dream" appeared in
the Edinburgh Magazine, when the critic Lord
Jeffrey influenced the poet to
open a school in the capital. He was afterwards appointed teacher on
board the Doris, whence he contributed "Letters from South
Africa " to the Edinburgh Magazine. He contributed also to
the London press; wrote "The Cameronian’s Vision," in the
same measure as the "Dream," but longer, and "The
Scottish Sacramental Sabbath," in the style of "The Cottar’s
Saturday Night." Having joined the war ship Tweed, Mr.
Hislop was seized with a severe
illness while ashore on St. Jugo, and died there, 1827, aged 29.
Half-a-mile above
Dalblair,
on an elevated point of land at the confluence of Guelt and
Glenmuir Waters, stands the ruin of Kyle Castle. The
extent of the entire building (which was probably a square tower) cannot
now be ascertained, but a wall of great thickness testifies to its
formidable strength. Examining the mortar in the wall, which is as hard
as stone, it has the appearance of standing for thousands of years to
come, and the wonder is how it can be so old as to have crumbled to what
it is. There being no remains of any other castle of this name in Kyle,
it may safely be regarded as the residence of the traditional King
of Kyle, and probably the only
genuine relic of the old monarchy now in existence. It looks much, too
bare for Royalty now, but we must take into calculation the evidences of
this having at one time been the heart of a great forest. All east of
this is moorland, clad with bent, heath, and sprotts, affording a good
living for gray-faced sheep and grouse. The surface of the parish is
hilly and wild in the east, and moderately level in the middle and west.
About one-third of it, consisting of the west and south middle, is under
tillage farming, and not a little of that is a cold, self-willed clay,
that refuses to comply with the wishes of the farmer. Coal, ironstone,
and lime abound in the west half, and are extensively worked. The known
seams of coal, in order of descent, are:-Ell coal, 3 feet; main coal, 4
feet; 3 feet 6 inch coal; another main coal, 4 feet; 2 feet 4 inch coal;
mussel coal, 2 feet 2 inches; 2 feet 7 inch coal; 2 feet coal. It is
surmised that the Muirkirk seams lie below these, at a
great depth. A Muirkirk seam crops at Penbreck, in
the far east of this
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