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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

AYRSHIRE, prop. n. The county of Ayr in the South West of Scotland. Combs.: (1) Ayrshire breed, cattle, cow, (one of) a breed of cattle with red and white colouring and turned-up horns, developed in Ayrshire from a mixture of breeds about 1800 and noted for their good milking qualities. Freq. in reduced form Ayrshire, id.; (2) Ayrshire lace, see (4); (3) Ayrshire lassie, a set opening in the game of draughts (see quot.) (Sc. 1851 J. Drummond Sc. Draught Player xii.); (4) Ayrshire needlework, a type of fine needlework on muslin practised esp. in Ayrshire at the end of the 18th and in the first half of the 19th c. See also Flour, v., 1.; (5) Ayrshire rose, the wild rose, Rosa arvensis, or a cultivated variety of it, Rosa capreolata (see 1913 quot.).(1) Sc. 1825 W. Aiton Dairy Husbandry 20:
They are almost double the size, and yield about four times the quantity of milk that the Ayrshire Cows then yielded. Ags. 1845 Stat. Acc.² XI. 584:
On each of two farms in the parish, about forty cows, chiefly of the Ayrshire breed, are kept. Sc. 1876 Trans. Highl. Soc. 135:
The Ayrshire cattle are the result of a cross between the native type and some foreign breed or breeds. The race of Ayrshires was ameliorated step by step.(2) Sc. 1958 S. Maxwell & R. Hutchison Sc. Costume 128:
What the kirking shawl was to the bride, the christening robe of “Ayrshire” lace was to the Scots baby of the nineteenth century . . . “Ayrshire needlework” is a better name for the sewed muslin with fine needlepoint fillings, . . . for lace is certainly a misnomer.(3) Sc. 1852 A. Anderson Draughts (1905) xvi.:
The “Ayrshire Lassie” is formed by the first four moves:— 11–15, 24 20, 8–11, 28 24. Fif. 1895 G. Setoun Sunshine & Haar 241:
Then it was the ‘Ayrshire Lassie’, endin' in a single corner.(4) Sc. c.1839 M. H. Swain The Flowerers (1955) 45:
Sewed muslin does not appear to have been given the name of Ayrshire Needlework until the end of the 1830's. Sc. 1916 J. A. Morris Art Ayr. Needlework 19:
The universal scalloped edging, either left plain, or richly embellished within each scallop, and as such, common to all periods of Ayrshire needlework.(5) Ags. 1845 Stat. Acc.² XI. 37:
From the garden of one of the friends of this [horticultural] society originated the justly admired double varieties of the Ayrshire rose or single white rambling rose. Ayr. 1913 J. Service Memorables 139:
He [the fourth Earl of Loudon] it was who brocht frae America that famous flower, now kent as the Ayrshire Rose.