Notes on
the way through Ayrshire - 100 Years Ago
A Y R
" Add Ayr, where ne'er
a town surpasses For honest men and bonny lasses."
THE county town stands
in the three parishes of Ayr, St. Quivox, and Newton-upon-Ayr, on
the bright sandy shore of Ayr Bay, at the mouth of the Ayr River,
which flows through its centre into the sea. It is distant from Glasgow,
via Kilmarnock and Fenwick, 34 miles; from Edinburgh 76 miles; and from
London, 407 3/4 miles. The section on the north side of the river is in
the parishes of St. Quivox and Newton-upon-Ayr - which join
at the New Bridge-and bears the district names of Wallacetown
above the bridge and Newton below it; that on the south side of the river
is in the parish of Ayr, and constitutes the ancient royal burgh
whose charter was granted by King
William (The Lion) in the year 1202,
securing to the people all the lands in Ayr parish (6935 acres). Long ago,
for a mere trifle, they sold it nearly all but what is now the
Racecourse (90 acres). Of this rare document, Hill
Burton says, it " is perhaps
the oldest known charter absolutely bringing a burgh into existence."
The modern municipal and Parliamentary burgh includes the whole town
(except some skirting villas and cottages) north and south, which is
compactly built, oval in shape, and united across the river by the two
celebrated poetic "Brigs of Ayr." Population in 1871, 17,954; in
1881, 30,967. Annual value of real property in 1880-81, .£102,435- being
higher than any other town of similar size in Scotland.
The Auld Brig was
built, it is said, about the year 1350, by two maiden sisters, who
were so grieved with the spectacle of people drowning at the ford known as
the Ducot-stream, two hundred yards above, that they resolved thus
to spend their means. It is a charming specimen of ancient bridge
architecture - high, and so narrow that " twa wheelbarrows tremble
when they meet." The
New Brig, two hundred yards below, was erected when John
Ballantyne, banker, friend of
Burns,
was Provost; and it was during its erection, when the poet was a visitor
at the Provost’s house, that he wrote the poem of "The Brigs of
Ayr," and inscribed it to his generous friend, " Skilled
in the secret to bestow with grace."
" That Bards are
second-sighted is nae joke, And ken the lingo of the sp’ritual folk ;
Fays, spunkies, kelpies, a’ they can explain them, And ev’n the vera
deils they brawly ken them,"
was proved in January, 1877,
when the proud New Brig showed signs of giving way, and had
to be rebuilt, for thus was brought to pass the prophecy contained in the
following extract from the dialogue of the Brigs :-
" I doubt
na’, frien’, ye’ll think ye’re nae sheep-shank, Ance ye were
streekit o’er frae bank to bank ! But gin ye be a brig as auld as me-Tho’,
faith, that day I doubt ye’ll never see - There’ll be, if that date
come, I’ll wad a bodle, Some fewer whigmaleeries in your noddle."
" While crashing
ice, borne on the roaring spate, Sweeps dams, an’ mills, an’ brigs a’
to the gate ; And from Glenbuck, down to the Ratton-key, Auld Ayr is just
one lengthened tumbling sea ; Then down ye’ll hurl - deil nor ye never
rise ! And dash the gumlie jaups up to the pouring skies."
Ayr enjoys a goodly
share of wind and rain - comparatively warm in winter-washing and blowing
it clean, and helping to maintain its long-established renown as a
fashionable and cheery health - giving place of abode. All round the
shores of Great Britain there are hardly any such pure and sprightly sands
as the sands of Ayr.
