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Notes on the way
through Ayrshire - 100 years ago (now about 200 years ago)
CUNNINGHAM
THE ancient Bailiwick
of Cunningham, extending from Irvine River to the northern
boundary of the county, was governed hereditarily by the
great family of Cunningham, who
became Earls of
Glencairn,
and whose name it bears. But the origin of the name would seem to be Conig
Ham - that is, King’s District. Irvine was its capital. Under
its modern name of North Ayrshire, it sends an M.P. to the House of
Commons. It comprises 16 parishes.
KILMARNOCK
THE largest town in
Ayrshire, stands in the two parishes of Kilmarnock and Riccarton,
at the confluence of Kilmarnock Water and Irvine River,
seven miles east from the sea, 15 miles north-north-east of Ayr, and 23
miles by rail from Glasgow. It is a place of antiquity, having originated,
we suppose, with Kilmarnock or
Dean Castle, in the year 1066;
was made a burgh of barony by
James VI., 1591; a royal
burgh by Charles II.,
1672; and a Parliamentary burgh in 1832. Population in 1871,
23,709; in 1881, 25,844.
It covers a large area,
stretching about two miles from south to north, by an average breadth of
half-a-mile. The wide-spreading plan, which is rare in Scotland, is the
best for any town, as it gives to so many separate families their own
front and back doors, with garden and little bleaching green set about
with flowers and berry bushes. A number of the streets, however, are
closely packed and antiquated, but they are for the most part spacious and
well built-the chief ones presenting a magnificent array of shops, hotels,
business offices, and public buildings, many of which are rich in design
and costly in workman-ship. It has a Town Hall, a Court-House, an
Exchange; a head post office, with all departments; branches of the Bank
of Scotland, Royal Bank, National Bank, Clydesdale Bank, British Linen
Company Bank, Union Bank, and Commercial Bank; two free schools, two other
large primary schools, an Academy, a School of Art; a Philosophical
Institute, with an observatory, 75 feet in height, erected and
furnished with instruments in 1818. The ecclesiastical edifices include 21
churches - namely, six Free Churches, five Established Churches, four
United Presbyterian Churches, two Evangelical Union Churches, an Original
Secession Church, a Baptist Church, an Episcopalian Church, and a Roman
Catholic Church. Many of these have special marks of beauty and interest. The
steeple of the Grange Free Church is a feature of the town. The
Laigh Kirk, rebuilt in 1729, has its old spire, erected in 1410,
still standing; and its auld Kirkyard is of more than ordinary
interest to the antiquary, containing as it does the remains and monuments
of many celebrated people of the far distant past. Here are two martyrs’
tombstones. And,
" Tam Samson’s
weel-worn clay here lyes, Ye canting zealots spare him ;
If honest worth to
heaven rise,. Ye’ll mend or ye win near him."
The office where the
first edition of Burns’ Poems was printed is not now to the fore,
though there are several printing offices, and two weekly newspapers are
published- The Kilmarnock Herald
and the Kilmarnock
Standard. The room in
which the poet corrected his proof sheets is still to be seen. In the
centre of the town is a statue of Sir
James Shaw. (See Riccarton.)
As a seat of
manufacture, Kilmarnock is the greatest. in the shire. It first became
distinguished for the manufacture of Scotch bonnets. The
Corporation of Bonnet Makers dates from 1647. The carpet
manufacture (the first in Scotland) was properly commenced by Mary
Gardner; and, aided subsequently by
the mechanical inventions of Thomas
Morton, and the enthusiasm of
artistic genius that inspired the working women and men engaged, it soon
attained to great perfection of beauty and quality. Buckingham Palace has
been furnished with Kilmarnock carpets, as the most fitting match for the
golden slippers of Royalty. Another of the old industries of the town is
,the wholesale manufacture of hand-stitched boots and shoes. The
annual value of this production in 1791 was almost equal to the carpet
production of that time, being £21,216; while tanning produced £9000,
and glove making £3000 annually. In 1840 the value of carpets produced
annually amounted to £150,000, and of shawls £240,000. Since that time a
number of extensive new industries - chief among which is the
manufacture of steam engines and works connected therewith - have
rapidly augmented the wealth and size of the town, and spread its fame
throughout the civilized world. Wherever the locomotive is known, there
also is known and applauded Barclay of Kilmarnock’s ingenious
invention, the injector, for priming the steam boiler.
