AYR TO ARDROSSAN. 295 



pairs of curling stones, and none of tliem better than 

 Sir Thomas Moncrieff's, which were very quick and 

 pohshed. They were made ol' granite called "bur- 

 noch/^ which was got near Sir James BoswelPs 

 estates,, and spotted white and black like a starling's 

 breast. His lordship did not neglect golf, which 

 he first learnt on the links near Stevenson. Some 

 of the best men from St. Andrew's and Musselburgh 

 came to Prestwick, near Ayr, to play with him; 

 and he died on a return visit to St. Andrew's, 

 when he was very little past his prime. No man was 

 better known or more loved throughout the three 

 kingdoms. 



The "view house" still stands at Bogside, and 

 one's sense of the desolation is not dissipated by that 

 dreary spot, Kilwinning. In a vault beneath its 

 kirk, which is a curious appendix to the ruined 

 tower of the old abbey, his lordship lies with his two 

 wives. He was erst the very life of the spot, when 

 the archers of Kilwinning met once a year to shoot at 

 the green papingo with the golden heart, on the 

 summit of that tower. He who winged it got a 

 broad ribbon for his prize, and the ribbon-men drew 

 after dinner for the honour of the first shot for the 

 Captaincy, which is conferred on liim who first 

 knocks it off its perch, and was twice won by the 

 Earl. 



Mr. Ewing's greyhounds, or rather a pack of fif- 

 teen or sixteen couple, passed us in the town. He 

 has had far more, and when his Leven Water ran 



