y passed under the sway of the Northumbrian kings.
Save for occasional intertribal troubles, as that in which the Scottish
king Alpin was slain at Dalmellington in the 9th century, the annals are
silent until the battle of Largs in 1263, when the pretensions of Haakon of
Norway to the sovereignty of the Isles were crushed by the Scots under
Alexander III. A generation later William Wallace conducted a vigorous
campaign in the shire. He surprised the English garrison at Ardrossan, and
burned the barns of Ayr in which the forces of Edward I were lodged. Robert
Bruce is alleged to have been born at Turnberry Castle, some 12 m. S.W. of
Ayr. In 1307 he defeated the English at Loudoun Hill. Cromwell paid the
county a hurried visit, during which he demolished the castle of Ardrossan
and is said to have utilized the stones in rearing a fort at Ayr. Between
1660 and 1688 the sympathies of the county were almost wholly with the
Covenanters, who suffered one of their heaviest reverses at Airds Moss--a
morass between the Ayr and Lugar,--their leader, Richard Cameron, being
killed (20th of July 1680). The county was dragooned and the Highland host
ravaged wherever it went. The Hanoverian succession excited no active
hostility if it evoked no enthusiasm. Antiquarian remains include cairns in
Galston, Sorn and other localities; a road supposed to be a work of the
Romans, which extended from Ayr, through Dalrymple and Dalmellington,
towards the Solway; camps attributed to the Norwegians or Danes on the
hills of Knockgeorgan and Dundonald; and the castles of Loch Doon,
Turnberry, Dundonald, Portencross, Ardrossan and Dunure. There are ruins of
celebrated abbeys at Kilwinning and Crossraguel, and of Alloway's haunted
church, famous from their associations.

See James Paterson, "History of the County of Ayr." _Transactions of
Ayrshire and Galloway Archaeological Associations_, Edinburgh, 1879-1900;
John Smith, _Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire_ (London, 1895); William
Robertson, _History of Ayrshire_ (Edinburgh, 1894); Archibald Sturrock, "On
the Agriculture of Ayrshire," _Transactions of Highland and Agricultural
Society_; D. Landsborough, _Contributions to Local History_ (Kilmarnock,
1878).

AYRTON, WILLIAM EDWARD (1847-1908), English physicist, was born in London
on the 14th of September 1847. He was educated at University College,
London, and in 1868 went out to Bengal in the service of the Indian
Government Telegraph department. In 1873 h