The vicinage of the town
is charming, with numerous polished and beautiful stone villas and
cottages, adorned with shrubs and flowers from the various and splendid
nurseries at hand; and above all, the Burns’ Monument, a massive
structure 80 feet high, towering aloft in the Kay Park. It is of
the old Scotch baronial order of architecture, and happily represents the
" rustic grace " which the poet admired so much in his native
country. The ground story of the building is occupied by the keeper; above
is a museum of valuable relics of Burns;
and above that again is a fine marble statue of the poet - a true statue -
so graceful, and so like the well known and beloved portrait by Nasmith
as to fill one’s heart with joy. It is by
W. G. Stevens, of Edinburgh, and
cost £800. The baronial tower which belongs to it is after designs by Ingram,
of Kilmarnock, and cost over £2000. The whole sum flowed in by
subscription. The public park in which it stands on an eminence in the
centre, is one of 40 acres, and cost £12,000, the funds having been left
for that purpose by the late Alexander
Kay, of (Glasgow, a native of
Kilmarnock, who also bequeathed a further sum of £6000 for the erection
and endowment of two schools for the children of poor industrious folk. The
Reformers’ Monument
occupies a commanding site in the park. It is of the Corinthian order,
bearing a beautiful statue of the figure of liberty, and is about 53 feet
high. An ornamental fountain in the park is the gift of the late Mrs.
Crook, and cost £800. Here is also
an elegant band stand; and when on summer evenings the air is filled with
music and the ground bedecked with flowers, the Kay Park is indeed
a gay park. But there is yet another public park, which, though new to the
town, is grand in the solemn majesty of age, and supplies the sweet and
peaceful repose sought by those of advanced years - Belfield by
name- an estate of 240 acres, with pleasure-grounds, mansion and all, at
the south end of the town, recently gifted to the people by the late Misses
Buchanan of Belfield, three sisters,
the last of whom died in 1875. It does one good to see that ingenious
Kilmarnock, the pride of Ayrshire art and industry, so lately fenced on
the hard roads as hardly another town of such magnitude was, can now laugh
to behold her children cast their shoes and stockings in warm weather for
the thrilling pleasure of having the soles of their young poetic feet
tickled with God’s gowany grass.
Kilmarnock is
prolific of poets - the finest variety of the human species - though,
like all other poets of Ayrshire, they are in a measure lost in the blaze
of Burns,
as stars in the effulgence of the sun. We have space but to mention a few
of the past. Alexander Smith,
poet and essayist, was born at Kilmarnock on Hogmanay, 1830, and received
his education here. Was first intended for the ministry, but circumstances
occurred which necessitated his leaving school and engaging in his father’s
occupation of lace pattern designer. While working at his trade in
Glasgow, all his spare time was given to the composition of verse. In
1853, at the age of three-and-twenty, he published a long poem entitled
"A Life Drama," which was received well by the best critics, not
as a dramatic work, but as uncommonly fine poetry. Next year he was
rewarded with the favourable appointment of secretary to the Edinburgh
University. During the Russian war (1855) he published "War
Sonnets," conjointly with Sidney Dobel; in 1857 appeared his
"City Poems," a small volume of short pieces; in 1861
"Edwin of Deira." in 1863, " Dreamthorp," , 1865, a
delightful volume of essays; in "A Summer in Skye," and also an
"Edition of Burns, with Memoir; " in 1866, Alfred Haggart’s
House-hold*" in 1867, "Miss Dona M‘Quarrie." The two last
are novels. Mr. Smith also contributed prose articles to "
Encvclopedia Britannica, " " Blackwood’s Magazine," and
"Chambers Encyclopedia." His writings, whether in poetry or
prose, are remarkable for their beautifully figurative style and elegant
finish, and take the first rank in the pure literature class to which they
belong. Died at the age of 37.