Being a place of great
antiquity, Ayr still retains many quaint and humble dwellings, and some
venerable manufactories; but in new manufactories, in shipping, in beauty
and magnificence of streets, of shops and public buildings, suburban
villas and cottages, has of late years made a marvellous
progress, and, indeed, in the amount of rich and costly architecture is
unequalled by any town of her class in Scotland or England. Perth and
Inverness, to be sure, come closely behind. There are manufactories of
leather, boots and shoes, carpets, lace, woollens, winceys, and
agricultural implements; shipbuilding, coachbuilding, engineering,
ironfounding, worsted spinning, sail-making; rope works, chemical works,
sculpture works, saw mills, and grain mills. The principal shop streets
are: Sandgate, extending south from New Bridge-broad,
straight, exhibiting much fine, rich architecture ; High Street,
starting from Sandgate Street at right angles, near the bridge, following
the line of the river eastward, passing the approach to the Old Bridge,
thence bearing southward-long, diversified with old and new buildings,
highly important; Newmarket Street, crossing from High
Street to Sandgate a little above the Old Bridge; and Main Street,
running north from the New Bridge. Of the recent public buildings, it may
be noticed that the Municipal Court-Room and Public Hall, adjoining the
Town Buildings at the corner of High Street and Sandgate, were completed
in 1881, at a cost of £30,000; a new Hospital was erected
in 1883, at a cost of about £11,000; a beautiful Esplanade
and new Slip Dock were constructed in 1880, at a cost of
£13,036; a new Academy, finished in 1880, cost £3000; a
new Industrial School was built in 1876, at a cost of
£5500; and two new Public Schools in 1875, at a cost of
£8672. The New Bridge, rebuilt in 1877, cost
£16,300. New Harbour Works (including a new dock, 650 feet
by 400 feet), covering a space of 78 acres, with quay walls of 33 feet,
were constructed in 1874-78, at a cost of £200,OOO ; and their
hydraulic hoists, erected at the same time, cost a further sum of £9700.
Of earlier date, the County Buildings, in Wellington Square,
after a design copied from an ancient temple in the City of Rome, cost
over £30,000. The Town Buildings, in the very centre
of the town, are a stately edifice, adorned with a tower surmounted by the
famous Ayr steeple, 226 feet high. The Post Office, situated
in Newmarket Street, is a head office, with telegraph, money order,
insurance, annuity, and savings bank departments. Some of the banking
offices are very grand. These are the Bank of Scotland, British Linen
Company Bank, Clydesdale Bank, Commercial Bank, National Bank, Royal Bank,
and Union Bank. There are four Free Churches, six Established Churches,
two United Presbyterian Churches, an Original Secession Church, an
Evangelical Union Church, a Wesleyan Methodist Church, an Episcopalian
Church, and a Roman Catholic Church. The oldest is the Established
Church, off High Street, erected in 1654, on the site of the
Greyfriars’ Monastery, founded in 1472, and supposed to be
near the site of the Monastery of the Blackfriars,
which was founded in 1230 by Alexander
II. Not a vestige of the two
Monasteries now remains. When Cromwell
visited Scotland with an army to assist the party opposed to Charles
II., he constructed a fortification
here, enclosing 11 acres by a water ditch, over which there was a
drawbridge. As it happened, the only church of the place - an ancient one
dedicated to St. John the Baptist - was enclosed within the selected
space; and it was decided to erect a new one outside for the use of the
inhabitants, Cromwell
defraying a twentieth part of the cost. That new church is the Old
Church, off High Street. Its most famous minister of the olden time
was John Welsh,
son-in-law to the great John Knox.
Mrs Welsh (Elizabeth Knox)
died at Ayr, 1625.
The Churchyard contains
a monument to seven martyrs, who suffered December 29th, 1666. St.
John’s, within the Fort, was used for storing arms, and was
afterwards allowed to fall to ruins, and has all gone but the tower. It is
memorable as the house in which the first Parliament under Bruce
assembled, in 1315, and settled the Scottish Crown on the
descendents of that heroic King, who still wear it. Only a fragment of the
Fort remains.
