518
of Galston passed through the hands of several proprietors; and was at length
acquired, in 1787, with a large estate in the parish, by Miss Scot of Scotstarvit,
who is now Duchess of Portland, and it still belongs to her. The present parish
church of Galston was built before the Reformation. It stands at the village
of Galston, on the south bank of the Irvine, which village has two annual
fairs, and contained in 1811, about 1300 inhabitants. [A new parish church,
erected in 1808, has 884 communicants : stipend £463. There is also a mission
church. A Free church has 288, and a U.P. church 335 members. There are
also Roman Catholic and Evangelical Union churches.]
11. MAUCHLINE parish derived its name from the town, whereat stands the
church, and the town had its name from the Gaelic Magh-lin, signifying the
plain with the pool. Lyn, in the British, and Linne, in the Gaelic signifies
a pool in a running stream; and being applied to the pools which were
formed by cascades, it came to signify a cascade, which in the common
language of Scotland is called a lin. Mauchline stands in a plain, and there
runs through the town a rivulet which has three several falls or small cas-
cades that form pools below. On the side of this rivulet, there is a green
where the women bleach and dry their linens. The parish of Mauchline was
formerly of very great extent, comprehending the whole of the extensive
country which now forms the three parishes of Mauchline, Sorn, and Muir-
kirk. The whole of this tract belonged to the Stewart, being a part of
their larger territory of Kyle Stewart. At the commencement of the reign
of William in 1165, Walter the son of Alan, granted to the monks of Melrose
the lands of Mauchline, with the right of pasturage, in his wide-spreading
forest on the upper branches of the Ayr river, extending to the boundaries
of Clydesdale, and the Stewart also gave the same monks a carucate of
laud to improve, in the places most convenient; all which was confirmed
to them by King William at the request of the donor (n). The monks of
Melrose planted at Mauchline a colony of their own order ; and this establish-
ment continued a cell of the monastery of Melrose till the Reformation. In
the before-mentioned grant of the lands of Mauchline, or in the confirmations
thereof, there is no mention of the church of Mauchline. It is therefore
more than probable, that the parish church of Mauchline was established by
the monks of Melrose, after they had become owners of the territory ; and
it is quite certain that the church belonged to them. It is apparent that
the country, which formed the extensive parish of Mauchline, was but very
little settled when the monks obtained the grant from the first Walter.
This fact shows that during the reign of David I., and even during the reigns
of his grandsons and successors, Malcolm IV. and William, Renfrew and
(n) Chart. Melrose. No. 124.  This grant was confirmed by Walter's son Alan, and by his grandson,
the second Walter, and also by Alexander II.    Ib. No. 125-6-7, and G3.