Apparitions > Aloway Kirk, or, Tam o' Shanter, a tale

10
an armoury by Oliver Cromwell;
who built a citadel round it, enclos¬
ing 12 acres of ground ; in front of
this ground, an academy is built,
and- the number of students at¬
tending this seminary amounts to
near 600. There ere two other
academies in the county, one in
Kilmarnock, under the direction of
the Magistrates, and one in Irvine,
erected there by the Earl of Eglin-
ton,. whose.pubic spirit will he long
remembered. But the one at Ayr
exceeds them, both in point of
learning, for men of the first rate
abilities are employed as teachers,
w hich raised this seminary to great
renoun ; many of the students are
from all quarters of the world. It
wras instituted by subscription, and
the subscribers erected into one Bo¬
dy, political and corporate, by Iloy-
al charter, in 1798. The managers
and directors in terms of the Char-
teY, are persons or bodies corporate
or politic, who may have subscribed