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AYSODE AYUNTAMIENTO 171 similar to those of Staffa. The county abounds in coal, particularly that known as blende coal, which is found in a state of coke ; iron, lead, antimony, and various kinds of building stone are also found ; and there is a granite valued for mill stones, and a black stone used in build- ing ovens. The county is remarkable fdk its fine crops and for the general prosperity of its farmers. The manufactures are considerable in linens, woollens, cottons, leather, and other articles. The relics of antiquity, Druidical and Roman, are numerous, while there are also many ruins of buildings of the middle ages. One of the most notable of these in point of interest is Turnberry castle, the ancestral resi- dence of the Bruce. Capital, Ayr. AYSCUE, Sir George, an English admiral, born about 1616, died about 1676. He entered the navy early, and was knighted by Charles I. In the civil war, siding with the parliament, he had command as admiral in the Irish seas. In 1651 he reduced Barbadoes and Virginia, which had held out for the king. In 1652 he seconded Blake in his contest with Van Tromp and De Kuyter. In June, 1666, in the mem- orable naval battle of the four days, he com- manded a squadron, but his ship (the Royal Prince, the largest ship then afloat) running on the Galoper sands, his men forced him to sur- render, and the Dutch captured his vessel. He was held a prisoner for several years. AYTOJf, or Aytoun, Sir Robert, a Scottish poet, private secretary to the queens of James I. and Charles I., born at Kinaldie, Fifeshire, in 1570, died in the palace of Whitehall in March, 1638. When James VI. of Scotland' became king of England, Ayton was rewarded for a very eulogistic Latin poem by knighthood, and several lucrative offices. His Latin poems, chiefly panegyrical, were published in his life- time, and much esteemed. His English poems, principally preserved by tradition, were scarcely known until the Ballantyne club at Edinburgh printed a collection of them in their " Miscel- lany." Some years later a manuscript contain- ing Ayton's poems was picked up at a sale, and the whole, edited by C. A. Pryor, were published in 1844. Burns greatly admired such of Ayton's poems as he had seen among them the original of "Auld Lang Syne." Ayton was intimate with Ben Jonson and the leading literary men of his time. AYTOPf, William Edmondstonne, a Scottish poet, born in Fifeshire in 1813, died in Edinburgh, Aug. 4, 1865. He was educated in the schools of Edinburgh, where he gained distinction in English and Latin composition. A prize poem, "Judith" (1831), received the applause of Prof. Wilson, whose daughter he afterward married ; and encouraged by him he published his first volume, entitled "Poland and other Poems," which attracted but little attention. Mr. Aytoun was called to the bar in 1840, and became well known as a wit and as an advocate in criminal cases. In 1845 he succeeded Mr. Moir as professor of rhetoric ! and belles-letters in the university of Edin- burgh, and the lectures which he delivered there were celebrated for their pithy treatment of topics and their brilliant style. He aban- doned the liberal political views toward which he tended in his youth, and after the death of Prof. Wilson was the most prominent among the contributors to " Blackwood's Magazine." In this periodical first appeared his celebrated national ballads, " Lays of the Scottish Cava- liers and other Poems " (London and Edinburgh, 1849 ; 10th ed., 1857). Prof. Aytoun lectured with great success in London in 1853 upon poetry and dramatic literature, and in 1854 published " Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, by T. Percy Jones," designed to ridicule the raptures of some of the young poets of the day. He also took part in the " Book of Ballads," edited under the pseudonyme of " Bon Gaul- tier." His last poem was "Bothwell" (2d ed., 1856). He was one of the most effective of British political writers, and in reward for his services to the conservative party he was in 1852 appointed by Lord Derby sheriff and vice admiral of Orkney. Theodore Martin, one of his colaborers, has published a memoir of his life (1868). AYIINTAMIEIVTO, the name of village and town councils in Spain. During the wars be- tween the Moors and Christian Spaniards it was the policy of the sovereigns to induce inhab- itants and cultivators to settle in the depopu- lated country as fast as it was recovered. As an incentive they granted to the villages and towns municipal privileges of a character de- rived from Roman antiquity, and totally an- tagonistic to the spirit of the feudal law. The town councils were to be composed of the judge, the mayor, the regidores or clerks, the jurados, and the personeros or deputies; all these were elective officers, except the judge or corregidor, who was appointed by the king. The only qualification for a citizen was Span- ish birth, residence, and to be the head of a family. These privileges were consonant with the most ancient rights of the Spaniards and their Gothic conquerors, but now they were con- firmed by fueros or charters. The only liabil- ity under which the districts thus organized were placed was that of paying a tax to the king, and of serving in arms in defence of the country, under their own alcalde. Their elec- tions were by ballot ; persons soliciting a vote or using undue influence were disfranchised. The king himself might not interfere with the proceedings of the ayuntamiento, which had supreme control of all local expenditure and taxation. All the citizens in these districts had equal rights. Noblemen had to lay aside their rank and exclusive privileges if they de- sired to reside in the district. There were no special privileges; all men and all religions were equal before the law. These regulations continued in force for centuries ; but under the house of Austria and the early Bourbons they were frequently encroached upon, until at