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Cunningham
CUNNINGHAM, the northern district of
Ayrshire; bounded on the
east by Renfrewshire; on the north and west by the frith of
Clyde; and, on the south, separated from Kyle by the river
Irvine. Its length from north to south may be about 18 miles;
its breadth from east to west 12 miles. It includes the
following parishes:— Ardrossan, Beith, Dalry, Dreghorn, part
of Dunlop, Fenwick, Irvine, Kilbirnie, West Kilbride,
Kilmarnock, Kilmaurs, Kilwinning, Largs, Loudoun, Stevenston,
and Stewarton. The total number of inhabited houses in the
district in 1831, was 7,602; of families 13,047. Of these,
2,212 families were employed in agriculture, and 7,457, in
trade, manufactures, and handicrafts. The total population was
63,453. Cunningham is pleasantly diversified with hill and
dale; but cannot be said to have any mountains. It is watered
by numerous streams, the "chief of which are the Annock, Caaf,
Garnock, Irvine, and Rye: which see. In it are several
populous towns and villages: as Ardrossan, Beith, Dalry,
Irvine, Kilwinning, Largs, Saltcoats, Stewarton, etc.: which
see. The whole district abounds with coal, limestone, and
freestone. It is, however, mostly in the hands of great
proprietors, and is, of consequence, ornamented with few
seats. Eglinton castle and Kelburne
are the chief: which see. - This district is celebrated
for its dairy husbandry, which has reached greater perfection
here than in any other quarter of Scotland. Full milk cheese
was first begun to be made in the parishes of Beith, Dunlop,
Stewarton, and others, soon after the middle of last century.
It was made in the parish of Kilmarnock about the year 1756
and became common in Cunningham by about 1770. Some
traditional accounts, however, represent it as of much earlier
introduction into the dairies of this district [See article
Dunlop] The question of the origin of this famous kind of
cheese is still matter of keen dispute. About the year 1760,
the cows in the district of Cunningham were not superior to
those now in Bute, Arran, or Kintyre. They were poor
ill-shaped starvelings, which, when fattened, did not weigh
more than from 13 to 15 stones, county weight. But, about
1750, the Earl of Marchmont purchased from the Bishop of
Durham, six cows and a bull of the Teeswater breed, — all of
them flecked brown and white, and considerably heavier than
the Ayrshire cows
at that period. Bruce Campbell, Esq., of Milnriggs -
who was then factor on his Lordship's estate in Ayrshire —
brought some of that breed to his byres at Sornbeg, and from
these many calves were reared in that part of Ayrshire. John
Dunlop, Esq., about the same time, brought some cows of an
improved breed to his estate of Dunlop: and the Earls of
London and Eglinton, Mr.Orr of Barrowfield, and others, all
procured such cows, and placed them on their estates in
Cunningham. These were at that time called Dutch cows, and
they were of the same colour as those brought to Sornbeg. The
dairy-breed on the Clyde have the colour, and partly the shape
of the Ayrshire breed, and are upon the whole a handsome
species of stock; but they are too round in the chest, too
heavy in the fore-quarters, and far less capacious in their
hinder parts, than the improved Ayrshire breed. They are
well-fitted for the grazier, but inferior to the Cunningham
breed for milkers — The district of Cunningham was, until the
abolition of feudal jurisdiction, a bailiewick under the Earl
of Eglinton. Many of its leading families, — such as those of
Eglinton, Glencairn, and London, — took a leading part in the
affairs of the kingdom during its most agitated times. The
ancient family of De Morville, the constables of Scotland,
were at one time proprietors of almost all the district. It
was to Hugh de Morville the church owed the celebrated abbey
of Kilwinning, which was endowed so amply by him and others of
bis family as to have a yearly revenue equal to £20,000 of our
present money. Yet it is singular that there is no certainty
as to their place of residence in this district. Mr. George
Robertson, in his 'Genealogical Account of the Principal
Families in Ayrshire, more particularly in Cunningham,'
[Irvine: 2 vols.] gives the names of two places supposed to
have been their residence, — Glengarnock castle, in the parish
of Kilbirnie, and Southannan in Largs, — now in Kilbride.
Glengarnock appears to have been one of the most ancient
buildings in the district, and its ruins show that it has been
one of the most extensive, and far beyond what the proprietor
of the small barony of Glengarnock would have reared for
himself. When
"The castle-gates were barr'd,
And o'er the gloomy portal arch,
Tuning; his footsteps to a march,
The warder kept his guard,"
he could see from the tower the greater part of Cunningham
lying below him, and would have a view of the frith of Clyde,
thus overlooking the movements of foreign as well as internal
enemies. The fact, however, cannot be ascertained with
certainty, and we may place it along with that assertion which
makes Glengarnock the residence of Hardyknute.
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