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Alloway
ALLOWAY, an ancient parish in the district of
Kyle, in Ayrshire, which was united, towards the end of the 17th
century, with the parish of Ayr, from which it is divided by Glengaw
burn. ' Alloway's auld haunted kirk,'—a little roofless ruin,— long
known only as marking the obscure resting-place of the rustic dead, is
now an object of veneration, and many an enthusiastic pilgrimage, on
account of its having been chosen by Burns as the scene of the
grotesque demon revelry, at once ludicrous and horrible, described
with such graphic and tremendous power in his tale of Tam o' Shanter;
for it would seem that imagination is not restricted in her flight
here by the actual and real. It is situated on the east bank of the
Doon, a little below the point where the road from Ayr to Maybole is
carried across that river by the new bridge, and a quarter of a mile
from the cottage on Doon side in which the peasant-bard was born on
the 25th of January, 1759. The poet's father was interred here at his
own request; and the bard himself expressed a wish to be laid in the
same grave, which would have been complied with had not the citizens
of Dumfries claimed the honour of the guardianship of his ashes. It is
now — such is the interest which the genius of the bard has thrown
over the spot — a crowded and fashionable place of sepulture. Betwixt
the kirk and the 'Auld brig o' Doune,' by which a road now disused is
carried over 'Doom's classic stream,' about 100 yards south-east of
the kirk, and on the summit of the eastern bank, which here rises
boldly from the river, stands a splendid monument to the poet,
designed by Hamilton of Edinburgh, and consisting of a triangular
base, supporting nine Corinthian columns, which are surrounded by a
cupola terminating in a gilt tripod. It is upwards of 60 feet in
height; and cost above £2,000. The whole is enclosed, and ornamented
with shrubbery ; and the clever figures of Tam o' Shanter and Souter
Johnny, executed by the ingenious self-taught sculptor, Tom, are
placed in a small building within the enclosure - Alloway kirk is 36½
miles distant from Glasgow ; 5¾ from Maybole ; and 2¾ from Ayr. Mr.
Cathcart of Blairston, one of the lords of session, on his promotion
to the bench, took the title of Lord Alloway from this place. He died
in 1829, and was interred within the ruins of the kirk. See article,
The DOON.
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