electors, succeeded in obtaining
the see of Winchester for Aymer. The appointment was in every way
unsuitable. Aymer was illiterate, ignorant of the English language, and
wholly secular in his mode of life. Upon his head was concentrated the
whole of the popular indignation against the foreign favourites; and he
seems to have deserved this unenviable distinction. At the parliament of
Oxford (1258) he and his brothers repudiated the new constitution prepared
by the barons. He was pursued to Winchester, besieged in Wolvesey castle,
and finally compelled to surrender and leave the kingdom. He had never been
consecrated; accordingly in 1259 the chapter of Winchester proceeded to a
new election. Aymer, however, gained the support of the pope; he was on his
way back to England when he was overtaken by a fatal illness at Paris.

See W. Stubbs' _Constitutional History_, vol. ii. (1896); G. W. Prothero's
_Simon de Montfort_ (1877); W. H. Blaauw's _Barons' War_ (1871).

AYMESTRY LIMESTONE, an inconstant limestone which occurs locally in the
Ludlow series of Silurian rocks, between the Upper and Lower Ludlow shales.
It derives its name from Aymestry in Herefordshire, where it may be seen on
both sides of the river Lugg. It is well developed in the neighbourhood of
Ludlow (it is sometimes called the Ludlow limestone) and occupies a similar
position in the Ludlow shales at Woolhope, [v.03 p.0074] the Abberley
Hills, May Hill and the Malvern Hills. In lithological character it varies
greatly; in one place it is a dark grey, somewhat crystalline limestone,
elsewhere it passes into a flaggy, earthy or shaly condition, or even into
a mere layer of nodules. When well developed it may reach 50 ft. in
thickness in beds of from 1 to 5 ft.; in this condition it naturally forms
a conspicuous feature in the landscape because it stands out by its
superior hardness from the soft shales above and below.

The most common fossil is _Pentamerus Knightii_, which is extremely
abundant in places. Other brachiopods, corals and trilobites are present,
and are similar to those found in the Wenlock limestone. (See SILURIAN.)

AYR, a royal, municipal and police burgh and seaport, and county town of
Ayrshire, Scotland, at the mouth of the river Ayr, 41-1/2 m. S.S.W. of
Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1891) 24,944; (1901)
29,101. It is situated on a fine bay and its beautiful sands attract
thousands of summer visitors. Ayr proper lies o