CUMNOCK AND HOLMHEAD  , a

police burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Lugar, 33; M . S. of Glasgow by road, with two stations (Cumnock and Old Cumnock) on the Glasgow & South-Western railway . Pop . (1901) 3088 . It lies in the parish of Old Cumnock (pop . 5144), and is a thriving town, with a town hall, cottage hospital, public library and an athenaeum . Coal and ironstone are extensively mined in the neighbourhood, and the manufactures include woollens, tweeds, agricultural implements and pottery . When Alexander Peden (1626-1686), the persecuted Covenanter, died, he was buried in the Boswell aisle of Auchinleck church; but his corpse was borne thence with every indignity by a company of dragoons to the foot of the gallows at Cumnock, where they intended to hang it in chains . This proving to be impracticable they buried it at the gallows-foot . After the Revolution the inhabitants out of respect for the " Prophet's " memory abandoned their then burying-ground and turned the old place of execution into the present cemetery . Five miles S.E. lies the parish of New Cumnock (pop . 5367) at the confluence of Afton Water and the Nith .

It is

rich in minerals, iron, coal, limestone and freestone, and has a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway . Two miles N.W. of Cumnock is Auchinleck (pronounced Aflleck), with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway . Coal and iron mining and farming are important industries . It is the seat of the Boswell family, three generations of which achieved greatness—Lord Auchinleck, the judge (who dubbed Dr Johnson " Ursa Major"), his son James, the biographer, and his grandson Sir Alexander, the author of " Gude nicht and joy be wi' you a'," " Jenny's Bawbee," Jenny dang the weaver," and other songs and poems, who perished miserably in a duel . Pop. of Auchinleck parish (1901) 66o5 .