A range o hills, oerhung wi waving wuds,
That spread their dark green bosoms tae the cluds,
An seem tae crave the tribute of a showr,
Gratefu tae woodlan plant and mountain flow'r ;¬
A glen beneath, frae whilk a bickrin burn
Strays roun the knowes, wi bonnie wimplin turn,
Syne trottin dounwards thro the cultured lays,
Runs by whar Gaffer's humble biggin stans ;
His wife an him are at some family plea,
Tae hear what ails them, just step in an see.
This range of hills is the western portion of Paisley Braes, comprising Bardrain Muir on the east aide of Ald Patrick Burn, and Craigmuir on the west side of the stream, then covered with plantations. The glen beneath, is the very deep ravine of the burn between Bardrain Muir and Craigmuir, immediately below the fall of twenty-five feet in the burn. The burn on emerging from the glen makes several graceful serpentine curves in flowing downwards past the mailings of High Dykes and Low Bardrain. Gaffer's humble houses have been taken down, and the materials used in building dry stone dykes, while the mailings of High Dykes and Low Bardrain are now merged into one farm.
Hauld, Alt, or Ald Patrick Burn, is the western boundary of the extensive grant of “all the land between Hauld Patrick and Espedare,—as Hauld Patrick falls into Kert Locbwinnoc, and the Espedare falls towards the land of the Monks lying between the Black Lynn and the Kirk of Pasle,” contained in a Charter executed about 1208 by Walter Stewart, III. High Steward of Scotland (nineteenth grandfather, in lineal ascent, to Queen Victoria), to the Abbot and Monks of Paisley. The burn must have borne that ancient name of PATRICK before 1208, nearly 700 years ago; and we may be permitted to conjecture it was called after the individual who subsequently became the patron saint of Ireland. That large tract of land would be nearly five miles in length from south to north, and two and a-half miles in breadth from east to west. In 1488, the Burgh of Paisley was erected out of that large tract of land ; and in 1545, and subsequent years, Abbot Hamilton and the Monks of Paisley feued the remainder named Woodside, Ferguslie, Newton, Brediland, Meikleriggs, Carriagehills, Blackland, and Lylesland.—Ed.