a county in the west of Scotland, considerable for its population and industry, is bounded by Wigtonshire and the stewartry of Kirkcudbright on the south, by the counties of Dumfries and Lanark on the north-east and east, by Renfrewshire on the north, and by the Irish Sea and the Frith of Clyde for about 70 miles on the west. It contains about 1039 square miles, or 664,960 English acres, of which nearly the half is under cultivation; besides several small lakes, Loch Doon being the largest, extending to about six square miles more. The three bailiaries of Kyle, Cunningham, and Carrick, into which this county is divided, have been described in the article in the body of the work, to which the reader is referred. The rock of Ailsa, and the Meikle and Little Cumbrae, situate from 1 1/2 to 3 miles from the coast of Ayrshire, and nearly the same distance from the Isle of Bute, are attached to this county. (See HEBRIDES.) The valued rent is L. 191,605, 7d. Scots, and the real rent in 1811, of the lands, was L. 336,471, 10s. and of the houses, L. 22,823 Sterling. The division of property is considered not unfavourable to the prosperity of the different classes of the population, though it appears that more than a third part of the whole county is held under settlements of entail. The advantages possessed by Ayrshire, besides its sea-coast and several excellent harbours, may be traced to the coal and limestone found in great abundance in almost every part of it,—the one so necessary to its manufactures, and the other to its agriculture; and the chief natural disadvantage under which it labours is the humidity of its climate, aggravated by the quality of the greater part of the soil, which is a tenacious clay.

Agriculture, according to the more approved courses of management, has nevertheless made considerable progress of late in this county. The old rotation of three consecutive crops of corn, followed by six years hay and pasture, has been very generally abandoned in the new leases; and, on the better soils, an alternation of white and green crops, and an interchange of tillage and pasturage, as in the eastern counties of Scotland, begin to prevail. The dairy is, however, the chief object of attention to the Ayrshire husbandmen, and their valuable breed of cows, and rich, yet mild cheese, known by the name of Dunlop cheese, are in great repute in most parts of Britain. Their horses, under the general name of Clydesdale or Lanarkshire horses, are equal, if not superior, to those of any other race in the Island; almost every small farmer, and the farms are too generally small, either rearing one or more himself, or purchasing them when young, and reselling them to the eastern counties after a year or two of very moderate labour. After all, it must be admitted that the agriculture of Ayrshire is much behind that of the counties on the east coast. No regular system of cleansing and manuring the soil, nor of following and draining the wet lands, is to be seen throughout the greater part of the district. The size of the farms is commonly from 50 to 150 acres, affording little room for the employment of capital, or the division of labour; and yet the rents are surprisingly high—of some favoured spots not less than eight pounds or guineas the acre.

Ayrshire, as a manufacturing district, seems to stand next in importance, among the Scottish counties, to the contiguous shires of Lanark and Renfrew. Various branches of the woollen manufacture are carried on to a considerable extent in different parts of it, in Kilmarnock alone, to the value of L. 80,000 yearly. Carpets, and the coarser fabrics, give employment to a considerable proportion of the inhabitants of that thriving town; and besides several public establishments there, and in other parts of the county, many private families in almost every parish take a share in the manufacture of blankets and coarse cloths; a part of which, after supplying their own wants, is carried to the fairs and markets of the county. Beith has long been noted for its thread manufacture. The cotton-works at Catrine are by far the most extensive of all its manufacturies; employing, in 1811, 900 hands, who are said to have spun into yarn 10,000 lbs. of cotton wool, and made 35,000 yards of cloth every week. At Muirkirk and Glenbuck, pig and bar iron are wrought to a great extent, and founderies have been erected there and in other places. Leather, saddlery, earthen-ware, kelp, salt, are the only other kinds of manufacture worthy of notice in this county.

Ayr, Irvine, and Saltcoats, were, till very lately, Commerce, the only harbours much frequented, and at these places there has long been a little trade with Ireland, America, and the Baltic, and a considerable trade coastwise. In 1807, the port of Ayr had 54 vessels, of which the burden was from 4000 to 5000 tons, and 82 vessels belonged to Irvine and Saltcoats, which carried 6795 tons. Coal is the staple article of export, and corn the most considerable of its imports; the ports on the Clyde having hitherto been the grand emporium of the west of Scotland.

This county exhibits instances of public spirit in its great land proprietors beyond any other in Scotland, or probably in the British empire. The harbour, and other works carrying on at Ardrossan, under the auspices of the Earl of Eglinton, and the harbour of Troon, and the railway from thence to Kilmarnock, formed almost entirely at the expense of the Duke of Portland, are worthy monuments, no less of the enlightened judgment and energy, than of the wealth of these two patriotic noblemen; and the distant prospect of remuneration, which it is much to be wished should be realized, can detract but little from the merit of such grand and princely undertakings.

