Dalrymple, James (1752 — 95)

Dalrymple also gave Burns a letter of introduction to the Earl of Glencairn, who exerted himself most generously on the poet's behalf. 'I have found a worthy warm friend in Mr Dalrymple of Orangefield' the poet wrote John Ballantine from Edinburgh on 13^th December 1796, 'who introduced me to Lord Glencairn, a man whose worth and brotherly kindness to me I shall remember when time will be no more.' And in one of the suppressed stanzas of 'The Vision', Burns described Dalrymple as:

"The owner of a pleasant spot
Near sandy wilds, I last did note
A heart too warm, a pulse too hot
At times o'er ran;
But large in every feature wrote,
Appeared the man.'

On 7^th December 1786, Dalrymple introduced the poet at a meeting of Cannongate Kilwinning Lodge of Freemasons, but after February 1787 he disappears from Burns's correspondence.

The 'pulse too hot' proved his undoing. A keen hunter, he dissipated his fortune and was declared bankrupt in 1791, his trustees being the Rev William Dalrymple, Robert Aiken and John Ballantine.

The house of Orangefield for some years formed part of the terminal hotel buildings at Prestwick Airport, but has since been demolished.