As a seat of learning,
Ayr has a prestige somewhat like that of a University town. There are 17
schools, having accommodation for between 4000 and 5000 scholars. This is
no doubt due to the "honest men and bonny lasses " employed as
teachers, the agreeable manners imparted to the scholars by the general
fashion of the place, and to its salubrious situation. As behoves a seat
of learning, Ayr produces a large aggregate of literature, and has an
extensive trade in printing and publishing and bookbinding. Eight or nine
newspapers are printed here weekly, five of which are published in the
town. The Ayr Advertiser, the first newspaper in the county, and
the oldest but seven of the 192 newspapers of Scotland, was established in
1803, by the enterprising spirit of John
Wilson (the " We
Johnnie" of Burns),
who printed and published the first or Kilmarnock edition of the poet’s
works. As a Magistrate of Ayr, his public spirit gained him much
respect. Mr.
Wilson
died here, in Wellington Square, 1831, aged about 70.
It seems to have always
been a seat of learning. We read in Latin literature of one Joannes Scotus
Erigena (John Scott of Ayr),
who lived in the ninth century, and who excelled all men of his time in
the knowledge of language and philosophy. He travelled to Athens, where he
acquired the Greek and Oriental languages; and on his journey homeward was
induced by Charles I., King of
France, to remain at his Court
several years. Having offended the Pope by translating into Latin the
works of Alfred,
King of England, to restore learning
at Oxford. He wrote a number of works in philosophy and history, the
greatest of which that has been preserved is the "Division of Nature;
or, the Nature of Things " - which lay in manuscript upwards of 800
years, till it was printed and published at Oxford in 1681.
Andrew Michael Ramsay,
Chevalier, was the son of a baker in Ayr, where he was born, June 9th, 1681.
He was educated at Ayr and Edinburgh University, and went to the
Continent, where he spent his life, chiefly as a tutor of young Princes,
and was made a Knight of the Order of St. Lazurus - thus his title of
Chevalier. He wrote " Philosophical Principles of Natural and
Revealed Religion," " Essay upon Civil Government," "
History of M. de Turenne," " Remarks on Shaftesbury’s
Characteristics," " Discourse upon Epic Poetry," "
Life of Fenelon," his
illustrious friend. Died at St. German-en-Laye, France, May 6th, 1743.
Archibald Crawford, poet and miscellaneous prose writer, was born at Ayr,
1774. He is author of "Tales of my Grandmother, " "The
Gaberlunzie," "The Huntly Casket," the popular song,
"Bonnie Mary Hay," &c. Died at Ayr, 1843.
John Wilson,
R.S.A., marine artist, born at Ayr, 1774, was apprenticed to a
house decorator in Edinburgh, where he took lessons in landscape painting
from Nasmyth, who painted the well-known portrait of Burns.
Having removed to London, he gained a prize offered by the British
Institution for the best painting of the Battle of Trafalgar. This and
many other works sustain Mr. Wilson's fame as an artist of rare genius.
Died at Folkestone, 1855, aged 81.
John, Lord Cowan,
born at Ayr, 1800; educated at Ayr Academy and Edinburgh
University, for the law. Solicitor-General, 1851; Lord of Session, same
year. Died, 1857.
James Ferguson,
D.C.L., F.R.S., architect, was born at Ayr, 1808. Engaged in
business in India; retired, and travelled in the East. Published "
Rock-cut Temples of India," " Ancient Architecture of Hindostan,"
" Hand-book of Architecture," " History of Modern Styles of
Architecture," " Tree and Serpent Worship," &c.
John Loudon Macadam,
inventor of broken stone or macadamized roads, was born at Ayr, September
21, 1756. In 1815 he was appointed surveyor of the Bristol district
of highways, and next year published " Practical Essay on the Repair
and Preservation of Public Roads," with the result that all the
principal highways in the English part of Great Britain were covered with
macadam - that is, regular small broken stones. The inventor of
macadamized roads (hardly less important than railways) deserves a
marble statue in a space laid with neatly sized broken stones in
Wellington Square, where there are already statues of General
Neil and Archibald
William, thirteenth Earl of Eglinton.
