** 



AYR. 



Ayr. public preaching, and performed the sacred duties of 

 /- ' his office with a conscientious regard for the spiritual 

 welfare of his people, and the good of the church. 

 He was a man of considerable learning and abilities, 

 but rather of an irritable and persecuting spirit ; and 

 his unwarrantable attacks upon the puritan clergy, 

 and the virulent abuse with which he treated them, 

 ' drew upon him a retaliation no less acrimonious; for, 

 according to Full. , he was the hero of the celebrated 

 Martin Mar-Prelate. See Andrew's Hist, of G. 

 Britain, vol. i. p. 521. Bios;. Brit, (p) 



AYR, or Am, (anciently named Vidogara,) a 

 river which rises from Glenbuck, on the boundary 

 between Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, and, after run- 

 ning thirty miles westward, tails into the Firth of 

 Clyde at the harbour of Ayr. This river dividi s the 

 county into two portions not very unequal ; and it is 

 possible that the present name might originate from 

 this very circumstance. The inland boundary of 

 Ayrshire, as it appears in ancient maps, is incurvated 

 almost in the form of a bow, and if the line of coast 

 be considered as the string, the river, which bisects 

 it and extends to the most prominent part, nearly in 

 the direction of an arrow in a bow, might be called 

 AiiffE, on the same principle which has given the 

 name of sagittal-suture to the synarthrosis between 

 the parietal bones of the cranium. This etymology, 

 suggested by a whimsical writer, is not more unsa- 

 ti It ictory than many others which have been assign- 

 it ed to the word. The poet Jonston has no hesitation 

 in deriving it from the purity of the atmosphere; 

 an<' he awkwardly hints, that its resemblance to the 

 1 ', implies some affinity to gold. Some 

 learned persons choose to say, that the name of this 

 river signifies icater, others shallow, others clear, 

 others rapid ; not one of which terms can be admit- 

 ted to form a distinction between it and the other ri- 

 yers in the county. There is no doubt, that in mai.y 

 languages a word similar to this signifies water, air, 

 fire, or some other fluid ; and probably these signi- 

 fications are all derived from the Heb. "^frf, tojioxv. 

 . It is most probable that the modern Ayr is only the 

 termination of the ancient name, Fiodach-Ar, or 

 Gwddawg-Ar, (whence Vidogara was formed,) sig- 

 nifying the sylvan river, or the river in the forest. 



For about fifteen miles from its source the river 

 possesses no beauties. The remaining half of its 

 course is very romantic. The banks, in most places, 

 are preeipitous and rocky, clothed with natural 

 wood, and the dusky stream below winds its way 

 round these steep eminences, many of which have al- 

 so been decorated by modern improvements, (m. a.) 

 AYR, or Ant, (formerly Are.) a very ancient 

 town on the west coast of Scotland, and the capital 

 of Ayrshire, is situate on the southern bank of the 

 river of the same name, at its influx into the Firth of 

 . Clyde. To the parish of Ayr that of Alloway was 

 annexed early in the 18th century; but the lands 

 granted in the charter of the borough, ( most of which 

 have long been alienated,) extended over the whole of 

 these now united parishes. The present rental of 

 this royalty is 10,000 per annum, and the number 

 of acres is above 5000. Fifty years ago the state of 



157 



3d. 



Alloway the farmers Could not afford to pay Is. 

 of rent per acre. 



In former times this town was a place of consider- 

 able military importance. Though nature has not 

 afforded it any remarkable facilities for defence, there 

 is reason to believe that it was fortified at a very re- 

 mote period. No trace remains of the more ancient 

 places of strength, which are obscurely hinted at in 

 the traditionary records of the vulgar ; but it i*. 

 known that in 1197, William, surnamed the Lion, 

 built a castle at the mouth of the river. A few years 

 afterwards, this prince, whose charters to royal bo- 

 roughs are the oldest now extant, erected a borough 

 at his New-castle-upon-Are. The charter, having 

 no year affixed to it, is generally supposed to have 

 been granted about the year 1180; but the date ap- 

 pears, from internal evidence, to have been twenty 

 years later. As it contains a reference to the new 

 castle, it must have been posterior to the year 1197 ; 

 and as the first witness, Florence, archbishop of Glas- 

 gow, is designed eleclo Glascuensi Cancellario meo, 

 it could not be earlier than 1202, the year in which 

 that prelate was advanced to the high office of chan- 

 cellor. 



The borough is under the government of a pro- 

 vost, two bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and 

 twelve counsellors ; and, along with Irvine, Rothe- 

 say, Inverary, and Campbeltown, enjoys the privi- 

 lege of sending a burgess to serve in the United Par- 

 liament. Very few boroughs, either in Great Bri- 

 tain or Ireland, are 80 little embroiled with party po- 

 litics, and so little under the influence of great fami- 

 lies. The chief magistrate, and leading members of 

 the council, have generally been men of good educa- 

 tion, public spirit, and liberal views ; and yet some 

 of the most obvious and indispensable matters, con- 

 nected with police, have been strangely overlooked. 



The town can boast of few advantages in point of 

 appearance. The houses are set down so awkwardly, 

 and (as it were) fortuitously, that it is impossible to 

 conceive that the former inhabitants consulted either 

 neatness or convenience, when they produced such 

 uncouth and amorphous combinations. Even in the 

 principal street, the eye is hurt perpeti ally by ob- 

 serving the contiguous buildings protruding beyond 

 each other, in almost every possible direction, one 

 perhaps standing square to the front, another shoul- 

 dering obliquely forward, and a third facing to the 

 right or left. Here you see a stately edifice, rearing 

 its gigantic form over a diminutive hovel, with scarce- 

 ly a door or window. This circumstance is perhaps 

 favourable to the view of the town from a distance, 

 as the great inequality of surface produces something 

 of a turreted appearance, and compensates for the 

 small number of spires. This street has been com- 

 pared to a crescent, but with no propriety, unless 

 any crooked line, full of indentatioi.s, can be called a 

 crescent. The btreets are ill lighted, wretchedly 

 paved, and very insufficiently cleaned. Side-pave- 

 ments of flag-stones, for foot passengers, may be 

 mentioned among the desiderata, which, in a situation 

 like Ayr, might easily be supplied; and this very 

 practicable improvement would surely conduce great 



Ayr. 





 * 



agriculture was so wretched, that in the parish of ly to the comfort of the inhabitants. 



