Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/59

Rh ABERDEEN 43 hall built in 1871 for 5075, a library of nearly 6000 volumes, and a fund to support decayed and indigent members, and their nearest relatives. The revenue in 1 872 was 2880. Aberdeen has one daily and three weekly newspapers. The Aberdeen Journal, established in 1748, is the oldest newspaper north of the Forth. The places of out-door recreation and amusement are chiefly the following: The Links, a grassy, benty, and sandy tract, 2 miles long and to J mile broad, along the shore between the mouths of the Dee and the Don. It is mostly only a few feet above the sea, but the Broad Hill rises to 94 feet. Cattle shows, reviews, c., are held on the Links. To the north-west of the town, a Public Recreation Park of 13 acres was laid out in 1872, at the cost of 3000, with walks, grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers. Daily observations from 1857 to 1872 show the mean temperature of Aberdeen for the year to be 45 0- 8 Fahr., for the three summer months 56 Fahr., and for the three winter months 37 3. The average yearly rainfall is 30 57 inches. Aberdeen is the healthiest of the large Scottish towns. East winds prevail in spring. Since 1867 50,000 has been spent in constructing main sewers throughout the city. A few acres of farm land have been irrigated by part of the sewage. The city is governed &quot;by a corporation, the magistrates and town council, consisting of twenty-five councillors, including a provost, six bailies, a dean of guild, a trea surer, &c. The corporation revenue in the year 1871-72 was 11,498. The police, water, and gas are managed by the council. The municipal and police burgh has an area of nearly three sqiiare miles, with 12,514 municipal electors, and with assessable property valued at 230,000 in 1873. The Parliamentary burgh has an area of nine square miles, including Old Aberdeen and Woodside, with 14,253 Par liamentary electors, and real property to the value of 309,328 in 1873. It returns one member to Parliament. The population of Aberdeen in 1396 was about 3000; in 1643, 8750; in 1708, 5556; in 1801, 26,992; in 1841, 63,262; and in 1871, 88,125; with 6718 inhabited houses, 292 uninhabited, and 77 building. ABERDEEN, OLD, is a small, quiet, ancient town, a burgh of barony and regality, a mile north of Aberdeen, and as far south-west of the mouth of the Don. It mostly forms one long street, 45 to 80 feet above the sea. The Don, to the north of the town, runs through a narrow, wooded, rocky ravine, and is spanned by a single Gothic arch, the &quot;Brig o Balgownie&quot; of Lord Byron. The bridge rests on gneiss, and is 67 feet wide and 34| feet high above the surface of the river, which at ebb tide is here 19 feet deep. The bridge is the oldest in the north of Scotland, and is said to have been built about 1305. The funds belonging to the bridge amount to i 24,000. The town was formerly the see of a bishop, and had a large cathedral dedicated to St Machar. In 1137 David I. translated to Old Aberdeen the bishopric, founded at Mortlach in Banffshire in 1004 by Malcolm II. in memory of his signal victory there over the Danes. In 1153 Malcolm. IV. gave the bishop a new charter. The cathedral of St Machar, begun about 1357, occupied nearly 170 years in building, and did not remain entire fifty years. What is still left is the oldest part, viz., the nave and side aisles, 126 feet long and 6 2 1- feet broad, now used as the parish church. It is chiefly built of outlay er granite stones, and while the plainest Scottish cathedral, is the only one of granite in the kingdom. On the flat pannelled ceiling of the nave are 48 heraldic shields of the princes, nobles, and bishops who aided in its erection. It has been lately repaired, and some painted windows inserted, at the cost of 4280. The chief structure in Old Aberdeen is the stately fabric King s of King s College near the middle of the town. It forms College. a quadrangle, with interior court 108 feet square, two sides of which have been rebuilt, and a projecting wing for a library added since 1860. The oldest parts, the Crown Tower and Chapel, date from about 1500. The former is 30 feet square and 60 feet high, and is surmounted by a structure about 40 feet high, consisting of a six-sided lantern and a royal crown, both sculptured, and resting on the intersections of two arched ornamented slips rising from the four corners of the top of the tower. The chapel, 120 feet long, 28 feet broad, and 37 feet high, still retains in the choir the original oak canopied stalls, miserere seat, and lofty open screen. These fittings are 300 years old, in the French flamboyant style, and are unsurpassed, in taste ful design and delicate execution, by the oak carving of any other old church in Europe. This carved woodwork owes its preservation to the Principal of Reformation times, who armed his people, and protected it from the fury of the barons of the M earns after they had robbed the cathedral of its bells and lead. The chapel is still used for public worship during the University session. Connected with Old Aberdeen is a brewery in the town, and a brick and coarse pottery work in the vicinity. There are also a Free church, two secondary schools, and two primary schools. Old Aberdeen has its own municipal officers, consisting of a provost, 4 bailies, and 1 3 councillors. The town is drained, lighted, supplied with water, and is within the Parliamentary boundary of New Aberdeen. There are several charitable institutions. Population in 1871, 1857; inhabited houses, 233. (A. c.) ABERDEENSHIRE, a maritime county in the north east of Scotland, between 56 52 and 57 42 N. lat. and between 1 49 and 3 48 long. W. of Greenwich. It is bounded on the north and east by the German Ocean ; on the south by the counties of Kincardine, Forfar, and Perth ; and on the west by those of Inverness and Banff. Its greatest length is 102 miles, and breadth 50 miles. Its circuit with sinuosities is about 300 miles, 60 being sea- coast. It is the fifth of Scotch counties in size, and is one- sixteenth of the extent of Scotland. Its area is 1970 square miles, or 1,260,625 acres, of which, in 1872, 36 6 per cent, or 585,299 acres, were cultivated, 93, 339 in woods (mostly Scotch fir and larch), and 6400 in lakes. It con tains 85 civil parishes and parts of 6 others, or 101 parishes, including civil and quoad sacra. The county is generally hilly, and mountainous in the south-west, whence, near the centre of Scotland, the Grampians send out various branches, mostly to the north-east, through the county. The run of the rivers and the general slope of the county is to the north-east and east. It is popularly divided into five districts: First, Mar, mostly between the Dee and Don, Districts and forming nearly the south half of the county. It is mountainous, especially Braemar, its west and Highland part, which contains the greatest mass of elevated land in the British Isles. Here the Dee rises amid the grandeur and wildness of lofty mountains, much visited by tourists, and composed chiefly of granite and gneiss, forming many high precipices, and showing patches of snow throughout every summer. Here rises Ben Muichdhui, the second highest mountain in Scotland and in the British Isles, 4296 feet ; Braeriach, 4225; Cairntoul, 4245; Cairngorm (famed for &quot; Cairngorm stones,&quot; a peculiar kind of rock crystal), 4090 ; Ben-a-Buird, 3860; Ben Avon, 3826; and Byron s &quot;dark Lochnagar,&quot; 3786. The soil on the Dee is sandy, and on the Don loamy. The city of Aberdeen is in Mar. Second, Formartin, between the lower Don and Ythan, with a sandy coast, succeeded by a clayey, fertile, tilled tract, and then by low hills, moors, mosses, and tilled land. Third, JBuchan, north of the Ythan, and next in size to