There is a statue of
Sir William Wallace at the junction
of Newmarket Street and High Street, the spot where the hero was thrown
over a prison wall for dead ; and farther up High Street, on the left
side, stands Wallace Tower, of unknown antiquity, restored and
raised to a height of 113 feet in the year 1830. It is in the order
of ancient Scottish architecture, and contains, in a lofty niche facing
the opposite (west) side of the street, a hands of the giant hero, by the
artist Thorn,
a native of Tarbolton. It is satisfactory to know that, though the
Tower has been rebuilt, it still contains the old clock whose voice was
heard by Burns
while composing his. " Brigs of Ayr," at two in the
morning.
" The drowsy
Dungeon clock had numbered two, And Wallace Tower had sworn the fact was
true."
Oral tradition has
always called it Wallace Tower, and it is supposed to have been a
residence of his father. Some light will be thrown on the subject by an
extract from the opening passage of Henry
the Minstrel’s great poem,
"The Life of Wallace," in two books. The curious old spelling is
not that of the poet, as he was blind.
" I will
my proces hold of Wilyham Wallace as ye hef hard beyne teld. His forbears
quha like till understand, Sehir Ranald Crawfurd, nicht Sheretf of Ayr, So
in hys tyme he had a dochtir fayr, And younge Sehir Rannahl Schirreff of
that toune, Hys systir fayr, of good fame and renoune ; Malcolm Wallace
her gat in mariage, That Elrisle than had in heretage, Auchinboth, and
othir syndry place, The serund 0 he was of gud Wallace."
The reader will observe
that 0 stands for son, as it still stands for sun in some almanacs. Malcolm
Wallace
was. the second son of Adam Wallace
of Riccarton, a seat on the Kyle
side of the Irvine, Kilmarnock (now extinct), where the paternal ancestors
of the family had lived for generations. One of the opposite party, who
did not wish to accept the hero Wallace
as ruler of Scotland, spoke of him disparagingly as not a King of
Scotland, but "A King of Kyll, for yat he callit Wallace." This
shows. plainly enough that the patriot was a Kyle man by both
father and mother’s side, as also by repute; and there is really no
evidence that he was not a lad born in Kyle, though it has been generally
assumed that he was born at Elderslie, Paisley. The sundry other
places mentioned by Henry
as having belonged to Malcolm
appear to have been this Wallace Tower in Ayr and Black Craig,
New Cumnock, the only place where his patriot son ever had a household
of his own. It is not incredible that this Wallace Tower was the
residence of Malcolm
and his young wife, Joan Crawford,
daughter fair of Sir Ronald
,Crawford, Sheriff of Ayr, and
sister fair of young Sir Ronald, Sheriff of that town, when their second
son, the patriot hero, was born in 1276. Though Bruce
and Baliol
had each obtained the assistance of Edward
of England to place him on the
throne of Scotland, and were supported in that cowardly action by nearly
all the nobility and gentry also swearing allegiance to that monarch, Malcolm
Wallace refused to do so, and his
household was broken up. His wife and younger son, or sons, went to reside
with her uncle, near Dundee, at which town young Wallace went to school.
His father .and elder brother did not go to Dundee, and were both killed
by the English at Loudoun. It was this event that first roused the
spirit. of the young hero to vengeance, when, at the age of 15, he slew an
Englishman, the son of the English governor of Dundee Castle. From
this time Wallace
was outlawed, and there was nothing but death for him if he fell into the
hands of the English. He fled with his mother, first to her brother who
was stationed as a clergyman at Dunipace, and next to her brother
the Sheriff at Ayr. But the English invited his uncle, the Sheriff, along
with the best men of the town and county - Blair,
Montgomery, Kennedy, "many Crawfords,"
and " kynd Cambellis,
that neuir had beyne Barklais,
Boidis,
and Stuartis
of gud kyn" to a friendly conference in the Barns or
Barracks at Ayr, and hanged them in pairs, one after the other, as
they were not allowed to enter in a body, but were called in by name when
the ropes were ready for them. The poet
Barbour, who wrote about fifty years
later, laments over such worthy men being "hangyt intill a berne in
Ayr.‘" Henry the Minstrel says:-
" Wallas wept
for gret loss off his kyne. Him thocht for baill his breyst ner bryst in
twyn."
