Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ABERDEEN
Newcastle-on-Tyne ; but they have much less of the
spire about them, and are far more in keeping with the
spirit of Gothic architecture. The adjoining western or
street front is a reconstruction of 1826, and, Perpendi-
cular in style, is out of harmony with the tower. The
entire original college appears to have been executed in
a mixture of the Scottish and the French Gothic styles ;
and was specially distinguished by the retention of the
semicircular arch, at a time long subsequent to the
general use of the pointed arch throughout England.
Much of that pile still stands, preserving all its original
features, and serving as one of the best extant specimens
of the Scottish architecture of its period. The W side
of the quadrangle is disposed in class-rooms ; the S
side consists of plain building, with a piazza ; and the
E side contains the common hall, 62 by 22J feet, en-
riched with portraits and with Jameson's famous paint-
ings of the Ten Sibyls. The N side contains the chapel
and the library, and for interior character is deeply in-
teresting. The chapel is the choir of the original college
church, and has canopied stalls of beautifully carved black
oak, with screens of the same material, ' which,' says
Hill Burton, ' for beauty of Gothic design and practical
finish, are perhaps the finest piece of carved work existing
in the British Empire.' The tomb of Bishop Elphin-
stone is in the middle of the chapel, and was once highly
ornamented, but is now covered with an uninscribed
slab of black marble. The library is the former nave,
measures 58 feet by 29, retains the original W window of
the church, and is separated from the chapel by a parti-
tion wall. The university library possesses more than
90,000 volumes, and there are also museums of natural
history, medicine, archaeology, etc.
A scholastic institution, serving as a germ of the
college, existed from the time of Malcolm IV. The col-
lege itself originated in a bull of Pope Alexander VI. , ob-
tained by application of James IV. , on supplication of
Bishop Elphinstone, for a university to teach theology,
canon and civil law, medicine, and the liberal arts, and
to grant degrees. The bull was issued in 1494, but did
not take effect till 1505. The college was dedicated to
the Holy Trinity and the Virgin Mary, but being placed
under the immediate protection of the king came to
be known as King's College. James IV. and Bishop
Elphinstone endowed it with large revenues. Six
teachers for life and five for a certain number of years,
were to carry on its tuition. The primus was styled
principal, and was to be a master of theology ; the second,
third, and fourth were the doctors of canon and civil
law and of medicine ; the fifth was styled regent and sub-
principal, and was to be a master of arts ; the sixth was
to teach literature, and to be also a master of arts ;
the five not holding their positions for life were like-
wise to be masters of arts ; and all eleven, except the
doctor of medicine, were to be ecclesiastics. A faithful
model of the University of Paris, King's College, with its
four ' nations ' of Mar, Buchan, Moray, and Angus, par-
took partly of a monastic, partly of an eleemosynary,
character ; but, as it progressed, it underwent change, at
once in its practical working, in the staff of its profes-
sors, and in the amount of its endowments. It became
comparatively very wealthy towards the era of the Refor-
mation, and had it been allowed to retain the wealth
which it had then acquired it might at the present day
have vied with the great colleges of England ; but,
through the grasping avarice of Queen Mary's courtiers,
it was deprived of much of its property. It, however,
received some new possessions from Charles I. ; it had,
in 1836, an income of £2363 from endowments and
crown grants ; and it acquired £11,000 from a bequest
by Dr Simpson, of Worcester, in 1840, when its bur-
saries numbered 128, of the aggregate yearly value of
£1643. In 1838, the University Commissioners had re-
commended that King's College here, and Marischal
College in Aberdeen, should be united into one univer-
sity, to be called the University of Aberdeen, with its
seat at Old Aberdeen, and that recommendation was
adopted in the Universities Act of 1858, and carried
into effect on Sept. 15, 1860. Holding the funds of
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both colleges, and ranking from the year 1494, the date
of King's College, the university has 250 bursaries, of
which 223 are attached to the faculty of arts, and 27 to
that of theology. They vary from £5 to £50, and
average fully £20 apiece, their aggregate value being
£5179 ; there are also eight scholarships of from £70 to
£100 per annum. The classes for arts and divinity are
now held in King's College, and those for law and
medicine in Marischal College. The session, in arts
and divinity, extends from the beginning of November to
the first Friday of April ; in law, from the first Monday
of November to the end of March ; and in medicine, for
winter, from last Wednesday of October to the end of
April, for summer, from the first Monday of May to the
end of July. The general council meets twice a year —
on the Wednesday after the second Tuesday of April,
and on the Wednesday after the second Tuesday of
October. The chief officers are a chancellor, elected by
the general council ; a vice-chancellor, appointed by the
chancellor ; a lord rector, elected by the matriculated
students ; a principal, appointed by the Crown ; and
four assessors, chosen by respectively the chancellor, the
rector, the general council, and the senatus academicus.
