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MAUCHLINE
is said to have been repulsed at the town, or on its site.
In 1544 the celebrated reformer and martyr, George
"Wishart, was invited to preach in the church of Mauch-
line ; but on his arrival he found the place guarded by
a party of soldiers, under the sheriff of Ayr. Wishart
restrained his adherents from violence, and induceid them
to follow him to Mauchline Moor, where he preached to
them for three hours. The parish was situated in the
very heart of the Covenanting district of Ayrshire, and
much of its history is interwoven with that of the west-
ern Covenanters. In 1661 Mauchline Moor was the
halting-place of western Covenanters, previous to their
march, which ended in the battle of the Pentlands. The
more modern historical interest of Mauchline centres
wholly in its connection with Robert Burns (1759-96)
during one of the most prolific periods of liis poetic
genius. The farm of Mossgiel, on which the poet lived
from 1784 to 1788, and which he subleased from Mr
Gavin Hamilton, a writer in Mauchline, lies 1 J mile NW
of the town. Mr Hamilton's residence, an old relic of
the former priory, and known as Mauchline Castle, con-
tains the room in which Burns wrote his parody-sermon
called The Calf, and that in which he is said to have
married his ' Bonny Jean.' The cottage or change-house
of ' Poosie Nancy ' or Agnes Gibson, the scene of the piece
called The Jolly Beggars, stands nearly opposite the
church-yard gate. ' It was,' says Allan Cunningham,
' the favourite resort of lame sailors, maimed soldiers,
wandering tinkers, travelling ballad-singers, and all such
loose companions as hang about the skirts of society ; '
but, though Burns had visited it, it was by no means one
of his haunts. Separated from the gable of this house
by an intervening lane, called the Cowgate, stood ' The
Whitefoord Arms,' a plain thatched building of two
stories, a favourite resort of Burns, and kept by John
Dow or Dove, upon whom the poet wrote the absurd
epitaph, beginning, ' Here lies Johnnie Pigeon.' It was
along the Cowgate that ' Common Sense ' or the poet's
correspondent, Dr Mackenzie, escaped, when a certain
minister approached the tent in The Holy Fair. In
the Cowgate also stood the house in which Jean Armour
lived before she was married to Burns. It was separated
from the Whitefoord Arms by a narrow cross street, and
is now replaced by a two-story building. Beside the
churchyard was the house of Nance Tinnock. We have
already adverted to the church as the scene of The Holy
Fair, In the grave-yard are to be seen, besides the
graves of two of Burns's children, those of the Eev. Mr
Auld, Nance Tinnock, etc. ' Holy AVillie,' renowned
for the prayer which Burns puts into his mouth, was a
member of Mauchline Kirk-Session. The Belles of
Mauchline celebrates six young ladies of the town,
with whom Burns was acquainted. There are numerous
allusions to persons and events connected with Mauch-
line in Burns's other poems ; and the scenes of some
of his most exquisite lyrics are laid on the banks of the
river Ayr.
The parish is bounded N by Riccarton (detached; and
Galston, E by Sorn and Auchinleck, S by Auchinleck,
SW by Ochiltree and Stair, and W by "Tarbolton and
Craigie. Its greatest length, from N!iS W to SSE, is 6j
miles ; its breadth varies between ^ mile and 3| miles ;
and its area is 8907 acres, of which over 70 are water.
The river Ate winds 5 J miles west-by-southward, mainly
along the southern and south-western boundaries, but
for 1| mile across the southern interior ; Ltjgar Water,
its affluent, curves 2J miles north -north- westward along
the Ochiltree and Stair boundaries ; and Cessnock
Water, a tributary of the Irvine, meanders 4^ miles
north-north-westward through the interior, then 2f
miles west-north-westward along the northern boundary.
The surface undulates gently, sinking along the Ayr to
190, along Cessnock AVater to 220, feet above sea-level ;
and rising thence to 524 feet near Mossgiel, 606 near Grass-
yards, 426 at Friendlesshead, and 580 near North Auchen-
brain. A large tract of land, formerly called Mauchline
Moor, exhibits now no trace of its ancient condition, but
shows the generally well-cultivated, arable nature of by
far the greater part of the parish. The soil near the town
12
MAUCHLINE
is light and sandy ; in a few places it is a rich loam ; but
in general it is clayey. Thin strata of coal, ironstone,
and limestone are found, but not worked ; but both
white and red sandstone is quarried within the parish.