This was on the day
after the massacre, when he received the horrible news from a woman. They
were in search of him also, and he and three others on horseback fled in
the direction of the Laiglane Wood, hotly pursued by 15 mounted
Englishmen, who appear to have had the best horses, for Wallace
and his three men were obliged to wheel round and give battle to the 15.
The infuriated young giant killed five of them, his three men killed other
five, and the remaining five saved themselves by flight. Night having come
on, the woman went out and informed Wallace
in the wood that the beastly army of murderers, having indulged in a heavy
drinking bout-
"Of Irland ayl
the mychtenst couth be wrocht ; Through full gluttre in swarff swappit
like swyn. The woman tauld him rycht; ‘ Slepand as swyn ar all yon fals
menyhe,. Na Scotis man is in that compane.’ Than Wallace said, ‘ Giff
thai all dronkyn be, I call it best with fyr sor thaim to se. "
The woman gathered a few
men to him--as it seems that women only dared to move about; he marched to
the Barns, blocaded the doors, set fire to them and consumed the
whole, with their contents, numbering about 4000 men. The Minstrel says
there "gat nane away, knaiff, & capitaine, nor knycht."
In addition to these, there were ,another thousand English soldiers
quartered in the town .and castle who were put to the sword and slain by
the people of the town, organized and commanded by the friars.
" Of lykly men,
that born was in Ingland, Be suerd and fyr that nycht deid fyve thousand."
Wallace,
now joined by the relatives of those who had been treacherously hanged,
marched by Mauchline Muir, and met another English company at
Loudoun. Arrived in sight of them-in the words of the
Minstrel-
" Than Wallace
said-‘ Her was my fadyr slayn, My brothyr als, quilk dois me mekill
payne, So sall my selff, or vengit be but dreid ; The
traytour is her the cause was off that deid.’ "
He defeated them, and
took possession of their stores. Nor did he rest until he had slashed and
scotched the whole of the English armies out of Scotland, north and Bruce
and his party on their side. On the 11th of November, 1297, two
months the famous victory of Stirling Bridge, he was chosen his
army Guardian of the Kingdom, which he accepted in name of the exiled King
John (Baliol); and at the same time
the conquering hero established his household at New Cumnock.
Henry the Minstrel,
the greatest war poet of Scotland -- " a second Homer " - was
born about the year 1446. Major,
the only authority, says he was blind from his birth, but has,
unfortunately, omitted to record his birth-place, or any of his family
relations. He is known only as Henry
the Minstrel,
which has led many people, not of Ayrshire, to surmise that Henry was his
Christian name, which they have vulgarised to Harry---" Blind
Harry." In Ayrshire we have found a general belief existing that Henry
is his surname, and that he belonged to here. This belief may have
come down to us by oral tradition, or it may have been founded on the
facts that his great poem-the greatest heroic poem in the language -
commences at Ayr, and contains many forms of expression peculiar to the
district. This belief is supported also by the supposition that the poet’s
extraordinary love and enthusiasm for the noble hero was partly occasioned
by their both belonging to Ayrshire. As a minstrel of the first class he
would, according to an old historian, be permitted to wear silk attire,
and take rank with knights. He seems to have been in good circumstances,
as the vast labour he spent on his "Life of Wallace " was done
without the reward or patronage of any one, and without fear of enemies,
which can be seen from his own words:-
" All worthie
men at redys this rurall dyt, Blaym nocht the buk, set I be unperfyt. I
suld hawe thank, sen I noch trawaill spaird ; For my laubour na man hecht
me reward ; Na charge I had off king nor othir lord ; Gret harm I thocht
his gud deid suld be smord. I haiff said her ner as the process gais;
And feryeid nocht for frendschip nor for fais."
In the Tam o’
Shanter Inn, which is preserved as a genuine relic of Burns,
visitors may enjoy the chairs in which Tam
o’ Shanter and Souter
Johnny sat on market nights, and the
caups from which they quaffed the "reaming swats." South,
out of High Street, we pass into the Monument Road. It is the road
along which " Tam skelpit on through dub and mire, Despising wind,
and rain, and fire’."
