1904-1905-] Largs a7id its Surroundings. 217 



House, which occupies a beautiful site in the valley. Until 

 the latter part of the seventeenth century the estate was 

 known as Kelsoland, and was the property and residence of 

 the ancient family of Kelso, whose pedigree has been traced 

 back as far as 1296. In the year 1671 these lands were 

 acquired by James Brisbane of Bishoptoun, whose ancestors 

 had been in possession of other property in the parish of 

 Largs from a period prior to 1400. The family claim 

 descent from William de Brisbane, who was chancellor of 

 Scotland in 1332. 



But the most interesting traditions of the valley are those 

 associated with a visitation of the plague or pestilence, which 

 ravaged Largs about the middle of the seventeenth century. 

 In its ecclesiastical affairs, as we have seen, the parish had at 

 that time attained a position of remarkable prosperity under 

 the brief ministry of Mr William Smith. Multitudes flocked 

 to listen to his discourses. The church was overcrowded, aud 

 proposals were made to relieve the parochial congestion. But 

 the congregation was soon reduced in numbers, not through 

 any device of presbytery or synod, but by the hand of the 

 destroying angel himself. The town became plague-stricken. 

 Death spread from house to house with awful rapidity. It is 

 said that in their dire distress the affrighted people fled from 

 the town, and retired to a distant part of the glen, where they 

 inhabited hastily constructed huts, formed of the rudest 

 materials. In the course of faithful ministrations upon his 

 afilicted people, the young pastor contracted the fatal disease, 

 and died in September 1647, at the early age of twenty-eight 

 years. His resting-place — known as " the Prophet's Grave " 

 (Plate XX.), and a favourite resort of visitors — is situated in 

 a lonely part of the glen. Tradition affirms that the dying 

 minister requested that two holly trees should be planted, one 

 on either side of his grave ; and he prophesied that so long as 

 the branches of the two trees were kept from meeting, the 

 plague should never revisit Largs. 



There are several fine waterfalls in the glen. In its upper 

 course the burn branches into several streamlets, each of 

 which descends through a deep and picturesque ravine, the 

 moist sides of which afford a congenial habitat to many 

 interesting plants. The following species may be mentioned 