The river Ayr flows between steep red sandstone cliffs,
40 or 50 feet high, and beautifully overhung with wood.
A cave cut out of the rocks on the banks of the Lugar
is called Peden's Cave, and is said to have been a
hiding-place of the celebrated Alexander Peden dur-
ing the persecutions. Barskimming Bridge, across
the Ayr, with a span of 100 and a height of 90 feet,
was built towards the close of last century by Sir
Thomas Miller, Lord President of the Court of
Session ; a railway viaduct, near Howford Bridge,
across the Ayr has a span of 175 and a height of 180
feet. The only lake in the parish was Loch Brown,
called Duveloch in old charters, which formerly covered
60 acres ; but this has been drained for many years, and
its bed is occupied by cultivated fields, and traversed
by the railway.
Besides the town of Mauchline, the parish contains
the village of Haugh. It is traversed by the Glas-
gow and South-Western railway between Glasgow
and Carlisle ; by the high roads between Glasgow
and Dumfries, and between Edinburgh and Ayr,
which intersect at the town ; and by other thorough-
fares. The principal mansions are Netherplace, Bal-
lochmyle, Rodinghead, Viewfield, and Beechgrove.
Mossgiel Farm deserves mention also. The chief pro-
prietors are Alexander of Ballochmyle, the Duke of
Portland, Boswell of Auchinleck, and Campbell of
Netherplace.
Mauchline parish is in the presbytery of Ayr and
the synod of Glasgow and Ayr ; the living is £280,
including manse and glebe. The public schools of
Crosshands and Mauchline and the New Educational
Institute, with respective accommodation for 83, 250,
and 211 children, had (1883) an average attendance
of 30, 174, and 179, and grants of £41, 17s., £209,
17s. 4d., and £215, 3s. 4d. Valuation (1860) £9717,
(1884) £12,875, Us. lid., plus £4502 for railways.
Pop. of both civil and ecclesiastical parish (1801) 1746,
(1831) 2232, (1861) 2303, (1871) 2435, (1881) 2504, of
whom 1186 were males and 3 Gaelic-speaking. Houses
(1881) occupied 527, vacant 24, building 5. — Ord. Sur.,
shs. 14, 22, 1863-65.
The parochial records go hack only to 1670. The
ancient parish of Mauchline comprehended also the
territory now forming the parishes of Sorn and Muir-
kirk. Chalmers, in his Caledonia, says, that in 1165,
during William's reign, Walter, son of Alan, granted to
the monks of Melrose the lands of Mauchline, with cer-
tain privileges. The monks established a priory of their
own order at Mauchline, which remained a cell of Mel-
rose till the Reformation. An old tower, already men-
tioned, is the sole relic of this building. The power
and property of the monks gradually expanded about
the nucleus of Mauchline; and 'they conti'ibuted gi'eatly
to the settlement and cultivation of the district.' Their
estates of Mauchline, Kylesmure, and Barmure were
afterwards formed into a regality, whose court met
at Mauchline village, erected into a free burgh of
barony in 1510 by James IV. After the Reforma-
tion the ecclesiastical lands, etc., about JIauchline
were formed into a temporal lordship in favour of
Hugh, Lord Loudoun, whose original grant was dated
1606. The town of Mauchline was at the same time
made a burgh of barony. In 1631 what is now
Muirkirk, and in 1636 what is now Sorn, were detached
from Mauchline parish, which was ' thus reduced to
less than a fifth of its former magnitude.' Before the
Reformation there had been a chapel on each of these
portions. One was on Greenock AVater ; the other
on the Ayr, dedicated to St Cuthbert, stood E of the
present village of Catrine, on a field known as St Cuth-
bert's Holm.
Besides the relics of the priory in the town, the oW
tower of Kingancleugh may be mentioned among the
antiquities. The Braes o' Ballochmyle, and indeed the
is said to have been repulsed at the town, or on its site.