The genius of Macadam
has done away with the dub and mire, and modern wealth has adorned the
route with bright villas, pleasure-grounds, and flower gardens. Fully 8
mile south of the town is a bridge over the burn a little above "the
ford, where in the snaw the Chapman smoor’d." Other suspicious
places passed by Tam may be traced. South of the bridge we pass the woods
of Rozelle mansion, which stands on the left. Beyond the
woods the road bends a little to the west, as if to allow the sunshine to
fall more in front of the Birthplace of Burns- a humble,
thatch-roofed, whitewashed cottage, on the way-side, facing the
south-east. It was the property of the Poet’s father, William
Burns. The spelling was Burness
until it was altered by the Poet and his brother Gilbert,
evidently to make it harmonize with the pronunciation.
William Burns left his paternal
home, a small farm in Kincardineshire, at the age of 19, and came
south to Edinburgh, where he remained several years, working as a
gardener. After a good many years’ experience, he leased a few acres of
land here at Alloway, for the purpose of planting a nursery.
Becoming hopelessly fascinated with the charms of a loving, virtuous girl
- Agnes Brown,
a farmer’s daughter of the adjoining parish of Maybole - he built
the cottage for her with his own hands, and married her. Here, in the
kitchen bed, on the 25th of January, 1759 - two years and
one month after the marriage - was born Robert
Burns, the most wonderful prodigy of
love and poetry the world has yet known. It needs no fine critical
analysis to perceive that the sun is brighter, warmer, and cheerier than
the moon and stars. As the uncultivated nursery ground was swallowing up
the saved earnings of William Burns,
he took a situation as gardener to Mr.
Ferguson of Doonholm, Provost
of Ayr, which he held for six or seven years, still residing in his own
cottage, until Mr. Ferguson
granted him a lease of the farm of Mount Oliphant, about two miles
eastward of the cottage, and lent him £100 to stock it. Before leaving
the cottage, little Robin
had begun to toddle down to school at Alloway Mill, on the Doon,
half a mile off. At Mount Oliphant he was educated - first at home,
by his father, who was a man of culture; and afterwards at Dalrymple
school, where he made rapid progress under Mr.
Murdoch, a clever young teacher who
boarded some time with the family at Mount Oliphant. The Poet
himself says:- " Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings, I
made an excellent English scholar; and by the time I was ten or eleven
years of age, I was a critic in substantives, verbs, and particles. In my
infant and boyish days, too, I owed much to an old woman who resided in
the family, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and superstition. She
had, I suppose, the largest collection in the country of tales and songs
concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, war-locks, Betty Davidson (for
that was her name) was there to store his young mind with tales and songs
in the rich oral dialect, which is always the most pathetic and humorous,
the most poetically or infinitely expressive part of every language. She
fostered within him the growth of that universally unequalled power of
expression which he posRiving
the words to gar them
clink."
No mere scholastic
selection of language could satisfy the natural feelings of him
" Whose songs
gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from
the eye-lids start ; Who through long days of labour, And nights devoid of
ease, Still heard in his soul the music Of wonderful melodies."
In his fourteenth year Burns
was sent to school at Ayr, boarding with Mr.
Murdoch, who gave him a start in the
French language-which he liked, and persevered with in the intervals of
labour at home until he could read and understand prose authors. He also
commenced to learn Latin, under Mr.