The university court consists of the rector, the principal,
and the four assessors ; and the senatus academicus con-
sists of the principal and the professors. The chairs,
with the dates of their establishment and their emolu-
ments, including estimated amounts from fees, are —
Greek (1505, £607) ; humanity (1505, £578) ; mathe-
matics (1505, £536) ; natural philosophy (1505, £524) ;
moral philosophy (1505, £492) ; natural history (1593,
£468) ; logic (1860, £492) ; divinity and church history
(1616, £486) ; systematic theology (1620, £566) ;
Oriental languages (1674, £439) ; divinity and biblical
criticism (1860, £130) ; law (1505, £303) ; chemistry
(1505, £531) ; practice of medicine (1700, £254) ;
anatomy (1839, £600) ; surgery (1839, £266) ; medical
logic and medical jurisprudence (1857, £222) ; institutes
of medicine (1860, £272) ; materia medica (1860, £242) ;
midwifery (1860, £223); and botany (1860, £377).
The Crown appoints to 16 of the chairs, the univer-
sity court to 5, and a composite body of 20 mem-
bers to the chair of systematic theology. There are
also three lectureships — one called the Murray Sunday
Lecture (1821), one on practical religion (1825), and one
on agriculture (1840) ; as well as assistantships to the
Greek, humanity, mathematics, natural philosophy,
chemistry, anatomy, materia medica, and medical logic
and jurisprudence chairs, all instituted in I860. The
Act of 1858 awarded compensation, to the aggregate
amount of £3500 a-year, to such professors and others as
were displaced by new arrangements, authorised the
erection of new buildings at King's College, and repairs
and alterations in Marischal College, at an estimated
cost of respectively £17,936 and £800, and fixed a new
scale of emoluments, allotting £599 a-year to the prin-
cipal, and to professors as given above. The number
of members of the general council in 1880 was 2649 ;
of matriculated students in the winter session (1879-80)
701, and in the s umme r session (1880) 233. The gradu-
ates in 1880 were— M.A., 65; M.D., 25; M.B., 51;
CM., 48; D.D., 3; and B.D., 1. The University of
Aberdeen unites with that of Glasgow under the Reform
Act of 1867, in sending a member to Parliament ; they
have always returned a Conservative since 1869, the pre-
sent member in 1SS0 polling 2520 against his opponent's
2139 votes.
The Grammar School stands E of the Town-House ; is
a very modest building, with a small playground ; has
accommodation for 91 scholars ; and is chiefly engaged
in preparing boys for university bursaries. It dates
from time immemorial ; but, strictly speaking, is only
a sessional school, connected with the kirk-session of
Old Machar. The Gymnasium, or Chanonry School,
is private property, but has some characteristics of an
important public school ; was opened in 1848, with de-
sign to prepare boys for the university ; has accommoda-
tion for boarders, 9 class-rooms with capacity for at
least 150 boys, and 2 playgrounds ; and is conducted by