Aberdeenshire is represented in Parliament by four members—two for the county, east and west, and two for the city, north and south. Some of the smaller burghs, Kintore, Inverurie and Peterhead, are grouped with similar burghs in Banff and Moray (Banff, Elgin, Cullen) to form a constituency called the Elgin Burghs, which returns one member. In addition, the University of Aberdeen shares a member with the University of Glasgow.
There is still a certain amount of overlapping and confusion in the administrative divisions. For example, Torry, which is on the Kincardineshire side of the Dee, is really a suburb of Aberdeen, and as such elects members to the Town Council, the Parish Council, and the School Board, but it has no share in electing a member of Parliament for Aberdeen, being in that regard part of Kincardineshire, and voting for a representative of that county. There are other similar anomalies.
24. The Roll of Honour.
It is an accepted fact that Aberdonians have intellectual characteristics somewhat different from those of their fellow-countrymen, the result partly of race, partly and chiefly, we believe, of environment. We have already alluded to the amalgamation of nationalities that went to form the people of this north-eastern corner of the kingdom. Doubtless the Spartan upbringing that was the rule in the county served to develop sturdy character and good physique. The result is that the Aberdonian has distinguished himself in all parts of the Empire and even beyond it. Not that he has often risen to the front rank of greatness, but he is frequently found well forward among the best of the second-class.
Their own county presenting no tempting openings for ability, Aberdonians have migrated from the narrow home-sphere in great numbers and have made their mark as administrators, medical officers, and even as soldiers of fortune. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the cadets of the great houses, exiled by the pressure of the times, joined the service of continental kings and rose to high rank in the armies of Sweden, France, and Russia. Chief amongst these was James Keith, younger brother of the last Earl Marischal, and born at Inverugie Castle. After serving for nineteen years in Russia, he joined the service of Frederick the Great, under whom he attained to the highest military rank as Field-Marshal, contributing to victories gained during the Seven Years’ War and conducting the retreat from Olmütz. At the battle of Hochkirchen, when charging the enemy, he fell mortally wounded in 1758. Peterhead keeps his memory green by a statue presented to it by the Emperor William I. It is a replica in bronze of a similar effigy in Berlin. Field-Marshal Keith is probably the native of Aberdeenshire who has figured most largely in history. He was Frederick’s right hand, and his military genius has been fittingly acknowledged by Carlyle in his great work.
Another of the same type, though less eminent, was Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries, who fought both on the Swedish and on the Polish side, but ultimately transferred his sword to Russia, where he rose to the highest rank, and on his death-bed was watched over and wept over by Peter the Great. He was born in 1635 at Auchleuchries near Ellon and died in 1699. He was a perfect example of the successful military adventurer, one of the type so skilfully depicted by Walter Scott in Dugald Dalgetty.
The county has been a prolific recruiting ground for the Army. After the ’45 Chatham’s device for breaking down the clan system and diverting the energies of the Highlanders into healthier channels by enlisting them in British regiments was an inspiration of genius. In 1794 the Duke of Gordon raised during a few weeks a regiment of Gordon Highlanders, which first distinguished itself with Sir Ralph Abercromby in Egypt, and did noble service also in the Peninsula and at Waterloo.
In the work of empire-making in India and elsewhere, the Aberdonian has borne a notable part. He has shown ability to exercise a singular mastery over inferior races. Conspicuous in this respect was Sir Harry B. Lumsden, who formed the Corps of Guides out of the most daring free-booters of the North-West frontier of India.
In statesmanship the county has been surpassed by other districts, and yet it has the distinction of having produced one Prime Minister—the fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), who was responsible for the Crimean War, and whom Byron styled “the travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen.”
The ecclesiasts of distinction are too numerous to mention. Foremost amongst them was Bishop Elphinstone, who, though not a native of the county, identified himself with its interests when he became Bishop (1483), founded the University, King’s College, the light of the North (1494), and the church of St Machar (the Cathedral in Old Aberdeen) and was a pioneer in all that makes for educational enlightenment. He was instrumental in introducing the art of printing into Scotland. His tomb is very appropriately in King’s College, the centre from which radiated the beneficent influence of his life. Henry Scougal (1650-1678), scholar and saint, son of Bishop Scougal and the inspirer of John Wesley, was a student of King’s College. He had not been long ordained in his charge at Auchterless before he was appointed to the Chair of Divinity in King’s College. He died at 28; but his _Life of God in the Soul of Man_ is still greatly prized by lovers of devotional literature. Dean Ramsay, whose _Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character_ (1858) is a classic in humorous literature and one not likely soon to be forgotten, was born in Aberdeen.