Ayrshire > Volume 1

THE SOCIAL MARCH OF THE SHIRE 325
William Holmes, aged 80, born in Ayr. Has nothing
but what's on him.
John Neil, aged 74, born in Bridgend of Doon, 60 years
in Ayr — a bedstead and roof, a pot, a girdle, 1 pair
tongs, 1 pair blankets, a chaff bed and bolster,
1 armchair, 2 stools, 2 timber plates, the clothes
he wears, a beef barrel, a cask.
Margaret Baird, aged 80, born in Ayr — a wheel, some
old blankets, 2 old beds, a covering, a kettle pot,
a higgie, 3 spoons, 2 stools, old tongs, 2 skirts, a
pair cards, a reel.
Marion Kay, aged 86, born in Govan, 40 years in Ayr —
a blanket, a covering, a chair, a pillow, a rock and
spindle, 3 shirts, 2 gowns, 3 suit head cloths,
stockings and shoes.
Thomas M'Fadzine, aged 8 years, born in Ayr — a
bastard, grandson to Ann M'Dill.
Interesting and valuable as these disquisitions are
from the pens of two such racy observers as Colonel
Fullarton and Mr. Aiton, preference must, nevertheless,
be given to the Statistical Account, wherein the ministers
of the various parishes recorded their experiences and
their impressions of the life of the people in the closing
years of the eighteenth century. The rev. gentlemen
were, in a sense that cannot be said to obtain nowadays,
the natural centres, in the personal sense, of the parishes.
There were, it is true, large numbers of Dissenters in many
of the parishes, and some in them all, but the great body
of the people were attached to the Church of Scotland.
Public life was not broken up as it is now, and supervised
in various departments by specific authorities. By
virtue of his position, the minister had the care of the
schools and of the poor largely under his control, and he
was in a position to know almost everything that was
going on around him. And if sometimes he looked with
a kindly eye upon the weaknesses of his parishioners,
it may be taken for granted that, in sketching their
character and the workings of the social machinery,