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By David Pride (1910)
PREFACE
The many and great changes that have taken place in the parish of Neilston in recent years have been such as to render the information contained in the different historical accounts now extant very misleading, and in many particulars quite incorrect. The public works described as flourishing at the time the accounts were written, have in many instances now ceased to exist altogether, and new forms of labour and enterprise, in which the parish has taken a forward part, are altogether unrecorded. Properties have changed hands, noble and illustrious proprietors, once large holders of land, have ceased to be possessors in the parish where they at one period flourished, and industries unheard of at the date of the latest of the former records, have brought new men and new business into prominence; whilst by the union of several small hamlets, unimportant places a few years ago, what was lately the town, now the Burgh, of Barrhead, has become a busy centre of industry and influence; and the spread of various railway systems throughout the parish has brought the whole community into closer touch with the outside world and its affairs.
For these and other reasons, the writer has thought good, whilst not neglecting or leaving unconsidered the landmarks of the past, to put on record, however imperfectly, the following statements bearing upon the conditions of the parish as they present themselves at this date.
The objects aimed at have been to trace succinctly the origin of the parish and its people from the earliest periods to the present times; to describe the progress and advancement that have been made socially, politically, and economically., and, with the changes, to indicate the vast improvements everywhere visible in these respects.
It has also been the writer’s aim, as far as is compatible with the character of the book, to consider the Archaeology and Antiquities of the parish, ami presen e some record of such of the ancient mansions as are last passing away under the corroding influences of time and neglect. In connection with the earlier of these studies, an endeavour has been made to trace the origin—or “whence?”—of the numerous Place-Names that have come down through the ages to us attached to the great, though familiar, outstanding landmarks of the parish— a record, in short, of things old and new as affecting the parish and the community.
To friends from whom the writer has received help and guidance, he desires to express his grateful thanks, and though, for the most part, he has refrained from adding foot-notes of the several works consulted, yet he gladly acknowledges both the authors and the works he has been indebted to for valuable information, and from which he has frequently made extracts, and without which, in short, the book could not have been written.
In closing this record of an ancient parish, there comes the forceful presentiment that its rural conditions are silently, but surely, undergoing change. Public opinion, which quite recently was little more than in embryo, is now so rapidly expanding, that, ere many decades pass, the simple customs, frugal habits, and kindly manners that characterised the earlier and more primitive people, will have largely passed away, giving place to more strenuous and exacting conditions. For good, or otherwise, many things are contributing to this end, and nothing will stay it, even were it desirable to do so.
No one is more sensible than the writer of a certain want of sequence or continuity in the work. But this was to some extent almost unavoidable from the fact that it was written at spare intervals as opportunity presented during the arduous practice of a country professional life.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ston/index.htm
Alastair
PREFACE
The many and great changes that have taken place in the parish of Neilston in recent years have been such as to render the information contained in the different historical accounts now extant very misleading, and in many particulars quite incorrect. The public works described as flourishing at the time the accounts were written, have in many instances now ceased to exist altogether, and new forms of labour and enterprise, in which the parish has taken a forward part, are altogether unrecorded. Properties have changed hands, noble and illustrious proprietors, once large holders of land, have ceased to be possessors in the parish where they at one period flourished, and industries unheard of at the date of the latest of the former records, have brought new men and new business into prominence; whilst by the union of several small hamlets, unimportant places a few years ago, what was lately the town, now the Burgh, of Barrhead, has become a busy centre of industry and influence; and the spread of various railway systems throughout the parish has brought the whole community into closer touch with the outside world and its affairs.
For these and other reasons, the writer has thought good, whilst not neglecting or leaving unconsidered the landmarks of the past, to put on record, however imperfectly, the following statements bearing upon the conditions of the parish as they present themselves at this date.
The objects aimed at have been to trace succinctly the origin of the parish and its people from the earliest periods to the present times; to describe the progress and advancement that have been made socially, politically, and economically., and, with the changes, to indicate the vast improvements everywhere visible in these respects.
It has also been the writer’s aim, as far as is compatible with the character of the book, to consider the Archaeology and Antiquities of the parish, ami presen e some record of such of the ancient mansions as are last passing away under the corroding influences of time and neglect. In connection with the earlier of these studies, an endeavour has been made to trace the origin—or “whence?”—of the numerous Place-Names that have come down through the ages to us attached to the great, though familiar, outstanding landmarks of the parish— a record, in short, of things old and new as affecting the parish and the community.
To friends from whom the writer has received help and guidance, he desires to express his grateful thanks, and though, for the most part, he has refrained from adding foot-notes of the several works consulted, yet he gladly acknowledges both the authors and the works he has been indebted to for valuable information, and from which he has frequently made extracts, and without which, in short, the book could not have been written.
In closing this record of an ancient parish, there comes the forceful presentiment that its rural conditions are silently, but surely, undergoing change. Public opinion, which quite recently was little more than in embryo, is now so rapidly expanding, that, ere many decades pass, the simple customs, frugal habits, and kindly manners that characterised the earlier and more primitive people, will have largely passed away, giving place to more strenuous and exacting conditions. For good, or otherwise, many things are contributing to this end, and nothing will stay it, even were it desirable to do so.
No one is more sensible than the writer of a certain want of sequence or continuity in the work. But this was to some extent almost unavoidable from the fact that it was written at spare intervals as opportunity presented during the arduous practice of a country professional life.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ston/index.htm
Alastair