In 1544 the celebrated reformer and martyr, George
"Wishart, was invited to preach in the church of Mauch-
line ; but on his arrival he found the place guarded by
a party of soldiers, under the sheriff of Ayr. Wishart
restrained his adherents from violence, and induceid them
to follow him to Mauchline Moor, where he preached to
them for three hours. The parish was situated in the
very heart of the Covenanting district of Ayrshire, and
much of its history is interwoven with that of the west-
ern Covenanters. In 1661 Mauchline Moor was the
halting-place of western Covenanters, previous to their
march, which ended in the battle of the Pentlands. The
more modern historical interest of Mauchline centres
wholly in its connection with Robert Burns (1759-96)
during one of the most prolific periods of liis poetic
genius. The farm of Mossgiel, on which the poet lived
from 1784 to 1788, and which he subleased from Mr
Gavin Hamilton, a writer in Mauchline, lies 1 J mile NW
of the town. Mr Hamilton's residence, an old relic of
the former priory, and known as Mauchline Castle, con-
tains the room in which Burns wrote his parody-sermon
called The Calf, and that in which he is said to have
married his ' Bonny Jean.' The cottage or change-house
of ' Poosie Nancy ' or Agnes Gibson, the scene of the piece
called The Jolly Beggars, stands nearly opposite the
church-yard gate. ' It was,' says Allan Cunningham,
' the favourite resort of lame sailors, maimed soldiers,
wandering tinkers, travelling ballad-singers, and all such
loose companions as hang about the skirts of society ; '
but, though Burns had visited it, it was by no means one
of his haunts. Separated from the gable of this house
by an intervening lane, called the Cowgate, stood ' The
Whitefoord Arms,' a plain thatched building of two
stories, a favourite resort of Burns, and kept by John
Dow or Dove, upon whom the poet wrote the absurd
epitaph, beginning, ' Here lies Johnnie Pigeon.' It was
along the Cowgate that ' Common Sense ' or the poet's
correspondent, Dr Mackenzie, escaped, when a certain
minister approached the tent in The Holy Fair. In
the Cowgate also stood the house in which Jean Armour
lived before she was married to Burns. It was separated
from the Whitefoord Arms by a narrow cross street, and
is now replaced by a two-story building. Beside the
churchyard was the house of Nance Tinnock. We have
already adverted to the church as the scene of The Holy
Fair, In the grave-yard are to be seen, besides the
graves of two of Burns's children, those of the Eev. Mr
Auld, Nance Tinnock, etc. ' Holy AVillie,' renowned
for the prayer which Burns puts into his mouth, was a
member of Mauchline Kirk-Session. The Belles of
Mauchline celebrates six young ladies of the town,
with whom Burns was acquainted. There are numerous
allusions to persons and events connected with Mauch-
line in Burns's other poems ; and the scenes of some
of his most exquisite lyrics are laid on the banks of the
river Ayr.
The parish is bounded N by Riccarton (detached; and
Galston, E by Sorn and Auchinleck, S by Auchinleck,
SW by Ochiltree and Stair, and W by "Tarbolton and
Craigie. Its greatest length, from N!iS W to SSE, is 6j
miles ; its breadth varies between ^ mile and 3| miles ;
and its area is 8907 acres, of which over 70 are water.
The river Ate winds 5 J miles west-by-southward, mainly
along the southern and south-western boundaries, but
for 1| mile across the southern interior ; Ltjgar Water,
its affluent, curves 2J miles north -north- westward along
the Ochiltree and Stair boundaries ; and Cessnock
Water, a tributary of the Irvine, meanders 4^ miles
north-north-westward through the interior, then 2f
miles west-north-westward along the northern boundary.
The surface undulates gently, sinking along the Ayr to
190, along Cessnock AVater to 220, feet above sea-level ;
and rising thence to 524 feet near Mossgiel, 606 near Grass-
yards, 426 at Friendlesshead, and 580 near North Auchen-
brain. A large tract of land, formerly called Mauchline
Moor, exhibits now no trace of its ancient condition, but
shows the generally well-cultivated, arable nature of by
far the greater part of the parish. The soil near the town
12
MAUCHLINE
is light and sandy ; in a few places it is a rich loam ; but
in general it is clayey. Thin strata of coal, ironstone,
and limestone are found, but not worked ; but both
white and red sandstone is quarried within the parish.
