This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. Tak' grey hairs and wrinkles, and hirple wi' me, And think on the seventeen hundred and fifty. Sir Alexander Boswell. The Cross of Kilmarnock was, in early times, the site of a corn-mill, which was driven by a lade or stream that flowed through the same spot. Shilling-hill, or Sheelin-hill, near the Railway Station, was, as the name implies, the eminence on which "the kernels of the grain," to use the words of Dr. Jamieson, "were separated by the wind from the husks." Regarding the exact time of the erection of the mill we have no information. It appears, however, by the following extract from the Town Treasurer's Book, to have been removed about the beginning of the eighteenth century: "1703--June 26--Paid to Ballyie Hunter for the street wher the miln stood-- 21 9s. id. Scots." We may likewise state, that the name of the last occupant of the mill was Rankin, from whom are descended the Rankins of Wardneuk, in this parish, and also the late David Rankin, Esq., postmaster of Kilmarnock. The Newmill, at a short distance from the town, on the banks of the Irvine, was also occupied at one time by the same Rankins, and was built, we believe, "By every corn-mill a knoll-top, on which the kernels were winnowed from the husks, was designed the Sheeling-hill.--Agr. Surv. Peeb. in 1703, t as a substitute for the one at the Cross; hence it obtained the name of the New Mill. At the time when the noble family of the Boyds ceased to have connection with Kilmarnock, namely, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the town presented a mean and inelegant appearance. The streets were crooked and narrow; the houses were low and poorly lighted; and to many of them that were two storeys high were attached outside stairs, that not only...