Ayrshire > Volume 1

THE SOCIAL MARCH OF THE SHIRE 307
surrounded with large, orchards. Cloncaird had the
familiar gardens and orchards ; so also had Kirkmichael.
" as desirable a dwelling as in all the country," where
first in Carrick apricots and peaches were planted.
The leading feature of Kilkerran was its woods, so
extensive that they looked like a forest, and then came
Drummochrin, " a small interest, but a most lovely
thing, being every way commodious and convenient for
living easily that it is, as it were, an abridgement of this
country, having all the accommodations that are
dispersed through it all compressed within its short and
small bounds. It hath gardens, orchards, wood, water ;
all the fishes that swim in rivers ; all sorts of cattle,
sheep, cows, swine, and goat ; all sorts of fowl wild and
tame ; all manner of stone for building, freestone and
limestone ; coal, moor, moss, meadow, and marie ;
a wauk-mill and a corn mill ; and all manner of artisans
and tradesmen within its bounds ; and yet the revenue
not above £100 per annum." " The best house of all
that country " was Dalquharran, with its great woods,
and its mighty oaks. The old castle of Bargany was to
Pont " an argument of the sometime greatness of the
family, being a huge, great, lofty tower in the centre
of a quadrangular court that had on each of three
corners fine well built towers of freestone four storeys
high." The new house was " mighty commodious "
and had every modern contrivance and accommodation;
pretty gardens besides, and orchards. Lower down the
river were Killochan, the mansion house of the Cathcarts
of Carletoun, and Trochrig, a residence of the Boyds ;
and so on to Girvan, with its strange tower of Balloch-
tool, " a monument of the builder's folly, being raised
five storey high, without staircase, and no more but one
room to each storey ;" with neither garden, nor orchard,
nor planting, but standing in the midst of its rich
cornfields.
There were many big houses on the Stinchar worthy
to rank with those of Doon and Girvan. These the
narrator dismisses summarily, with the exception of