The river Ayr flows between steep red sandstone cliffs,
40 or 50 feet high, and beautifully overhung with wood.
A cave cut out of the rocks on the banks of the Lugar
is called Peden's Cave, and is said to have been a
hiding-place of the celebrated Alexander Peden dur-
ing the persecutions. Barskimming Bridge, across
the Ayr, with a span of 100 and a height of 90 feet,
was built towards the close of last century by Sir
Thomas Miller, Lord President of the Court of
Session ; a railway viaduct, near Howford Bridge,
across the Ayr has a span of 175 and a height of 180
feet. The only lake in the parish was Loch Brown,
called Duveloch in old charters, which formerly covered
60 acres ; but this has been drained for many years, and
its bed is occupied by cultivated fields, and traversed
by the railway.
Besides the town of Mauchline, the parish contains
the village of Haugh. It is traversed by the Glas-
gow and South-Western railway between Glasgow
and Carlisle ; by the high roads between Glasgow
and Dumfries, and between Edinburgh and Ayr,
which intersect at the town ; and by other thorough-
fares. The principal mansions are Netherplace, Bal-
lochmyle, Rodinghead, Viewfield, and Beechgrove.
Mossgiel Farm deserves mention also. The chief pro-
prietors are Alexander of Ballochmyle, the Duke of
Portland, Boswell of Auchinleck, and Campbell of
Netherplace.
Mauchline parish is in the presbytery of Ayr and
the synod of Glasgow and Ayr ; the living is £280,
including manse and glebe. The public schools of
Crosshands and Mauchline and the New Educational
Institute, with respective accommodation for 83, 250,
and 211 children, had (1883) an average attendance
of 30, 174, and 179, and grants of £41, 17s., £209,
17s. 4d., and £215, 3s. 4d. Valuation (1860) £9717,
(1884) £12,875, Us. lid., plus £4502 for railways.
Pop. of both civil and ecclesiastical parish (1801) 1746,
(1831) 2232, (1861) 2303, (1871) 2435, (1881) 2504, of
whom 1186 were males and 3 Gaelic-speaking. Houses
(1881) occupied 527, vacant 24, building 5. — Ord. Sur.,
shs. 14, 22, 1863-65.
The parochial records go hack only to 1670. The
ancient parish of Mauchline comprehended also the
territory now forming the parishes of Sorn and Muir-
kirk. Chalmers, in his Caledonia, says, that in 1165,
during William's reign, Walter, son of Alan, granted to
the monks of Melrose the lands of Mauchline, with cer-
tain privileges. The monks established a priory of their
own order at Mauchline, which remained a cell of Mel-
rose till the Reformation. An old tower, already men-
tioned, is the sole relic of this building. The power
and property of the monks gradually expanded about
the nucleus of Mauchline; and 'they conti'ibuted gi'eatly
to the settlement and cultivation of the district.' Their
estates of Mauchline, Kylesmure, and Barmure were
afterwards formed into a regality, whose court met
at Mauchline village, erected into a free burgh of
barony in 1510 by James IV. After the Reforma-
tion the ecclesiastical lands, etc., about JIauchline
were formed into a temporal lordship in favour of
Hugh, Lord Loudoun, whose original grant was dated
1606. The town of Mauchline was at the same time
made a burgh of barony. In 1631 what is now
Muirkirk, and in 1636 what is now Sorn, were detached
from Mauchline parish, which was ' thus reduced to
less than a fifth of its former magnitude.' Before the
Reformation there had been a chapel on each of these
portions. One was on Greenock AVater ; the other
on the Ayr, dedicated to St Cuthbert, stood E of the
present village of Catrine, on a field known as St Cuth-
bert's Holm.
Besides the relics of the priory in the town, the oW
tower of Kingancleugh may be mentioned among the
antiquities. The Braes o' Ballochmyle, and indeed the
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