Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

LARGS
operations have not yet been actually begun. Com-
munication with "Wemyss Bay is maintained by steamers
plying in connection with the railway ; and with Fairlie
by means of daily omnibuses and waggonettes. The
country surrounding Largs is picturesque and fertile ;
the climate is dry and healthy ; and, although not so
absolutely protected from the E wind as its inhabitants
claim, it is one of the healthiest and most favourite
watering-places on the Clyde. The main street, which
at one; part expands to a considerable breadth, runs
directly inland from the pier and harbour, spanning
the Gogo Burn by means of a stone bridge at its inland
or E end. Running off from it, or parallel to it, are
several other narrower streets and alleys, of which the
chief is called Gallowgate. A broad esplanade, terraced
on the sea- ward side, extends N from the quay for a
considerable distance, and is continued almost to the
Noddle Burn by a strip of rough common, separating
the high road from the beach. A row of recently
erected houses, intended for letting purposes, and the
Episcopal church, marks for the present the extension
of the town in this direction ; while along the inland
side of the road, stretching between these and the town
proper, are situated a number of substantial villas, each
in its own grounds. Southwards from the quay, a
short street, crossing the Gogo Burn by an iron bridge,
leads to the pleasant suburb of Broomnelds, consisting
of handsome and comfortable villas, built on the crest
of a gentle grass-covered slope, inclining towards the
sea. In the vicinity of the town, though beyond the
boundaries of the burgh, there are numerous private
houses, for the most part standing within pleasantly
laid out gardens or grounds, and as these are generally
occupied by the proprietors, even in winter, the society
of the town is both more extensive and of a higher class
than at most sea-bathing towns on the Clyde.
Largs has no public buildings of importance besides
the churches. The quay, built substantially of stone
in 1834, cost £4275 ; and, while it forms a kind of
breakwater enclosing a small harbour, it is accessible by
steamers on its outward side at all states of the tide.
In 1816 a bath-house was erected at Largs ; but that is
now used as a public hall. The parish church, built in
1812 and repaired in 1S33, is a plain building with a
good steeple, in which there is a public clock. The
church contains 1268 sittings. The Free church, a
very simple structure, was built soon after the Disrup-
tion. The U.P. church in Waterside Street, built
in 1826, has 690 sittings, and St Columba's Episcopal
church, a small building in the Early English style
with 250 sittings, was built in 1877. St Mary's
Roman Catholic church in School Street was built to
contain 140 in 1870. Largs had a parochial school,
endowed with 100 merks annually, but without a
schoolhouse, so early as 1696. In 1809 the heritors
erected a school and master's house ; and later Sir
Thomas Brisbane erected, at a cost of £350, another
school and master's house, endowing it with £30 a
year. Both of these schools, together with one in
School Street, are now in the hands of the school board.
In 1881 the respective accommodations, attendance, and
government grants of the various schools were : — Largs
public school, 162, 167, £115, 12s. ; Brisbane Academy
and the Female Industrial school together, 420, 126,
£83, 13s. ; and another Female Industrial school, 103,
57, £43, 13s. On the esplanade in front of the parish
church a handsome granite drinking fountain was
erected about 1873 at a cost of £550 in memory of
the late Dr Campbell, who for sixty-one years had
been physician in the town. Largs cemetery lies a
little to the SE of the town, on the steep slope of a
hill, over which passes the road to Dairy. It is very
carefully tended and neatly laid out, and its upper
walks command an exquisite view over the Clyde. The
chief object of antiquarian interest in Largs is what is
known as the Skelmorlie Aisle, the only relic of the
ancient church situated in the old graveyard, adjacent
to the present parish church. This aisle, of chiselled
freestone, was erected and converted into a mausoleum
470
LARGS
by Sir Robert Montgomery of Skelmorlie in 1636. In
the interior its lofty roof is vaulted with boarding,
painted in forty-one compartments with various emble-
matic, moral, and heraldic subjects, as the signs of
the zodiac, escutcheons, texts from Scripture, several
views of the mansion of Skelmorlie, and the representa-
tion of the death of one of the ladies of the Skelmorlie
family from the kick of a horse. A richly carved
monument stands across the aisle to the left of the
entrance, 11J feet long, 5 broad, and IS high, to
the memory of Sir Robert Montgomery and his wife,
Dame Margaret Douglas, whose leaden coffins lie in the
vault below. The epitaph of the latter alone is legible,
and runs as follows : —
* Eis duo bisq decern transegi virginis annos ;
Ter duo ter decern consociata viro,
Et bis opera Lucina tulit. Mas Patris iroago
Spesq dornus superest : Femina iussa roori.
Clara genus g-enerosa, aniina speciosa decore
Cara Deo vfvi : nunc mini cuucta Deus.'
On the corner of Sir Robert's coffin, however, is the
inscription —
* Ipse mihi praemortuus fui. fato funera
Praeripui, unicum idque Caesareurn
Exemplar inter tot mortales secutus.'
alluding to his habit of descending to pray in his wife's
tomb, and thus, as it were, burying himself alive. In
another coffin within the vault is the body of Ser Hewe
the Monggombyrry, said to have been slain at Chevy
Chase after himself slaying Percy ; but according to
the more historical ballad of the Battle of Otterburn
(1388)—
'Then was there a Scottish prisoner ta'en,
Sir Hugh Montgomery was his name,
For sooth as I you say,
He borrowed the Percy home again.'
i.e., was exchanged for Percy. A large barrow or
mound, about 25 yards long and 9 broad, and about 5
feet high, situated near the old burying-ground in the
centre of the town, is by many held to be the ancient
moat-hill or place for the punishment of criminals,
especially as the Gallowgate is in the immediate vicinity ;
but others, including Dr Phene, who excavated the
mound in 1873, incline to recognise in it the spot in
which the Norwegians were buried after the battle of
Largs. Other relics of the battle are referred to subse-
quently.
Largs is the seat of a head post office, with the usual
departments ; has branch offices of the Royal and Union
Banks ; and 18 insurance companies have agents in the
town. There are 5 hotels, an agricultural society,
2 bowling-greens, a mechanic's library, and a fever
hospital, besides various associations aud clubs, of
which perhaps Largs Yacht Club is most noteworthy.
A gaswork was erected in the town in 1838 ; and water
is supplied by gravitation from works on the farm of
Middleton. One coastguardsman is stationed at Largs.
There is little or no industry beyond a little fishing,
and the ordinary retail trade of a small town. There
are, however, a corn and saw mill on the Gogo, and
another mill on the Noddle. Two Saturday newspapers
are the Largs and Millport Weekly News (1S76) and the
Largs and Millport Herald (1SS3).
Largs, until recently, was governed mainly by the
county authorities ; but since it became a burgh it has
1 chief and 2 junior magistrates, and 6 commissioners.
The harbour is managed by a committee under a chair-
man. The burgh is in the Kilmarnock district of the
sheriff-court ; and a justice of the peace court for small
debts is held on the first Monday of every month. A
fair is annually held on Comb's Day (originally St
Colme's or St Columba's), the first Tuesday of June
after the 12th, but this gathering has lost almost all of
its old importance. Besides the means of communica-
tion already referred to, two carriers ply to Glasgow,
one six times, the other five times a week. Pop. (1851)
2824, (1861) 2638, (1871) 2760, (18S1) 3079, of whom
1739 were females. Houses occupied 722, vacant 219,
building 11.