The Rev.
George Campbell, poet, horn in
Kilmarnock, 1760, was bred a shoemaker, and also a poem maker, for while
he was making the one ho was making the other, and whiles the one and
whiles the other would get upper-most in his mind. He was at the same time
giving himself a course of self-education for the ministry; but the shoes
afforded so little time for this that ho left them, and taught a small
school. Having prepared himself for the University of Glasgow before his
savings had sufficiently accumulated to pay the cost of going there, he
contrived to eek out the sum by publishing his poems in one volume. On
leaving the University he was licensed to preach by the Burger Associate
Synod, and placed minister of a congregation at Stockbridge, Berwickshire,
where he published a volume of sermons, and remained until his death in
1818.
John Ramsay,
poet, born in Kilmarnock, 1802, was bred to carpet weaving in a factory.
While weaving his beautiful web he was also weaving his beautiful poem,
and contributing pieces to the "Edinburgh Literary Journal."
Having saved a few pounds by his labour, he opened a small shop in
the grocery line, and afterwards published his poems in a goodly
sized volume. Not agreeing with waiting behind the counter, he gave it up;
and, to obtain the open-air exercise which his poetic constitution
demanded, went courageously forth over Scotland selling his volume, not
giving it to the bookselling trade; and thus securing to himself a
monopoly of buyers, and all the retail, wholesale, and publishing profits.
But even with these advantages, and though his work was in every way
worthy, it required an amount of energy which only such as he, bred to
hard work, could think of exerting; and when that failed him, in advanced
years, Mr. Ramsay
suffered considerable hardships. age of 77. Died in Glasgow at the
Speaking of hardships, we are reminded of poor Jean
Glover, author and composer of the
grand enthusiastic pastoral song and melody "Ower the moor Burns
met her, and wrote down the song from her fervid lips. Died in 1801, aged
43. Another poetic maiden of Kilmarnock, but of happier memory - Marion
Paul Aird-
was born in Glasgow, 1815, her mother being sister to the Rev.
Hamilton Paul, editor of Burns
and a native of Girvan Water. Miss
Aird
removed at an early age to Kilmarnock, where she composed her poems. Her
first volume--"The Home of the Heart, and other Poems "-was
published in 1846, and that was followed in 1853 by "Heart
Histories." These, her principal corks, contain many very fine sacred
pieces. Archibald M‘Kay,
poet,, born at Kilmarnock, 1801, was first a weaver, next a bookbinder,
and latterly he kept a circulating library and stationer’s shop of his
own. entitled " Drouthy Tam," In 1828 he published a poem which
attracted much attention; in 1844, a volume of poems and sketches entitled
"Recreations of Leisure Hours;" in 1848, his celebrated "
History of Kilmarnock," a fourth edition of which was issued in 1880;
in 1855, " Ingleside Lilts ; " and subsequently, " Burns
and his Kilmarnock Friends." The most popular of
M‘Kay’s productions are "
My First Bawbee," and "Be Kind to Auld Grannie." Died in
Kilmarnock, aged 82. Robert
Tannahill, the poet, author of
"Loudoun’s Bonny Woods and Braes," was born in Paisley,
though his father was a native of Kilmarnock.
Principal James Morison,
D.D., founder of the Evangelical Union Church, was born at Bathgate,
1815 - his father, the Rev. Robert
Morison, author of "Statement
of Principles, " " Infant Baptism Vindicated," &c.,
being then minister of the Secession Church there. In 1840 Dr.
Morison, in his 25th year, was
ordained minister of Clerk’s Lane Secession Church, Kilmarnock.
