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

;
But 'deed it's best to let it be.
A' my faults I will not tell,
I scarcely ken tbem a' mysel'
I've come through various scenes of life,
Yet never was a married wife."
In this brief sketch, Isohel confesses her follies, but wisely refrains
from telling all her faults. Little is known of her early years beyond
what she has herself recorded. Lame from infancy, she does not appear
to have ever been able for laborious industiy ; and though well
connected, as it is said, none of her relations seem to have befriended
her, while the lessons of the " good old religious wife" do not appear
to have made any lasting impression.
Nature had bestowed upon her
few of those softer features with which the fair sex are generally
favoured. Speaking of her in later life, our informant describes her
as a woman of " a very unearthly appearance."
She squinted with one
of her eyes—^had a large tumour on her side — .and was so deformed in
one of her feet as to require crutches when walking. She had great
vivacity of spirit, however, and an excellent voice ; and it is affii-med
that, notwithstanding her ungainly aspect, she was at one period
courted by a person of the
name of Campbell, to whom she had a
child, and was on the eve of marriage when he deserted her.
The greater part of Isobel's life was passed in the neighbourhood of
Muirkirk. She first occupied, for a short time, a cottage on the property
of Muirsmill, and subsequently removed to one given her by
Admiral Keith Stewart, on the banks of the Garpal Water, within a
mile or two of the village. The situation was romantic, but must
have been exceedingly dreary in winter. The dwelling, constructed
out of a low arch, was originally built for a brick-store in connection
with Lord Dundonald's tar- works.
In this lonely spot, Isobel resided
for upwards of thirty years. She was no recluse, however ; for, night
after night, the vaulted roof of her humble dwelling rang with the
voice of licentious mirth, and the reveliies of bacchanalian worshippers,
among whom she was the administering priestess. Famed for
her sarcastic wit, as well as
for her vocal powers, her cottage may be
truly said to have been the favourite howff of all the drunken wags
and " drouthy neebours" in the district.
She had no license for the
retail of spirits, but usually kept a bottle for the supply of her customers
; and by this means she contrived to eke out a subsistence
which must otherwise have been sustained from charity-—an alterna-
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