The harbour of Ardrossan will, when completed, Ardrossan be one of the safest, most capacious, and most ac-Harbour. cessible on the west coast of Britain; possessing many advantages over the harbours in the Frith of Clyde, situate in a narrow channel, which can be navigated only when the wind blows from particular points, and which, for upwards of 20 miles below Glasgow, is both shallow and dangerous. A circular pier of 900 yards was finished in 1811, and everything was then ready to begin the wet-dock, which, according to Mr Telford's plan, was to contain from 70 to 100 vessels in water 16 feet deep. The works have rather languished of late, and are not likely to be completed soon without public aid. It was part of the Earl of Eglinton's plan to raise a neat regular built town at Ardrossan, in which some progress has been made; and he has constructed excellent baths, which draw to it a number of visitors at the proper season.

The harbour at Ardrossan was only a part of the general plan, and that from which, viewed by itself, the smallest advantages perhaps were to be expected. The leading idea was to open up a direct communication between Glasgow, Paisley, and other large towns in the vicinity, and the west coast, instead of the present circuitous passage by the Frith of Clyde. A canal was therefore to be cut from Glasgow to Ardrossan, about 31½ miles, at the estimated expense of L.125,000. Of this only a third has been yet executed, that is, from Glasgow to Johnstone, and this part has cost about L.90,000.

The harbour at Troon, connected as it now is with Kilmarnock, by means of an excellent railway, seems to possess almost all the advantages of that of Ardrossan, and promises to become, in a much shorter period, of vast utility both to the populous country around it, and to the noble under-taker. The pier is now carried into the sea more than 200 yards, and it is proposed to extend it 100 yards farther. At the present extremity, there is a depth of 17 feet at low water. One graving dock was finished about three years ago, which is much resorted to for the repair of coasting vessels; and another, 37 feet wide at the gate, is nearly completed, which will admit vessels of almost any burthen. Extensive warehouses have been erected; and a yard has been opened for building vessels, which is likely to be well employed.

The railway from Troon to Kilmarnock, a distance of 10 miles, is now completed, and answers all the purposes for which it was originally intended. There are upwards of 3000 acres of coal fields in its course, which must in time indemnify the Duke of Portland for his outlay both on this and the harbour. Coals have been hitherto the principal article of conveyance towards the Troon, at the rate of 100 tons daily; and from thence timber, iron, grain, &c. are transported to Kilmarnock and the country adjacent. One horse draws with ease five tons downwards to the Troon, and three tons upwards to Kilmarnock. But locomotive engines, upon the principle of Mr Stephenson of Newcastle, promise soon to render horses unnecessary. The machine weighs 3½ tons, and can carry along with it 25 tons, at the rate of four miles an hour upon an average. This railway has cost the Duke upwards of L.50,000, and the harbour is estimated at about the same sum.

The comparative population of Ayrshire, as taken under the acts 1800 and 1811, will be seen from the following abstract:

<table> <tr> <th rowspan="2">DISTRICTS.</th> <th colspan="2">HOUSES.</th> <th colspan="2">OCCUPATIONS.</th> <th colspan="3">PERSONS.</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Inhabited.<br>By how many Families occupied.</th> <th>Uninhabited.</th> <th>Persons chiefly employed in Agriculture.</th> <th>Persons chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.</th> <th>All other Persons not comprised in the two preceding classes.</th> <th>Males.</th> <th>Females.</th> <th>Total of Persons.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Carrick</td> <td>2603</td> <td>2900</td> <td>69</td> <td>7588</td> <td>4023</td> <td>2141</td> <td>6640</td> <td>7112</td> <td>13,752</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cunninghame</td> <td>5618</td> <td>8050</td> <td>85</td> <td>12,220</td> <td>22,440</td> <td>2532</td> <td>17,165</td> <td>20,027</td> <td>37,192</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Kyle</td> <td>5382</td> <td>7193</td> <td>118</td> <td>13,977</td> <td>13,582</td> <td>4087</td> <td>15,861</td> <td>17,501</td> <td>33,362</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>13,603</td> <td>18,143</td> <td>272</td> <td>33,185</td> <td>42,045</td> <td>8760</td> <td>39,666</td> <td>44,640</td> <td>84,306</td> </tr> </table>

1811.

<table> <tr> <th rowspan="2">DISTRICTS.</th> <th colspan="2">HOUSES.</th> <th colspan="2">OCCUPATIONS.</th> <th colspan="3">PERSONS.</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Inhabited.<br>By how many Families occupied.</th> <th>Building and uninhabited.</th> <th>Families chiefly employed in Agriculture.</th> <th>Families chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.</th> <th>All other Families not comprised in the two preceding classes.</th> <th>Males.</th> <th>Females.</th> <th>Total of Persons.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Carrick</td> <td>2997</td> <td>3450</td> <td>132</td> <td>1474</td> <td>1335</td> <td>641</td> <td>7665</td> <td>8557</td> <td>16,222</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cunninghame</td> <td>6206</td> <td>10,167</td> <td>138</td> <td>1725</td> <td>6133</td> <td>2309</td> <td>21,390</td> <td>24,737</td> <td>46,127</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Kyle</td> <td>6204</td> <td>7877</td> <td>192</td> <td>2186</td> <td>3886</td> <td>1805</td> <td>19,451</td> <td>22,154</td> <td>41,605</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>15,407</td> <td>21,494</td> <td>462</td> <td>5385</td> <td>11,354</td> <td>4755</td> <td>48,506</td> <td>55,448</td> <td>103,954</td> </tr> </table>