AYR 



Avwbire. ducing the population, superstition was erecting her 

 < s > gloomy temples, and ecclesiastical authority was bold- 

 ly appropriating the inheritances of the destroyer* 

 and the destroyed. The improvement of the people 

 was little consulted by the inmates of these consecra- 

 ted edifices, reared with die price of blood, and sup- 

 ported by the oblations of guilt ; and yet, it must be 

 confessed, that the arts which the churchmen intro- 

 duced, and the tfforts which they made to embellish 

 and fructify the country, had a tendency to open the 

 minds, and polish the manners, not only of the great, 

 but even of the middle and lower orders. At a later 

 period, some of the chief families of Ayrshire acted 

 a conspicuous part in forwarding the Reformation : 

 an undertaking in which none engaged with greater 



r.ness than those who had the best opportunities 

 of witnessing the haughtiness and luxury of the Ca- 

 tholic clergy, and those who had the fairest prospect 

 of succeeding to a share of the opulence which they 

 had envied, and the power which they had feared. 

 In Ayrshire, the revenues of some of the abbeys were 

 prodigious ; and the dissolute manners of the eccle- 

 siastics kept pace with their enormous wealth and 

 patronage. The antipathy to this spiritual despotism 

 continued, during the succeeding age, to operate with 

 unabated force, all over the west. The severe and 

 impolitic measures which were taken, soon after the 

 Reformation, with a view to extinguish the presby- 

 terian spirit, were such as could not fail to impress 

 the non-conformists with a rooted abhorrence to the 

 principles of their persecutors, and to alienate them 

 for ever from the house of Stuart. While the to- 

 leration which they had experienced from the usurp- 

 er Cromwell, whose victorious armies had quietly 

 occupied their coasts, was still fresh in their recol- 

 lection, an armed banditti from the Highlands were 

 let loose, by the unenlightened agents of the monar- 

 ehy, to suppress conventicles, and enforce uniformity 

 of religion. This barbarous militia, regardless equal- 

 ly of the dictates of humanity and piety, committed 

 unheard of atrocities ; and the less sustained in this 

 county from their depredations, amounted, in the 

 year 1678, to 137,500 Scots. Since the Revolu- 

 tion in 1688, the inhabitants have been tranquil and 

 loyal in the most turbulent times. 



The yeomanry and peasantry are, in general, a 

 handsome, athletic, and industrious set of people, 

 correct in their morals, frugal in their habits, and 

 zealously attached to t'ae civil and ecclesiastical con- 

 stitution of the country. The manufacturing towns 



inhabited by persons of a more miscellaneous de- 

 scription. The patrician families, many of whom 

 claim alliance with the most illustrious names in Scot- 

 tish history, evince a strong partiality to the county 

 with which they are connected, and are said to be 

 tenacious of aristocratical ideas, to a greater degree 

 than almost any of the other nobility in the lowlands. 

 Hitherto the middle and lower ranks have rarely 

 been betrayed into the sectarian spirit which pervades 

 some other counties. Of late years, indeed, the num- 

 ber of dissenters has increased considerably in the 

 populous towns and villages ; but their separation 

 from the church is attended by no violent symptoms 

 of disaffection Their pastors, so far as we have an 

 opportunity of knowing, are men of liberal and ra- 



163 A Z I 



tional views, untainted with bigotry, and, in protno- 

 ting every pious and benevolent purpose, cordially 

 disposed to co-operate with their brethren of the es- 

 tablished church ; whose respectability and diligence 

 are such, that the great mass of the population ad- 

 here to their ministry from affection as well as from 

 principle. 



In former times there was much smuggling on this 

 coast ; and those who engaged in it carried on their 

 operations in such formidable bodies, that a military 

 force durst scarcely venture to attack them with an 

 equality of numbers. The dissolution of morals, fos- 

 tered by this illicit traffic, was here confined within 

 a limited range ; but it is happy for the country that 

 these adventurers are now almost extinct. 



The above account has been necessarily abridged. 

 We have received several interesting communications 

 on the subject, of which our limits do not permit us 

 to avail ourselves. No agricultural survey of the 

 county has hitherto been printed, except one by 

 Colonel Fullarton in 1793. It is understood, that 

 Mr Aiton, writer in Strathaven, is employed in pre- 

 paring a report on this and some other counties. 

 Some information, though none of a later date than 

 1800, may also be expected from the third volume 

 of Chalmers' Caledonia, (not yet published.) See 

 Catrine, Irvine, Kilmarnock, Muikkirk, Salt- 

 coats, and Troon, (m. s.) 



AZAB, the Saba of the ancients, a territory in 

 Abyssinia, situated on the east coast of the Red Sea, 

 which was probably one of the principal stations of 

 the caravans that traded to Arabia. The inhabitants 

 were formerly called Sabaei, and it was famous for 

 frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic plants. Near 

 Azab are the remains of an aqueduct, built with 

 huge blocks of marble, kept together with bars of 

 brass instead of cement, and also of a number of 

 walls constructed with pieces of marble in -a similar 

 manner. Azab was probably the residence of the 

 queen of Saba. See Strabo, lib. xvi. ; Diod. lib. iii. ; 

 and Bruce's Travels, (j) 



AZALEA, a genus of plants of the class Pen- 

 tandria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, (hi) 



AZIMUNTINES, the inhabitants of Azimus, or 

 Azimuntum, a city of Thrace. See Gibbon's Hist. 

 chap, xxxiv. vol. vi. p. 54. ; chap. xlvi. vol. viii. p. 183. 

 () 



AZIMUTH, in Astronomy, an Arabic word, 

 employed by astronomers to denote the arc of the 

 horizon intercepted between the meridian and a ver- 

 tical circle passing through the celestial body whose 

 azimuth is measured. 



Let it be required to find the sun's azimuth at 

 Greenwich, the sun's declination being 21 40', and 

 his altitude 48 20'. We have 



Complement of latitude 38 32' 



Complement of altitude 41 40 



Complement of declination 68 20 



Sum 148 32 



Half sum 74 16 



Complement of latitude, subtract ... 38 32 



First difference 35 44 



