Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

ABERDEEN.
ABERDEEN.
chemistry £531, anatomy, £600, surgery £266, ma-
teria medica £242, midwifery £223, medical juris-
prudence £222, botany £377 ; and authority was
given for repairs and alterations in Marischal col-
lege, and for the erection of new buildings at King's
college, at an estimated cost of respectively £800
and £17,936. The number of members of the
general council, in 18G5, was 502. The number of
matriculated students, in the winter session of
1863-4, was 560; in the summer session of 1S64.
109. The number who graduated in 1864 was 43
in arts, 52 in medicine, and 4 in divinity.
The buildings of King's college stand on the east
side of the town ; and are rendered conspicuous at
a distance by a fine square tower, fashioned at the
top into a beautiful imperial crown, surmounted by
a cross. The crown is said to have been built about
1530, by Bishop Dunbar, to replace an original
spire or lantheni, which had been damaged or over-
thrown by a storm. The buildings occupy the sides
of a large quadrangle, underwent extensive addi-
tions and repairs shortly before the union of the
colleges, and presented then remarkable mixtures
of botli style and material ; and the west side, com-
posed of class-rooms, has since then been rebuilt.
All the old parts are of granite, with either round-
headed arches, or severe sharp early English ones ;
and the restored portions of these have fronts of
polished sandstone, and florid perpendicular win-
dows. The buildings, as a whole, comprise a
chapel, a library, a museum, a common hall, a suite
of class-rooms, and a range of modern houses un-
attached, for the accommodation of the professors.
The chapel is the choir of the old College church,
and a very handsome building, and has stalls of
beautifully carved black oak, surrounded by a screen
of the same material, in a style of artistic finish far
superior to everything else of the kind in Scotland;
but the ancient elegant decorations both of this
building and of the common hall have been sadly
spoiled by modernized seats, pulpits, and stucco-
work. The tomb of Bishop Elphinstone is in the
middle of the chapel, and was once highly orna-
mented, but is now covered with a slab of black
marble without inscription. The library is the
nave of the old College church, and is much too
small to afford proper lodgment to the immense and
most valuable collection.
When King's college existed as a separate insti-
tution, it was the great resort of students from the
surrounding rural districts and from all parts of the
North Highlands; and its numerous small bur-
saries, together with very moderate class fees, and
efficient professional teaching, enabled large num-
bers of young men from the humbler ranks of life
to obtain an excellent classical education, and so
push their way to positions of influence and dis-
tinction. Since the union of the colleges, the cur-
riculum of study has been somewhat extended, the
system of bursaries partly modified, several of these
formed into scholarships, and the class-fees con-
siderably increased.
Old Aberdeen is a place of great antiquity, and
was of considerable importance towards the end
of the 9th century. David I., in 1154, translated
the episcopal see from Mortlach to this place, and
granted "to God and the blessed Mary, St. Machar,
and Nectarius, bishop of Aberdeen, the haill village
of Old Aberdon." Malcolm IV.. William the Lion,
and James IV., successively confirmed and enlarged
the original charter, and conferred extensive grants
of lands and teinds on the bishop of Aberdeen. On
the abolition of Episcopacy, the right of appointing
magistrates fell to the Crown; and, in 1723. a war-
rant of the Privy-council authorized the magistrates
to elect their successors in office in future. Previous
to the municipal act, the council, including the pro-
vost, four bailies, and a treasurer, consisted of 19
members. The limits of the burgh are ill-defined.
The revenue of the burgh in 1832, was £43 5s.; the
expenditure £14 16s. 6d. The burgh has no debts,
and little property; the latter consisting only of a
right of commonty in a moss, and a freedom-hill
lying north of the Don, the town-house, feu-duties,
customs, and a sum of £310. The magistrates are
trustees of £2,791 13s. 4d., three per cent, consols,
being a proportion of a bequest left by Dr. Bell to
found a school upon the Madras plan ; and also of
Mitchell's hospital, endowed in 1801, for maintain-
ing five widows and five unmarried daughters of
burgesses. There are seven incorporated crafts, but
no guildry. Old Aberdeen is a place of little trade;
but a fair for cattle and horses is held at it on the
Wednesday after the third Tuesday of October,
old style. The population of the town and its en-
virons in 1851 — or the population of Old Machar,
after deducting the districts of Bon-Accord, Gilcom-
ston, Holburn, and Woodside, and all the district
north of the Don — was 8,772. But the population
of the town itself was only 1,490.
The parish in which most of New Aberdeen
stands is called St. Nicholas. It was divided in 1828
into six parishes; but it is still conveniently recog-
nised as one parish in topographical description and
in statistics. It has an irregularly quadrangular
outline, and comprises an area of about 1,100 im-
perial acres. It is bounded on the south by the river
Dee; on the east by the sea; and on the other
sides by Old Machar. The boundary on the Dee
runs about 1A mile nearly eastward to the river's
mouth; that on the sea-shore runs nearly lj mile
almost due north, to a point opposite the little em-
inence of Broad Hill, nearly midway between the
Dee and the Don; and that with Old Machar runs
nearly westward about a mile, and then irregularly
south-westward for about another mile to the Den-
burn, between Broadford and Gilcomston, and
thence southward, along the Denburn, almost three
quarters of a mile, to the Dee. Somewhat more
than one half of all the area, comprising most of
the south side, all the west side, and nearly one
half of the north side, is occupied by the city of
Aberdeen and by the suburb of Footdee or Puttie,
which lies along the lower reach of the river; and
the rest of the north side is chiefly disposed in mar-
ket gardens, nurseries, and bleach-greens; while
nearly all the east side consists of a range of low
sand hills and an expanse of links or open downs.
The surface of the south and west sides is roughly
tumulated, and comprises Heading Hill on the
eastern outskirts of the citv. and the Castle Hill,
the Port Hill, the School Hill, and St. Catherine's
Hill, (the last now levelled,) within the city and oc-
cupied by its streets; and the surface of the north
side and of the links is nearly flat, and but very
slightly elevated above the level of the sea. The
annual value of property in the parish assessed to
income tax in 1860, exclusive of railways, was
£143,137; of which £2.016 were in fisheries, and
£5.610 in gas-works. Population of the parish in
1831, 32.912; in 1841, 36,734 ; in 1861, 41,962.
Houses, 2,711.
The parish of St- Nicholas, in remote Roman
Catholic times, contained a parish church, a Domin-
ican friary, a Franciscan friaiy, a Carmelite friary,
and a monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The
parish church was probably the oldest of these
structures, and certainly seems to have been by far
the most magnificent; and it was dedicated to St.
Nicholas, who had been bishop of Myria in Lycia r