Descriptive account of the principal towns in Scotland

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this house was built by subscription in 1756, and is capable
of containing sixty paupers, though there is seldom so many.
This establishment is chiefly supported by its own funds,
arising from lands and donations, or from what is called in
Scotland, mortifications. The Dispensary, supported by
subscriptions, gives medicine and aid to the sick poor. The
Sailors Society instituted in 1581, support their own dis-
tressed members. The Merchant Society was formed in
1655, with a fund for the support of decayed members,
their widows and orphans. The Ayr Universal Society,
and many other charitable and benevolent institutions, on a
smaller scale, are ably conducted.
It was in the town of Ayr that the heroic Sir William
Wallace, the protector of Scotland, first commenced his op-
position to the English under Edward the first, and here
that monarch established one of his most powerful garri-
sons. It is noted also, as being the birth place of Johan-
nes Scotus, surnamed Erigena, who flourished in the ninth
century ; celebrated throughout Europe for his learning,
ready wit, and powerful elocution, exerted in the metaphy-
sical disputations of his time. This town also gave birth to
the Chevalier Ramsay, author of the travels of Cyrus, and
other works. The more modern, but no less celebrated
Robert Burns, the Scotch Poet, was born at Alloway in
this neighbourhood, in a small cottage, now a public house,
where the apartment in which he was born is shewn ; and
near to this spot an elegant monument has been erected to
his memory on the Banks of the Doon, amidst the scenery
which gave inspiration to his muse. Alloway-kirk is on the