Mauchline
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mauchline is a town in the division of Kyle, Ayrshire, Scotland. The town has a population of 5,500. It lies 8 miles east southeast of Kilmarnock and 11 miles northeast of Ayr by the Glasgow and South-Western railway. It is situated on a gentle slope about 1 mile from the River Ayr, which flows through the south of the parish of Mauchline.
[edit] History
It was noted for its manufacture of curling-stones, snuff-boxes and souvenirs and everyday items in wood. These wooden items were known as Mauchlineware, and were manufactured from the first half of the nineteenth century until the factory closure following a fire in 1933. William and Andrew Smith were the largest Mauchlineware manufacturers.
Mauchlinware was made from the wood of the plane tree, and is typically decorated with a transfer showing an engraving or photograph of a familiar scene. Souvenirs were manufactured for sale throughout the world, with thousands of different transfers depicting scenes throughout the British Empire and United States. Mauchlinware was alternatively decorated with coloured patterns - clan tartans or floral designs, a product generically known as Tartanware. The tartan patterns were created by an inking machine that applied colored inks on paper, which was then glued onto individual pieces of Mauchlineware, and coated with shellac. A third variant was fernware, whereby botanical samples were reproduced within the design.
Items decorated with transfers or with tartan patterns included: snuff boxes, stamp boxes and other desk accessories, candle sticks, sewing accessories, egg timers and egg cups, napkin rings, and book covers.
There was also some cabinet-making, besides spinning and weaving, and its horse fairs and cattle markets had more than local celebrity. The parish church, dating from 1829, stands in the middle of the village, and on the green a monument, erected in 1830, marks the spot where five Covenanters were killed in 1685. Robert Burns lived with his brother Gilbert on the farm of Mossgiel, about a mile to the north, from 1784 to 1788. Mauchline kirkyard was the scene of the Holy Fair; at Poosie Nansies (Agnes Gibsons) still, though much altered, a popular in the Jolly Beggars held their highjinks; near the church, in the poet's day an old, barn-like structure, was the Whiteford Arms inn, where on a pane of glass, Burns wrote the epitaph on John Dove, the landlord; auld Nanse Tinnocks house, with the date of 1744 above the door, nearly faces the entrance to the churchyard; the Reverend William Auld was minister of Mauchline, and Holy Willie, whom the poet scourged in the celebrated Prayer, was one of Daddy Aulds elders; behind the kirkyard stands the house of Gavin Hamilton, the lawyer and firm friend of Burns, in which the poet was married. The braes of Ballochmyle, where he met the heroine of his song, The Lass o Ballochmyle, lie about a mile to the southeast. Adjoining them is the village of Catrine, where Dr. Matthew Stewart (1717-1785), the father of Dugald Stewart had a mansion. Barskimming House, 2 miles south by west of Mauchline, the seat of Lord-President Miller (1717-1789), burned down in 1882. Near the confluence of the Fail and the Ayr was the scene of Burns' parting with Highland Mary.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
