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

—
CARRICK FOR A MAN.
These spirited lines are the production of the late Archibald Crawford,
author of " Tales of my Grandmother," " Bonnie Maij Hay,"
and several other popular songs. They embody the Carrick reading
of the old rhyme
:
" Kyle for a man,
Carrick for a cow,
Cuninghame for butter and cheese.
And Galloway for woo."
Some—the Carrick people in particular—contend for a different reading,
making
" Carrick for a man,
Kyle for a cow,"
but the first would seem to be the proper one.
It is the most general,
and as old as the days of BeUenden, who, in his description of Scotland,
though he does not quote the rhyme, evidently corroborates or
proceeds upon the sense of it. Speaking of Kyle, he says—" This
country abounds in strong and valiant men, whei'e was born the most
] renowned and valiant champion William Wallace, in the barony
I
called Riccarton."
With regard to " Carrick for a cow," he mentions
a very curious fact in natural history, which, however incredible, sufficiently
attests the estimation in which Carrick was held for the
superiority of its cattle. "In Carrick," he says, " are kine and oxen,
delicious to eat, but theii- fatness is of a wonderful temperature : all
other comestable beasts' fatness with the cold air doth congeal : by
the contrary, the fatness of these is pei^petually liquid, like oil."*
the testament of " Jeane Stewart, Lady Barganie," who died in 1605,
relict of Thomas Kennedy of Bargany, who was slain in the feud
fight between him and the Earl of Cassillis in 1601, there are in the
inventory, as at Bargany, " four Inglis Ky, pryce of ilk ane o''heid, vidth
hir foUowar, Twentie pund."t We are not aware whether there were
any other English cows in Ayrshire at the time.
In
It would be worth
the while of an antiquarian agriculturist to ascertain, if practicable,
|
whether the native dairy-breed underwent any change by the introj
duction of these English cattle. It is said that the Angusshire stock