In the following year he published a tract entitled " The Way of
Salvation,: or, the question answered, What must I do to be saved ? This
occasioned much controversy concerning the atonement; and, by a decision
of the Presbytery, its author was suspended for heresy. This decision
having been confirmed by the Synod, to which he appealed, and not choosing
to deny his conscientious belief, he was ejected from the Secession
Church. A majority of the Clerk’s Lane congregation adhering to their
minister, effected an arrangement by which they retained possession of the
edifice. Thus was founded the Morisonian Church, now called the
Evangelical Union. It already numbers about 80 churches, being more
than thrice as many as those of the United Original Seceders’ Church,
from which it seceded. Dr. Morison
holds the offices of Principal and Professor in the Theological Hall of
the Evangelical Union Church, Glasgow.
James Paterson
literary antiquary, was born at Struthers, outside the town’ May
18, 1805, and learned the printing business in Kilmarnock. Published
" Contemporaries of Burns," edition of " Sempill Ballates,"
1848 ; "The Obit Book of the Church of St. John the Baptist,
Ayr;" "History of Ayr;" " Wallace and his
friends;" "Life and Poems of William Dunbar," &c. Died
1877.
The town is well
supplied with railways. They go out in six directions-north by Stewarton
to Glasgow, north-west by Kilbirnie to Greenock, west by Ardrossan
to Largs, south-west by Ayr to Stranraer, south-east by New
Cumnock to Gretna Green, east by Galston to Newmilns ; and a
new direct line to Ayr is in proposition. The section between here and
Troon, now reconstructed, is the oldest railway in Scotland, having
been opened in 1812, and therefore before the use of the
locomotive.
The Mount and Annanhill
are seats on the west side of the town. About a mile north-east of the
town, on the right of the road to Fenwick - where Crawfordland
and Fenwick Waters join and form Kilmarnock Water - stands
the majestic ruin of
the Dean or Kilmarnock Castle, its massive
roofless towers rising to a height of 70 feet. A portion of it still
standing dates from 1066. Its earliest known occupants were
Lockharts ; but it is chiefly
identified with the noble family of
Boyd,
Earls of
Kilmarnock,
the last of whom - William, Fourth
Earl-was taken prisoner at the
battle of Culloden, and executed along with Lord
Balmerino. The ablest member of this
family was Robert, first Lord .Boyd,
son of Sir Thomas of Kilmarnock. He
acquired a national popularity, and great favour with the King (James
II.), who created him a peer by the
title of Lord Boyd of Kilmarnock.
On the death of that monarch, in 1460,
Boyd
was appointed Chancellor of the Kingdom, and one of the four Lords
of the Regency during the minority of James
III. He got his brother, Sir
Alexander, appointed Governor of the
young King, whom they advised to discharge from office the other three
Lords of the Regency - viz., the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the Archbishop
of Glasgow, and the Bishop of Dunkeld - and had himself (the Chancellor)
declared sole Regent. As sole Regent and Chancellor, he practically
commanded the whole power of the State. He now got the King to create his
son
Earl of Arran, and had him
married to his majesty’s eldest sister. This was going ahead. But some
of the other nobles, getting access to the King, advised him to call a
Parliament to discuss the conduct of Lord
Boyd. Failing to appear in
Parliament in defence of their proceedings, the
Boyds were condemned as traitors. Sir
Alexander was seized and beheaded ;
Lord Boyd escaped over the Border,
and died at Alnwick, 1470 ; and his son, the
Earl of Arran, was divorced from his
wife, the Princess, and died in exile at Antwerp, 1474. They were
evidently condemned by their fellow nobles out of pure spite at their
success. Elizabeth, daughter of Lord
Boyd, was the mother of Gavin
Douglas, the eminent old Scotch
poet, Bishop of Dunblane. About one mile and a half north-east of
Kilmarnock Castle, up Crawfordland Water, on its right
bank, stands Crawfordland Castle, partly a very old and partly a
new mansion. The Crawfords
have an interesting history.
