Ayrshire > Volume 1

328 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
surrounding districts, who had only to spend three
years within the burghal bounds before becoming
eligible as sharers on its charity. The people were
regarded as humane and kind, and as generally
contented with their circumstances, but they suffered
in some instances from the demoralising custom of
smuggling. Newton had only £50 to spend on its poor,
and was much troubled with the influx of beggars from
Ireland. There were too many public houses, and the
health of the inhabitants was much injured, according
to Dr. Peebles, by the too frequent use of spirituous
liquors. In Monkton and Prestwick nobody was
allowed to beg. The same rule was strictly observed
in Dundonald. The " great weddings " were fast going
into disrepute, but the country funerals were still badty
regulated. Until within a short period of the minister's
narrative " a pipe and tobacco were provided for every
one of the company," but the custom had been laid
aside. It was still customary, however, for the guests
to meet three or four hours before it was time to " lift,"
with occasional results that were far from being to
edification. The minister of Symington testified that
his people were in general sober and industrious,
attentive to their callings, and regular in their attendance
at church. But the girls of the middle, and even of the
lower ranks, had obviously a craze for dress. They had
given up the blue cloaks, and the plaids, and the plain
caps of twenty years ago, and they despised even the
scarlet mantle, once the emblem of distinction ; and
now, says the minister, " the silkworms of the East must
be pillaged to deck the heads and shoulders of our
milkmaids." The servant men, also, were forgetting
the past. They had given up the Kilmarnock bonnets,
and were actually wearing hats ! The young fellows
no more wore the clothes spun by their mothers, but
English broadcloths, fashionable cotton stripes, and
fine linen ; and " every stripling, as soon as he arrives
at puberty, must have a watch in his pocket, whereas,
only forty years ago, there were but three in the parish."