Clyde, at the mouth of the River Ayr, 40 miles south-southwest of Glasgow by rail (Map: Scotland, D 4). Ayr is connected by three bridges with the suburbs of Newton-on-Ayr and Wallacetown, which have constituted a part of the city since 1873, and is a clean and handsome town. A harbor is formed by the estuary of the river, and is protected by piers and a break- water. In 1874 and succeeding years many im- provements were added, including the construc- tion of a large wet-dock. The coasting trade is considerable. The chief export is coal from the Ayrshire collieries. A considerable quantity of grain, timber, iron ore, and manure is imported. At one time much wine was imported from France. The town has an excellent water-supply, obtained from Loch Finlas. It owns and operates an electric-light plant, and maintains markets, slaughter-houses, and a cemetery. The race- course, owned by the town, is the scene of the 'Western Meeting,' held each year in September. Part of the tower of the old Church of Saint John, built in the Twelfth Century, and turned mto a fort by Cromwell, is still standing. The neighborhood of Ayr is rich in associations with the poet Robert Burns. About two miles to the south is the cottage in which he was born, and a little farther on Auld AUoway Kirk (q.v.), and the Auld Brig of Doon of Tam o' Shanter fame. Near the river is the Burns Monument, in the style of a classic temple, containing relics of the poet and two excellent figures of Tam and Souter Johnny, by Thorn, a native sculptor. Population, municipal burgh, 1900, 28,624.
AYRER, i'rer,
Jakob (c. 1560-1605). A Ger-
man dramatist. He was born at Nuremberg,
and, next to Hans Sachs, was the most prolific
dramatic poet of the Sixteenth Century in Ger-
many. He wrote, largely under the inspiration
of English traveling comedians and in the inter-
est of the Protestant Reformation, more than
100 plays between 1595 and 1605. The Opus
Theatricum (Nuremberg, 1618) contains 30 of
his tragedies and comedies and 36 of his Shrove-
tide plays and vaudevilles. They were sensa-
tional in their effects, coarse in language, pedan-
tic sometimes in form, but they helped to turn
the popular religious drama of the Sixteenth
Century to the service of the new spiritual and
national life. Consult: Keller, in Bibliothek des
litterarischen Verenis, Vol. LXXVI., and "Select
Dramas of Jacob Ayrer," in Deutsche Dichter des
XVI. Jahrhunderts, Vol. CLXXXVI., with a valu-
able introduction by Tittmann (Leipzig, 1868).
AYRES, arz,
Alfred. See Osmun, Thomas Embley.
AYRES, Romeyn Beck (1825-88). An American soldier. He was born in Montgomery County, N. Y., and graduated at West Point in 1847. He became a captain in 1861, took part in the first battle of Bull Run, and was chief of artillery in Gen. W. F. Smith's division from October, 1861, to November, 1862, and of the Sixth Army Corps from November, 1862, to April, 1863. He served with the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsular Campaign, and afterwards in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville (where he commanded a brigade), and Gettysburg (where he commanded a division of the Fifth Army Corps). In August, 1863, his division was ordered to New York to aid in suppressing the draft riots. General Ayres afterwards took a prominent part in Grant's Richmond campaign, was wounded at the siege of Petersburg, and from August, 1865, to April, 1866, when he was mustered out of the volunteer service, was in command of the Shenandoah Valley. At the close of the war he was brevetted brigadier-general and major-general in both the volunteer and the regular service, and afterwards, until his death, served on garrison duty as lieutenant-colonel and colonel in the Regular Army, at various military stations.
AYR'SHIRE. A maritime county in the
southwestern division of Scotland, bounded
north by Renfrewshire, west by the Firth of
Clyde and the North Channel, south by Wigton
and Kirkcudbright, east and northeast by Dum-
fries and Lanark. Area, 1128 square miles
(Map: Scotland, D 4). The county is undulat-
ing and hilly, the land attaining no great eleva-
tion, except a small portion in the north and
some considerable tracts in the south and south-
east, which are mountainous. It is rich in valu-
able minerals, especially coal, ironstone, lime-
stone, and freestoiie. Agriculture is in an ad-
vanced state, and dairy-husbandry is carried to
high perfection, the breed of milch cows, of which
it rears a greater number than any other Scotch
county, being noted as the finest in the kingdom
for the quantity and quality of their milk. (For
illustration, see Plate of Datry Cattle under
C.TTLE. ) The breed of horses is also excellent.
Manufactures, especially woolen and cotton, are
carried on to a considerable extent at Catrine
and Kilmarnock. Great iron-works exist at Muir-
kirk, Hurlford, Kilwinning, Ardeer, Dairy, and
Dahnellington. There are valuable fisheries on
some parts of the coast. Troon, Ardrossan, Ayr.
and Irvine are thriving ports. The capital is
Ayr. Population, in 1801, 84,200; in 1851.
189,860; in 1891, 226,386; in 1901, 254,400.
Consult Paterson, History of Ayrshire (Edin-
burgh, 1863-66).
AYRTON, ar'ton,
William Edward (1847—). An English physicist and electrical engineer, born in London. He was appointed to the telegraph service of the Indian Government, and in 1873-79 was professor of natural philosophy and telegraphy in the Imperial College of Engineering at Tokio, Japan. In 1879 he was appointed professor of physics in the City and Guilds of London Institute, South Kensington. With Professor Perry he has written a number of treatises on electrotechnics. He has also published Practical Electricity (1888).
AYSCUE, as'kii.
Sir George (1616-71). An English admiral. He was knighted by Charles I., but held no command until 1646. Two years later, the neutrality which the navy had preserved while the Civil War raged on land terminated, and a large part of the fleet set sail for Holland. It was chiefly the influence of Ayscue, who sided with Parliament, that prevented the remainder of the fleet from leaving the English coast, and his services were rewarded by an appointment as admiral. In this capacity he reduced Barbadoes (after a stubborn resistance by the Royalist Governor, Willoughby), Antigua, Nevis, Saint Christopher, and the settlements on the Virginia coast (1651). During the following years he was engaged in repeated naval conflicts with the Dutch. In 1666 his flagship,
