160 AYRSHIRE 



Ayrshire, numberless shallow depressions, which are surmount 



ed by slender prominences, rarely swelling beyond the 



magnitude of hillocks, or knolls. Over this dull 

 expanse the hand of art has spread some exquisite 

 embellishments, which, in a great measure, atone for 

 the native insipidity of the scene, but which might 

 be still farther heightened by covering many of these 

 spaces with additional woods, free from the dismal in- 

 termixture of Scotch fir, a tree which predominates 

 infinitely too much all over the country, deforming 

 what is beautiful, and shedding a deeper gloom on 

 what is already more than sufficiently cheer] 



Cunningham is said by Buchanan to be a word of 

 Danish extraction, denoting a king's habitation; and 

 hence he infers, that the region was in possession of 

 the Danes before it received this denomination. It 

 is less fanciful to derive the name from the Saxon 

 word, signifying a place where conies or rabbits bur- 

 row, an appellation which suits the district well, as 

 its sandy downs abound with rabbit warrens to this 

 day. This fertile tract of country is divided among 

 a few great proprietors. It is decorated only by a 

 Small number of gentlemen's residences ; but it con- 

 tains several populous towns, and the harbours of Ir- 

 vine, Saltcoats, and Ardrossan. With the exception 

 of Largs, which is circumscribed within a rocky 

 frontier, so as to be insulated from the surrounding 

 Country, almost the whole of Cunningham declines 

 gradually towards the sea, presenting on all sides a 

 rich and extensive prospect, finely contrasted with the 

 islands in the Firth of Clyde, the Cumbr.ies, Bute, 

 Arran, and the distant mountains of Argyleshire. 

 When it is skilfully cultivated, it will rank with the 

 finest plains in the whole ot Scotland. 



Form-.rly the baronies of Cunningham and Largs 

 were under the jurisdiction of the borough of Irvine. 

 The Earls of Cassilis were hereditary bailiffs of Car- 

 rick ; the Campbells of Loudon were hereditary 

 bailiffs of Kyle ; and the Wallaces, lords of Craigie, 

 were heritable stewards. 



There are many lakes in this county, some of them 

 extensive,but none very remarkable either for the beau- 

 ty or the wildness of the scenery. The shore in ge- 

 neral is very flat, and kelp is found in various places ; 

 but little attention has hitherto been paid to the ma- 

 nufacture of this valuable substance. 



With respect to the climate, it is observable that 

 there is much more rain in general on the western than 

 on the eastern coast of Scotland, and particularly in 

 the autumnal and winter months. In the spring, 

 however, the west has the advantage. The easterly 

 winds are not by any means so hurtful to vegetation, or 

 so intolerably chilly in that part of the island, as they 

 are in the vicinity of the German Ocean ; and the un- 

 comfortable fogs, which prevail so frequently on the 

 Firth of Forth, are comparatively little known in 

 Ayrshire. 



There is considerable diversity of soil in this coun- 

 ty. Near the shore it is for the most part sandy, 

 but in many places intermixed with a rich loam. In 

 other places gravelly soils prevail ; but not to a very 

 great extent. A large proportion of the soil is a stiff 

 deep clay, which produces very abundant crops, 

 when carefully managed. In some situations, the 

 clay is merely superficial, lying over a substratum of 



schistus or till. Towards the e9t, where the ground; Ayrshire, 

 are highest, there is a great predominance of fen and * 

 peat-moss. 



Till of late years the state of agriculture in Ayr- 

 shire is described as having been barbarous in the ex- 

 plorable picture is drawn by Col. 

 Fullartoii of the wretchedness, ignorance, and apathy, 

 in which the farmers were sunk till the middle of the 

 last century ; and it appears that it required no ordi- 

 nary efforts to emancipate them from the degrada- 

 tion to which they had long been doomed, not by 

 the rigour of their superiors, but by their own pre- 

 judices. We lament to state, that the means which 

 were thought necessary to rouse them from their tor- 

 por, have tended to retard rather than to accelerate 

 the progress of good husbandry. With a view to 

 enforce the observance of an improved system, Mr 

 Fr.irly of Fairly recommended a plan, which has 

 been almost universally adopted, of granting leases with 

 the most rigid restrictive articles, prescribing a parti- 

 cular course of operations to be followed in the ma- 

 nagement of every farm, under the penalty of heavy 

 additional rents to be imposed for every deviat 

 however slight. According to his scheme, every 

 farm is divided into three parts, and the tenant is 

 bound not to plough more than a third in any one 

 year, and not to plough the same land more than 

 three years successively. The series of crops is also 

 specified. By these regulations, all the land must rest 

 six years in grass before it can be ploughed a second 

 time. In some places only a fourth of the land is 

 permitted to be in tillage at a time, and only two 

 successive crops are allowed to be taken. The leases 

 are generally granted for 15 or 18 years. 



So long as this practice continues, there can belit- 

 tle encouragement to intelligent farmero to embark in 

 an undertaking, in the course of which they must of- 

 ten be constrained to act in opposition to their owa 

 judgment. There is no scope left to the exertion 

 of ingenuity, and the most obvious improvements are 

 interdicted by an authority equally arbitrary and in- 

 judicious. It is absolutely impracticable to devise a 

 mode of cultivation which will be applicable to every 

 variety of soil ; and we can scarcely conceive any sys- 

 tem less adapted than this to the clayey soils, which 

 cannot be meliorated without frequent renovation by 

 the plough. 



The improvements in agriculture are consequently 

 found to be much fewer than might have been expect- 

 ed, if a more liberal system had'been pursued by the 

 landed proprietors. The land is neither sufficiently 

 drained nor cleaned. Many of the antient clumsy 

 practices are still in use. Four horses may be seen 

 dragging an old fashioned plough ; or more frequent- 

 ly three horses, with a driver. We have, in several 

 instances, (as lately as April 1SI0, ) witnessed the 

 phenomenon of a plough drawn by two horses, and 

 managed by two men, one holding and another dri- 

 ving. We will not venture to divine what can be the 

 pretence for employing these supernumeraries. Oa 

 "many of the lands, the ridges are still high, broad, 

 and crooked, and the furrows filled with a profusion 

 of rushes. In the neighbourhood of some of the po- 

 pulous towns a better system prevails. The most 

 approved alternate husbandry has beeu partially in- 



