el, which is steep, declining to the south-west, and leads
to a lower street, which is far larger than the high chiefe street, and
it runs from the Kirkland to the Well Trees, in which there have been
many pretty buildings, belonging to the severall gentry of the
countrey, who were wont to resort thither in winter, and divert
themselves in converse together at their owne houses. It was once the
principall street of the town; but many of these houses of the gentry
having been decayed and ruined, it has lost much of its ancient beautie.
Just opposite to this vennel, there is another that leads north-west,
from the chiefe street to the green, which is a pleasant plott of
ground, enclosed round with an earthen wall, wherein they were wont to
play football, but now at the Gowff and byasse-bowls. The houses of this
towne, on both sides of the street, have their several gardens belonging
to them; and in the lower street there be some pretty orchards, that
yield store of good fruit." As Patterson says, this description is near
enough even to-day, and is mighty nicely written to boot. I am bound to
add, of my own experience, that Maybole is tumble-down and dreary.
Prosperous enough in reality, it has an air of decay; and though the
population has increased, a roofless house every here and there seems to
protest the contrary. The women are more than well-favoured, and the men
fine tall fellows; but they look slipshod and dissipated. As they
slouched at street corners, or stood about gossiping in the snow, it
seemed they would have been more at home in the slums of a large city
than here in a country place betwixt a village and a town. I heard a
great deal about drinking, and a great deal about religious revivals:
two things in which the Scottish character is emphatic and most
unlovely. In particular, I heard of clergymen who were employing their
time in explaining to a delighted audience the physics of the Second
Coming. It is not very likely any of us will be asked to help. If we
were, it is likely we should receive instructions for the occasion, and
that on more reliable authority. And so I can only figure to myself a
congregation truly curious in such flights of theological fancy, as one
of veteran and accomplished saints, who have fought the good fight to an
end and outlived all worldly passion, and are to be regarded rather as
a part of the Church Triumphant than the poor, imperfect company on
earth. And yet I saw some young f