Robertson, teacher, Ayr-which he did
not appreciate, and left off. His period of education at Ayr was cut
short. Mr. Ferguson,
their generous landlord, died, and they fell into the hands of the
merciless factor celebrated in the " Twa Dogs." They "
lived very poorly." His father’s health and strength broke down,
and he was no longer fit for work. The labour of the farm-ploughing,
harvesting, threshing the corn with flails-had to be done by. the little
boys, Robert and his brother Gilbert,
two years younger. In Robert’s fifteenth autumn,
Nellie Kilpatrick, the blacksmith’s
daughter, a year younger than he, was his partner at the shearing. She was
a " bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass; " he had not been in love
before, and he says--" I did not know why my pulse beat such a
furious ratan when I looked and fingered over her little hand to pick out
the cruel nettle-stings and thistles. Among her other love-inspiring
qualities, she sang sweetly; and it was her favourite reel to which I
attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme. . . . Thus with me began
love and poetry." This, his first poetical composition,
"Handsome Nell," is a very pretty song, having an innocent,
boyish sentiment, true to nature. : Rather more than a year after this his
father sold his cottage, left Mount Oliphant, and went to Lochlee,
Tarbolton. For many years previous to 1880 the cottage was let as a
public house by the Corporation of Shoemakers at Ayr, but it was
bought in that year by the Burns’ Monument Trustees, for £4000, to be
converted into a Burns Museum, which it now is.
Along the road, about
three furlongs south of Burns’ Cottage,
on the "Banks and Braes o’ Bonny Doon," are a new Gothic
church, the ruins of Old Kirk Alloway, a hotel, the New Bridge
of Doon, the Old Brig o’ Doon, mingled with flowering shrubs and trees
on height and in . .I hollow, green braes scattered with daisies and
sweet-scented clover, blooming fresh and fair, the beautiful ’
Burns’ Monument towering high in the midst, and the turrets and
gables of elegant mansions rising in the various-tinted groves around -
all forming the most adorable scenic group in the enchanted Land of Burns.
The " roof and rafters " of " Alloway’s Auld Haunted
Kirk," that dirled to the skirling of Auld Nick’s bagpipes, are all
gone-having been nibbled away and manufactured into precious relics. Two
of these are chairs, made by Mr.
David Auld, one of which was sent to
King
George IV.,
and is now, it is said, in Windsor Castle. The other he presented
to the Earl of Eglinton -
receiving in return a service of silver plate - and it is to be seen in Eglinton
Castle.
In the Old Kirkyard
are the graves of Burns’ father,
mother, and sister. The
Burns Monument stands on a bank of garden flowers at the head of a
brae that ascends from the Doon. Its erection, in 1820, was
due to the efforts of Sir Alexander
Boswell, the poet, of Auchinleck,
and cost £3350. It is of white stone, turned gray, and has a massive
rustic base, triangular in shape, 30 feet wide, rising to a height of 18
feet, on which stand a circle of nine Corinthian columns with rich
capitals, supporting a highly ornamental dome or crown surmounted by a
gilt tripod. The triangular base and tripod represent the three ancient
divisions of the county - Kyle, Carrick, and Cunningham; the nine
columns indicate the nine muses; and the patriotic eye will discern in the
crown something of an Ayrshire bonnet, artistically designed so as to
appear there and not there - a bonnet and not a bonnet. The entire
structure-which is about 60 feet high-is after the style of ancient Greek
temples erected in honour of the gods, and is a masterpiece of the famous
architect, Thomas Hamilton. The interior of the base is a circular
chamber, 18 feet wide and 16 feet high, lighted from above by a cupola of
stained glass. It contains, on a pedestal in the centre, a marble bust of Burns,
with the shirt neck open and blown back as it were by the breeze-said, by
one of his sisters, to be like him when he was sowing corn. A few sacred
relics are preserved in the chamber.
"There lies his
Bible, witness of the truth And love that dwelt within him for the fair
And dearest, truest lover of his youth : Behold a lock of Highland Mary’s
Hair ! "
At the lower side of the
two acres of enclosed pleasure-grounds belonging to the monument, in a
charming little grotto prettily paved with sea shells, are viewed with
laughing admiration the celebrated statues of Tam
o’ Shanter
and Souter Johnny,
by the artist Thorn.
Seats on the Doon, below
the Monument, are Cambusdoon, Mountcharles, and Belleisle;
above the Monument, Doonholm and Auchendrane. Belmont and
Castlehill are nearer Ayr; and Newark, south of the
Monument, is in the parish of Maybole.
