Ayr, 

 Ayrshire 



AYR 159 AYR 



lished weekly. A number of neat villas and elegant The general appearance of the county, though not 



houses have lately been added to the immediate vici- remarkably variegated, cannot easily be characterised 



nity ; and it is to be hoped that in a short time the in a few words. Carrick, we think, is the most in- 



dailv increasing beauty of the environs, will be suffi- teresting, though not the most fertile district. Its 



cien't to withdraw the attention from the prominent coast, extending from the Doon to Loch Ryan, 



deformities of the ancient streets. ( which some maintain is the 'OuiJoyaga, and others 



The population, in 1801, was stated at 5192 ; but the fh^iyovxi; xoXms of Ptolemy,) is occasionally bold 



none of the sailors belonging to the town were inclu- and rocky ; and its southern limit is enclosed by a 



ded : so that, fron; this and some othercircumstances, lofty ridge of hills, (the Uxellum Monies,) partly 



the females appeared to be more numerous than the green, and partly clothed with heath. The interve- 



males by more than one-Fourth. A greater dis- ning space between the shore and the mountains is, 



parity appears in many other lists ; a strong presump- for the most part, a gradual, but not uniform, ascent, 



tion that the cen. us alluded to was very inaccurately The surface is diversified by numerous acclivities, 



taken. The present number in the borough of Ayr; some of them gentle, others more abrupt, separated 



may be estimated at 7000 ; and if we add the adjoin- from each other by rivulets not " unknown in song," 



ing villages of Newton and Wallacetown, which are quietly stealing along verdant meadows, or pouring 



connected with this town by two bridges, the amount their foamy waters under the beetling foliage of se- 



can scarcely be under 11.000. This parish claims questered dells, which have been successively occupi- 



the honour of having given birth to Joannes Erigena, ed as the lurking-places of freebooting desperadoes, 



Chevalier Ramsay, and Robert Burns. N. Lat. 55 the retreats of unfortunate heroes, and the favourite 



27', W. Long. 4 37'. D stance from Edinburgh 76 haunts of the loves and the muses. The chief of these 



miles ; from Glasgow 31. (m ) streams, overhung with natural wood, are the Girvan 



AYR, Nf.wroN-i pox ; a borough of regality on and the Stinchar, or Ardstinchar, a sound not easily 



the north side of the river Ayr; the property of adapted to the melody of verse, x but still less uncouth 



which is held by a very peculiar tenure, (described in than the names of its tributary brooks, Muick, Feoch, 



the Statist. Account of Scotl. vol. 2. ) On the con- Ashil, and Dusk. Indeed most of the rivers in Ayr- 



tii.es of this 6mall parish is an hospital, called King- shire have names insufferably harsh and grating to the 



'H'nse, founded by Robert Bruce for eight leprous ear. With regard to Carrick, we shall only remark 



persons. The town itself is of great, though uncertain, farther, that, though it contains many picturesque 



antiquity. A number of boats are employed in fish- charms, many fairy landscapes, and many glens in- 



ing ; and a considerable quantity of coal is exported. comparably romantic, and though, from its vicinity 



Some ships are built on tills side of the harbour of to the ocean, it reveals some magnificent prospects, it 



Ayr; and for several years past a rope-work, has does not possess within itself either the grandeur or 



been established. Population nearly 2000. (;::. o.) the sweetness, either the richness or the gaiety, which 



AYRSHIRL. a maritime county in the west of enliven the Arcadian scenery on the Tay, the Tweed, 



Scotland, bounded on the south by Wigtownshire and and the Teviot. 



the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, on the east by Kyle, or Coil, having once been a forest, may have 



Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire, on the north by Ren- taken its name from that circumstance, (the Celtic 



fivwshire, and on the west by the Firth of Clyde, and Coi/l signifying wood;) but the natives, misled 



the Irish sea. Its length along the coast is above probably by the old chroniclers, derive it from Coi- 



80 miles ; and its greatest breadth from west to east lus, a British king, who is reported to have fallen 



about 32 miles. It contains three districts, (former- in battle somewhere on the river Coil, and to have 



ly denominated the three bailharies of Scotland,) been buried either at Coylton, or at Coilsfield. If 



Carrick, on the south of the river Doon, Cunning- such a personage ever existed, this does not appear 



ham, on the north of the Irvine, and Kyle, or Coil, to have been the scene either of his actions or of his 



which occupies the intermediate space, and which is misfortunes. The hill country, towards the east, is 



subdivided, by the river Ayr, into King's Kyle, and bleak, marshy, uncultivated, and uninteresting ; and 



Kyle Stewart. It includes the rock of Ailsa, and the on that side, except at one or two places, the district 



two islands called Cumbrae s, or Cambrays. The num- was formerly impervious. In advancing from these 



ber of parishes within the county is 47. It is- said heights to the sea, the symptoms of fertility and the 



to contain 1010 square mil, s, or 665,'bOO English beneficial effects of cultivation, rapidly multiply ; but 



acres. In 1801, the number of inhabitants was re- there is no " sweet interchange of hill and valley," no 



ported to the House of Commons to be 84,306. In sprightliness of transition, no bold and airy touches, 



1755, it had been stated at 59,268, and in 1790 either to surprise or delight. There is little varietv, 



1798, at 75,544. The valued rent is .] 49,59.5 or even distinctness of outline, except where the ver- 



Scots ; and in 1796, Sir John Sinclair estimated the miculations of the river are marked by deep fringes 



real rent at \ 12,752 sterling. The following is an of wood waving over the shelvy banks, or where the 



accurate statement of the real rental for 1808 : long and almost rectilineal summit of the brown Car- 



JL. . rick terminates abruptly in a rugged foreland; of- 



Distnct of Cunningham 127,632 4 where the multitudinous islands and hills beyond the 



Kyle. 113,162 3 sea exalt their colossal heads above the waves, and 



Carrick 63,724 lend an exterior beauty to that heavy continuity of 



Royalty or pansh of Ayr (in Kyle,) . . 9,855 flatness, which, from the higher grounds of Kyle.'ap- 



pears to pervade nearly the whole of its surface. The 



Total, 314,673 7 slope, both here and in Cunningham, is pitted with. 



Ayrshii 







