Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/256

 2 jA The Library. which extended some eight or ten miles around the city, had, with the reservation of the wood and game, been gifted to the citizens by King Robert in 1313 for an annual payment of ig 53. yd., which is still paid. But thegranthadto be strenuously defended against the claims of usurpers, who looked upon the ground as a kind of " no man's land." For 400 years it lay in its natural state, simply a covert for wild animals, but last century it was largely feued off at rents averaging about ten shillings an acre, and as population increased, the land has been taken up and so improved that it is now worth from thirty to fifty times the value at which it was given off. In these modern times many writers indulge in tirades as to the folly of our forefathers in so squandering the resources of the city at the time, alleging that, had the city rulers only retained their rights, Aberdonians might ever afterwards have sat tax free, but forgetting that by the stimulus thus given to industry they have given a character to Aberdonians of indomitable persevering industry and intelligence which is universally acknowledged in every colony, and indeed all over the world. A mixed race, deriving much of their stamina, endurance, and perseverance from the Norsemen and Scandinavians, the inhabitants of this north-eastern portion of Scotland could trace their ancestors far back even into pre-historic times by the monuments they had left behind them. The Standing Stones of Dyce are likely coeval with those at Stennis and Stonehenge, the Maeshowe and its Runic inscriptions, with the Newton Stone, and the Maiden Stone on Ben-na-Chie, the ancient under- ground Picts houses at Rhynie, the Barmekan at Echt, the vitrified fort on the Tap o' Noth, and the old chapel on the summit of Dunnideer are all pre-historic, and existed long before the Roman invasion. The Romans, bent on mere material conquests, found their way across the wild and rude Grampian mountains, and have left some slight traces of their occupation north of them, but recalled by troubles at home, they soon relinquished these, and abandoned their conquests. St. Columba (521), the apostle of the Scottish Highlands, on the other hand, bent on spiritual conquests more lasting than material ones, found his way as far north as Inverness, penetrated Aberdeenshire, and has left numerous traces of his personal presence, and also that of his followers, in tradition, in names of places connecting them with religious worship, but also in the erection of abbeys, monasteries,