Rowallan Castle is
a preserved ancient ruin, in grand old woods on Carmel Water, about
a league north of Kilmarnock. It is known to have been the residence of the
family of Mure so far back as the
twelfth century, and is regarded with poetic reverence for the beauty of
its old groves, and as the home of Sir
William Mure, early Scotch poet, and
of Elizabeth Mure,
"fair Rowallan’s Daughter," who became a Queen.
Sir William was born in 1594 - his
mother, Elizabeth Montgomery of
Hazelhead, Beith,
being a sister, it is understood, of the Scotch poet, Alexander
Montgomery. His first literary
efforts are translations in verse from the Latin of Virgil, made before
his twentieth year. In his twenty-third year he wrote a poetical address
to King James VI.,
on his visiting Scotland in 1617. " The True Crusifixe for True
Catholickes" was published at Edinburgh, 1620; and in 1639 he
produced a new version of the Psalms of David. "The Cry of Blood and
of a Broken Covenant" was published at Edinburgh, 1650. Some of his
writings lay in manuscript for two hundred years, until they appeared in a
publication ,entitled "Ancient Songs and Ballads," issued in
1820. Sir William
was a Covenanter, and, as Captain of a company in the Ayrshire
regiment, he fought at Marston Moor, where he was wounded, and at the
taking of Newcastle in 1644. Died in 1657.
Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, the
beautiful and accomplished daughter of Sir
Alexander, married, in 1348, Robert
Stewart of Dundonald (afterwards Robert
II.), only child of the
Princess Marjory, daughter of King
Robert Bruce. To her husband she
bore a family of four sons and six daughters. Her eldest son was Robert
III., her grandson was James
I., and so on the monarchs of
Scotland, and of England and Ireland united to it, have been her
descendants ever since.
The parish of Kilmarnock
is rich in coal seams, which are successfully worked. The section, in the
order of descent, is:-Wandering coal, 2 feet 8 inches; McNaught coal, 3
feet; Towerhall coal, 3 feet; major coal, 4 feet 6 inches; main coal, 4
feet; Linbed coal, 2 feet 10 inches; splint coal, 3 feet 10 inches; turf
coal, 2 feet 9 inches; wee coal, 2 feet.
The surface, which is
mostly in good cultivation, is flat and productive about the town, where
it is 100 feet above the sea level. From that it rises gently to 400 feet
at its northern extremity, about three-fourths of a mile beyond Rowallan,
and to 782 feet at Sneddon Law, its highest and most easterly part.
From a little brook that feeds Polbaith Burn, at the back of Sneddon
Law, seven miles from Kilmarnock, to a point two miles west-by-south
of the town, its length is nine miles; and from past Rowallan to
the junction of the Polbaith and the Irvine, a mile below
the town of Galston, its transverse diameter is five miles. Area,
9444 acres. Population, 25,864.
Churches
In 1832, there were the following eight churches in Kilmarnock:
CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Laigh Kirk (Low Church) - the original one founded 1410, rebuilt
1802, near King Street but more accurately in Church Lane off Bank Street.
High Church - built 1731 on slightly higher ground, hence the name -
again, not far from Wellington Street but more accurately on Back Street
PRESBYTERIAN BUT NOT CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Burghers Original (sometimes called Old Light) built 1818
Wellington Street - became Henderson Free Church after the Disruption in 1843
Antiburghers (sometimes called New Light) built 1772 in Fultons Lane
became United Secession around 1820 Reformed Presbyterian in Mill
Lane, built 1785 rebuilt 1825 Relief Church in King Street, built 1832
NON-PRESBYTERIAN (DISSENTING)
Congregational, Clark Street, built 1826
Evangelical Union, Clerk's Lane, built 1775
In 1851, there were the following 18 churches in Kilmarnock:
CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Laigh Kirk (Low Church) High Church
St Marnock's Church
St Andrew's Church
FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Free High Church
Free St Andrew's Church
Free Henderson Church
UNITED SECESSION (PRESBYTERIAN)
Fulton's Lane Church
Prince's Street Church
OTHER PRESBYTERIAN, NOT CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Relief Church
Reformed Presbyterian Church (Mill Lane)
DISSENTING (non-Presbyterian)
Congregational Church, Clark Street
Evangelical Union Church, Clerk's Lane
Original Seceders, Academy, Green Street
Wesleyan Methodists, East George Street
United Methodists, Croft Hall
Baptists, Portland Street
ROMAN CATHOLIC
West George Street
THE SNOW-STORM OF SATURDAY, 3D MARCH, 1827.