The surface of Ayr
parish is level, comparatively, and well cultivated. From the shore to the
east end of Loch Fergus, on an island in which is the site of an
old monastery, the length of the parish is five miles; and from the
Ayr to the Doon, a little above Blackhill, its widest part is fully
four miles. Area, 6935 acres. Population, including the section of Ayr
town on the south side of the river, 10,086.
ST. QUIVOX PARISH,
Ayr.--North side of Ayr river. The hamlet of St. Quivox, with Established
Church, public school, and Auchincruive railway station, is about
two and a-half miles north-east of Ayr.
The village of Whitletts,
on the road between it and Ayr, has a post office and a public school.
Coalworks are in the vicinity. Population, 588.
The Mansion of
Auchincruive stands on the north bank of the Ayr, and has an extensive
timbered park, with beautiful shrubberies, lawns, and gardens, and a
neighbourhood very fine, with large and small bits of plantation
interspersed with green fields rounded in outline, In old-world times it
was the property of the Wallaces,
and an occasional resort of the patriot.
Craigie house,
down the same charming river, near the town, is also a comfortable seat,
amid luxuriant sylvan ornature.
The surface of the
parish is level, and the soil light, with some slight departures in the
east. From the centre of Ayr town, north-east, the length of the parish is
four and a-half miles; and from Pow Burn, near the Shaw
Monument, south-east to a burn between Brocklehill and Annbank,
its widest part is three miles. Aea, 4876 acres. Population, including
Wallacetown and Content sections of Ayr town, 7352.
NEWTON-on-AYR PARISH,
which is mostly in the Parliamentary
Until recently, Newton
was a separate burgh from Ayr, supposed to have been made by King
Robert Bruce, and has an interesting
history of its own. We give one historical incident, as it seems to have
had some influence in establishing at an early date that fostering care
that makes females here so successful in their loving determination to
restore to health and energy the invalids who come to lodge in their
houses. The giant patriot, Wallace,
had slain three out of five English soldiers who attacked him while he was
fishing in the Irvine at Riccarton, and was hiding in the Laiglin
Wood near Auchincruive. On a market day he left his horse with
his boy in the wood, walked into the town-it is believed to purchase food
- and was immediately surrounded with English soldiers. In fighting his
way through them he broke his sword at the hilt; the glittering blade flew
away, and he was taken prisoner. In prison, Henry
the Minstrel says, "Barrell
heryng and wattir thai him gawe." They starved him in that dungeon
until they believed he was dead, and tumbled his body over the wall. Henry
the Minstrel says :-
" In a draff
myddyn, quher he remannyt thar. His fyrst noryss, of the Newtoun of Ayr,
Till him scho come, quhilk was full will of reid, And thyggyt leiff away
with him to fayr. Into gret ire thai grantyt hir to go. Scho tuk him up
with outyn wordis mo, and on a caar wnlikly him thai cast: Atour the
wattir led him with gret woo, Till hyr awin houss with outyn any hoo. Sho
warmyt wattir, and hir serwandis fast His body wousche, quhill filth was
of hym past. His hart was wicht, flykeryt to and fro, Als his twa eyne he
kest wp at the last.
His fostyr modyr,
lowed him our the laiff, Did mylk to warme, his liff giff scho mycht saiff;
And with a spoyn gret kyndnes to him kyth. Hyr dochtyr had of twelf wokkis
ald a knayff; Hir childis pape in Wallace mouth scho gaiff. The womannys
mylk recomprd him full swyth :Syn in a bed thai brockt him fair and lyth.
Rycht cowertly thai kepe him in that saiff, Him for to sawe so secretlye
thai mycht. Scho gart graith up a burd be the houss side, With carpettis
cled, and honowryt with gret lycht : And for the worce euiry place suld
bide, At he was ded, out throuch the land so wide, In presence ay scho
wepyt wndyr slycht ; But gudely meytis scho graithit him at hir mycht."
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