Towns > Kilmarnock (and Riccarton) > 1846-1847 - Kilmarnock and Riccarton Post-Office directory

Vl.
The principal departments of its manufactures are Weav*
ing, Muslin, and Carpet, in the latter, as also in the
Bonnet making, it is known to excel — who has not heard
of the far-famed Kilmarnock Bonnets ! There is like-
wise a very extensive trade carried on in Calico Print-
ing, and Shoe making, of which large quantities are an-
nually exported to all parts of the world.
We have said that Kilmarnock is unnoticed in early
history, it will not, therefore, be expected to contain
many very interesting relics of antiquity, nor indeed does
it ; almost the only object of interest in this respect is the
Dean Castle, the ancient seat of the Boyd family. Its
mouldering walls tell the tale of other days. The Castle
consists of two edifices, of different styles of building, one
apparently very ancient, the other comparatively mo-
dern. It was accidentally burned^in 1735; ten years after,
Earl Kilmarnock was involved in the unsuccessful re-
bellion of 1745, and expiated on the scaffold the crimi-
nality of the rash act. But though not rich in histori-
cal reminiscence there is one circumstance, which to the
lovers of old Scotia, sheds over Kilmarnock an inter-
est far surpassing aught with which hoar antiquity could
invest it. Here were first published the immortal lays
of him
Who seized his Country's lyre,
With ardent grasp and strong ;
And made his soul of fire,
Dissolve itselt in song,
We need not say that it is the Ayrshire Bard, Robert
Burns, that is here referred to. The fact that'the Kil-