THIS remarkable snow-storm, which occurred, as stated above, on Saturday, the
3rd of March, 1827, will be long remembered in this locality. In several places
of the town the snow was about twenty feet deep; and some of the country roads
in the vicinity were so filled up, that the tops of the tall hedges with which they
were skirted could scarcely be discerned. Unfortunately, too, the storm proved
fatal to one of our townsmen, Mr. John Brown, shoemaker. Ho was a passenger
in the Telegraph coach from Glasgow to Kilmarnock; and on its being arrested
near Drumboy Hill, he, along with the driver and two fellow-travellers, left it to
seek assistance at Logan's Well Inn, when he lost his way, and perished amid the
trackless snow. The county newspaper of the time thus describes the occurrence: "
It began to snow about 9 A.M., and continued without intermission for nearly
twenty-four hours. Towards evening a strong east wind arose, and the rising drift
speedily shut up the roads, and put a stop to travelling. The coaches were all
arrested eastward. The Ayr Telegraph for Glasgow, which left Kilmarnock with
six horses, came to an anchor between the two Fenwicks; that for Ayr lies at the
foot of Drumboy Hill. The Eegulator is somewhere about Logan's Well; the
Kilmarnock coach, the Britannia, near the Mearns; and the English coach, about
Mauchline. The Telegraph coach from Glasgow seems to have encountered the
greatest difficulties. On her being stopped at Drumboy Hill, the guard joined the
five inside passengers in the coach, whilst the driver and three outsides resolved
to proceed to King's Well, about a mile and a half distant, to procure assistance;
and the driver accordingly, after many deviations, reached the inn with some of
the horses. Such was the war of the elements, that no aid could be given at this
time, and the six people remained in the coach. About midnight two of the outside
passengers, after floundering about for six hours, came again in their wan-
derings upon the coach, which they at first mistook for a house, and were taken in
greatly exhausted; and here till next day did those eight remain in great distress,
and half suffocated by the snow drifting over them to the depth of four or five feet.
The third passenger, Mr. John Brown, shoemaker, Kilmarnock, was not, however,
even so fortunate. He missed both his way and his fellow-travellers, and sank
beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift . His body was found on Monday, and
brought to Kilmarnock in the evening."
Regarding the effects of the storm in Kilmarnock, the same authority says : " Our
streets on Sunday morning presented a novel appearance. Deep snow, wreathed
in all directions, covered every thing. The churches remained vacant; and those
meeting-houses which did attempt public worship were thinly attended. People
were employed to cut foot-paths-clearing the streets being out of the question.
The snow lay in wreaths in some places to the height of from twelve to twenty
feet. There has been no snow-storm here like the present since 1795."
We may add that the Eegulator coach, mentioned above, which left Glasgow for
Kilmarnock with six horses, also encountered great difficulties. It got only about
a hundred yards beyond Logan's Well Inn, when the horses were floundering in
wreaths of snow of about five feet in depth. Fortunately, however, they were
extricated from their perilous position, and the coach was dragged backwards to
the inn. The late Rev. Dr. George Smith, of the Low Church (afterwards of the
Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh), was one of the passengers, and though anxious to get
to Kilmarnock, where he was to preach the next day, he was compelled to remain
till Monday in Logan's Well house. As another instance of the unusual nature
of the storm, we may state, that when the Doctor looked out of his bed-room
window in the morning, he was much struck by seeing the back court filled with
snow to the eaves of the outhouses, and the post-gig sticking up on the top of a
huge wreath at a short distance from the inn.
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