Aberdeenshire

by Alexander Mackie

The thirst for education and the well-taught parish schools of the county contributed to bring about such results. The doors of the University have for centuries been opened by bursaries to the poorest boys, and in this way many who were endowed with capacity above ordinary entered the learned professions and rose to eminence.

25. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF ABERDEENSHIRE.

(The figures in brackets after each name give the population in 1911, and those at the end of each section are references to pages in the text.)

=Aberdeen= (161,952). From being entirely built of granite, Aberdeen is best known as “The Granite City.” The light grey stone gives the town a clean look which strikes visitors from cities built of brick or of sandstone. Its many handsome public buildings, banks, offices, churches and schools, all solid and substantial, and of great architectural interest, are undoubtedly finer than those of any other town of the same size in the kingdom.

The first historical reference to it is in the twelfth century; later a charter was obtained from King William the Lion, granting the city certain trading privileges. Long before Edinburgh and Glasgow had begun to show signs of rising to greatness, Aberdeen was a port of extensive trade, but its growth was slow until the dawn of the nineteenth century. In 1801, its population was only 27,608; in 1831 this figure had doubled, and in recent years, owing chiefly to the phenomenal growth of the fishing industry, its progress has been rapid.

Aberdeen has long been a great educational centre. Its Grammar School claims to have existed in the thirteenth century. Its first University, King’s College in Old Aberdeen, was founded in 1494 by Bishop Elphinstone, and its second, Marischal College in New Aberdeen, by Earl Marischal in 1593. These were united in 1860 as the University of Aberdeen. Since that time the buildings of both Colleges have been largely added to, and the number of professorships greatly increased. Its students in the different faculties, Arts, Medicine, Science, Law and Divinity are little short of 1000.

The Old Grammar School, Schoolhill

Being the only really large town in the county, and for that matter in the whole north of Scotland, it tends to grow in importance, and its business connections are ever extending. It is the focus of the trawling industry, and of the granite trade; while the agricultural interests of the county look to Aberdeen as their chief mart and distributing medium. Its secondary schools, its technical college, its agricultural college, its University, all help to swell its population by bringing strangers to reside within its boundaries. In itself it is clean, healthy and attractively built, while its fairly equable climate, its relatively low rain-fall (29 inches) and its equally low death-rate (14·2 per 1000) conduce to its popularity as a residential town. Being the northern terminus of the Caledonian Railway, and having excellent service to London by the West Coast, the Midland, and the East Coast routes, it obtains a large share of the tourist traffic; and the sportsmen who fish in the Aberdeenshire rivers or shoot grouse in the Aberdeenshire moors must all do more or less homage to the county town.

The chief street of the city is Union Street created a century ago at a cost which was considered reckless at the time but which has been more than justified by the results. This first improvement scheme, which has been followed up by others in recent times, was the work of men with a wide outlook. Prominent among the Provosts of enlightenment was Sir Alexander Anderson, whose name is now at the eleventh hour stamped in memory by the Anderson Drive—a fashionable west-end thoroughfare. Union Street is the backbone from which all the other thoroughfares radiate. It is broad and handsome and the buildings that face each other across it are as a rule worthy of the street. Union Bridge, one of Fletcher’s graceful structures, with a span of 130 feet, makes a pleasing break in the line of buildings and permits a view north and south along the Denburn valley. The northern view, which shows Union Terrace and Union Terrace Gardens with handsome public buildings, both in the foreground and in the background, is undoubtedly one of the finest in the city. The Duthie Park on the north bank of the Dee, the links that fringe the northern coast, the picturesquely wooded amenities of Donside, above and below Balgownie Bridge, the quaint other world air of Old Aberdeen with its lofty trees, its grand cathedral and the ancient crown of King’s College, these are all elevating and meliorating influences that help to keep in check the commercial spirit that rules about the harbour-quays and the fish-market.