Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

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 PS 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
100,000 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 it3 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 P k efor-
rnatioB, 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 tho aggregate yearly value of
£1643. In 1838, the University Commissioners had re-
commended that King's College hero, and Marischal
College in Aberdeen, should be united into one univer-
sity, to be called the University of Aberdeen, with its
scat at Old Aberdeen, and that recommendation was
adopted in tho Universities Act of 1858, and carried
into effect on Sept. 15, 1860. Holding the funds of
16
ABERDEEN
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 not later than the 24 October to the end
of April; for summer, from the first Monday of May to
the end of July. The general council (3330 members
in 1891) 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, ap-
pointed by the Crown; and eleven assessors, chosen by
respectively the chancellor, the rector, the town council,
the general council, and the senatus academicus. The
university court consists of the rector, the principal, the
lord provost of Aberdeen, and the assessors; and the
senatus academicus consists of the principal and the
professors. The chairs, with the dates of then- estab-
lishment and their emoluments, including estimated
amounts from fees, are — Greek (1505, £607); humanity
(1505, £578); mathematics (1505, £536); natural phi-
losophy (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 (I860, £272); materia niediea
(1860, £242); midwifery (1860, £223); botany (1860,
£377) ; and pathological anatomy, the Sir Erasmus
Wilson professorship (1882). The Crown appoints to
16 of the chairs, the university court to 5, and a com-
posite body of 20 members to the chair of systematic
theology. There are also four lectureships — one called
the Murray Sunday Lecture (1821), one on practical
religion (1825), one on agriculture (1840), and the
Gifford lectureship on natural theology (1887); as well
as assistantships to the Greek, humanity, mathematics,
natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy, materia medica,
and medical logic and jurisprudence chairs, all instituted
in 1860. The Act of 1S58 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 principal, and to professors as given above.
The number of matriculated students in the winter
session (1890-91) was 855, and in the summer session
(1891) 422. The graduates iu 1891 were— M.A., 83;
M.D., 23; M.B. and CM., 59; B.Sc, 2; D.Sc, 2;
diploma in public health, 8; and B.D., 9. The Uni-
versity of Aberdeen unites with that. of Glasgow in
sending a member to Parliament.
The Grammar School stands E of the 1 own-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, connocled with tho 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