Ayrshire > Volume 1

302 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
Ladyland, Kilbirnie, gave birth to Hew Barclay, a
minor poet as well as a " Popish plotter." Hazlehead,
Beith, was the home of Alexander Montgomerie, the
poet, the author of " The Cherrie and the Slae," " The
Fly ting between Montgomerie and Polwart," and " The
Minde's Melodie." His fame rests solely on " The
Cherrie and the Slae," which leapt at once into
popularity. Its earlier portion is a love piece, its later
a moral poem, the whole characterised by freshness,
descriptive power, and great mastery of the intricacies
of rhyme. Another poet, of the minor order, was
Marc Alexander Boyd of Pinkill, who combined with
poesy, learning, gambling, and soldiering ; and the
same century was responsible for Zachary Boyd, also of
Pinkill, the author of " The Last Battel of the Soul,"
Rector of Glasgow University, and the translator of the
Scriptures into metre. The times, however, were out
of joint for men who were affected towards literature,
and, leaving the Reformers out of account, it must be
recognised that they were few and far between. It is
grateful, nevertheless, to meet them, lonely as they
are, in the ways that were almost wholly given up to
violence and strife.
Early in the seventeenth century, Timothy Pont, a
born topographer, the son of the Provost of Trinity
College, Edinburgh, and himself minister of the parish
of Dunnet, Caithness-shire, made a careful survey of the
district of Cunningham, and, although the notes that
he left behind him are brief, they have nevertheless a
value of their own that is wholly exceptional in enabling
us to catch glimpses of the life led by the gentry, and by
the people, of North Ayrshire. Then, as now — indeed,
in all probability, much more then than now — the rivers
swarmed with fish. The brooks and burns flowing nigh
to the Renfrewshire march abounded with " divers
sorts of fishes," the " trouts " being the best, and their
environs were so rich in waterfowl, in partridges, and in
hares, that they afforded excellent sport for the falconer.
Cunningham had even then a high reputation for butter,