[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

;
an astonishing quantity of milk. " If good, well fed cows," says the
author, " give their own weight in cheese through the course of the year,
it is deemed an ample return ; but this little animal will not feed above
nineteen stones imperial, yet she produced, last year, twenty-five stones of
sweet-milk cheese, besides serving the family with what butter and milk
they needed." Mr Aitken has followed various occupations throughout
his somewhat eventful life. At present he is working in a limestone
quarry on Trearne estate, in the parish of Beith. He is much beloved
by his neighbours, who lately presented him with a purse, containing forty
guineas, and a handsome arm chair, of curious workmanship.
Peter Galbraith, that noble squire,
Of might and high renown,
lie built a palace, great and fair,
Hard by Perclewan town.*
He sought no help of man nor beast,
As I hear people tell
He was so valiant and so stout,
He built it a' himsel'.
But when the building was near dune,
And all the stones were laid ;
A granite of prodigious size,
Came rolling in his head.t
To aid him with this ponderous stone,
lie asked the neighbours round ;
And such a gathering ne'er before,
Was on Perclewan ground.
* A short distance from Dalrymple village,
f In his imagination.
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