BUTE— LANAEKSHIEE. 315 



is spanned by " twa brigs." The whole of this region will for ever be associated 

 with the memory of Burns. At Tarbolton, a few miles up the Ayr, the poet 

 established his Bachelors' Club in 1780, and wooed his " Highland Mary," in 

 service as a dairymaid at a neighbouring mansion. Still ascending the Ayr, 

 we pass Catrine, a manufacturing village, and reach Maiichline and Muirkirk, 

 where there are collieries, iron works, and limestone quarries. Litgar and 

 Cumnock, both on the Lugar, a tributary of the Ayr, are engaged in the same 

 industries. 



Troon, about half-way between Ayr and Irvine, has a well- sheltered harbour, 

 and is the busiest port of Ayr, shipping large quantities of coal. The river 

 Irvine traverses the principal manufacturing district of the county, whose natural 

 outlet is Irvine, near the mouth of the river. Kilmarnock, the largest town of the 

 county, manufactures carpets, shawls, cottons, worsted, Scotch bonnets, machinery, 

 and boots. The manufacturing villages of HurJford, Galston, Neivmilns, and Darvel, 

 on the Upper Irvine, and Steicarton, to the north, are its dependencies. Kilwinning 

 with Stevenston, Dairy, Kilbirnie, and Beith, in the valley of the Garnock, are towns 

 of collieries and iron works. Three seaside towns on the northern coast of 

 Ayrshire remain to be noticed. They are Saltcoats, with salt and magnesia works ; 

 Ardrossan, with iron works and collieries ; and Largs, much frequented as a 

 watering-place. 



The shire of Bute includes the islands of Bute, Arran, and Great and Little 

 Cumbrae, in the Firth of Clyde. By geological structure these islands belong 

 as much to the Highlands as to the Lowlands, and nearly 40 per cent, of the 

 inhabitants are still able to converse in Gaelic, although hardly any are ignorant 

 of English. Rothesay, the county town, is in Bute, as are also the villages of 

 Millport and Kameshurgh {Port Bannatyne) ; whilst Lamlash is the principal village 

 in Arran, with a harbour not to be surpassed on the Clyde. 



Lanarkshire lies almost wholly within the basin of the Clyde, which, though 

 inferior to the Tay and Tweed, has gathered within the area it drains nearly a 

 third of the total population of Scotland. The river rises far to the south, its 

 head-streams being fed by the rain which descends upon Hart Fell (2,651 feet), 

 Queensberry Hill (2,285 feet), and the Louther Hills (2,403 feet). In its upper 

 course it traverses a region of sterile moorlands, within which lies Leadhills. Near 

 Biggar, on a stream which finds its way into the Tweed, the Clyde sweeps abruptly 

 round to the north-westward, and on approaching Lanark it leaps down a succession 

 oi linns into the great agricultural and mining region of the county. The beautiful 

 country around Lanark is one of the most famous in the history of Scotland, for it was 

 here that the Scottish hero, Wallace, commenced his career. Here, too, at the 

 neighbouring village of Neiv Lanark, was founded the cotton-mill in which 

 Robert Owen worked out his plans for the social regeneration of mankind. 

 Between Lanark and Glasgow the river traverses the principal mineral region of 

 Scotland. Its " black band " ironstone, containing coaly matter sufficient to 

 calcine the adjacent ore without any addition of artificial fuel, has been a source 

 of wealth to Scotch iron-masters, and enabled them to construct the sumptuous 



