Dance A Trip to Aberdeen 6711

Thirty miles below the jutting nose of Buchan Ness,
the most easterly point of Scotland,
is the city of Aberdeen.
Carved out over many centuries in glittering granite from its own Rubislaw quarry,
Aberdeen is a monument to itself and its people.
If there were  a plaque, the inscription should read:
“City of Bon Accord – Founded 1179 – Patriotism and Prosperity”.

In Aberdeen things seem to come in sets of two.
There were once two towns, Old Aberdeen or Aulton and Aberdeen,
twin towns joined in 1891.
They lay on two miles of land between two rivers,
Old Aberdeen with its university and cathedral at the mouth of the Don
and Aberdeen, once a fishing and trading community, on the estuary of the Dee.
Across these rivers are two ancient and famous bridges,
the Bridge of Balgownie, the Auld Brig o' Don, built in 1320, supposedly by Robert I,
and the Bridge of Dee, seven arches dating from 1520.
There are two great churches,
St. Machar's Cathedral, twin-spired, founded in 1136, in Old Aberdeen
and the Church of St. Nicholas, once the largest parish church in Scotland,
divided in to the East and West Churches at the Reformation, in Aberdeen.
Until 1860 when they were united, there were two separate universities,
King's College in Old Aberdeen,
founded in 1495 by Bishop WIlliam Elphinstone
at the behest of James IV with historian Hector Boece as its first principal,
and Marischal College in Aberdeen, established 1593 by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal,
in the monastery of the Greyfriars given him by James VI.

In 1819 the English poet Robert Southey toured Scotland with the Scottish engineer, Thomas Telford,
and he described Aberdeen in his journal.
On 27 August, he had his first sightseeing tour.
“After dinner Mr Gibb (who superintended the improvements in the harbour here) called,
and walked with us to the Marischals College.
The tower is remarkable for a flat roof, raised to serve as an observatory,
till it is brought to a level with the top of the three chimnies of the building,
which rise side by side, close to the tower.
We then went along a poor part of the city, and a road which was neither thro' town nor country,
but a dirty mixture of both – as far as the Old Town.
The King's College is a curious building – that part of it which contains the Chapel and Library.
The tower is low, and has a fine specimen of the Scottish Crown resembling that at Newcastle,
but (if I may trust my recollection at ten years' distance) suiting the building better.
Farther on is part of the OId Cathedral, perhaps a third of the original edifice,
in good condition.
This also is a singular pile, and unlike any which I can call to mind.
It has two low spires over the west end;
and a square window divided by slender stone pillars into a great many long and narrow slips.”
Of the two towns he said,
“Old Aberdeen is about a mile from the New City.
It has something of a collegiate character – an air of quietness and permanence – of old times;
long walls well built in former days;
a few old trees, and houses standing separately, each in its garden.
Gibbs states its population at 1500; that of the New City is 40,000.
Here all is life, bustle, business and improvement,
for in outward and visible improvement this place may almost be said to keep pace with Edinburgh.
Union Street, where our hotel stands, is new, and many houses are still building –
the appearance is very good, because they have the finest granite close at hand.”
The next day he walked about Aberdeen and visited the Church of St. Nicholas.
“One of these twin Kirks is heated by steam, which is conveyed under the aisles,
plates of perforated iron being laid along the middle of them.
The cost of the whole apparatus was not less than 3000£ –
surely a most preposterous sum to have been so expended.”
With Telford he went to the harbour.
“The quay is very fine,
and Telford has carried out the pier nine hundred feet
beyond the point where Smeaton's work terminated.
This great work, which has cost 100,000£, protects the entrance from the whole force of the North Sea.
Gibb had the superintendance of the work.
A ship was entering under full sail – *The Prince of Waterloo* – she had been to America,
had discharged her cargo at London,
and we now saw her reach her own port in safety – a joyous and delightful sight.”
Southey also saw that day a new and handsome Aberdeen,
the work of such architects as James Gibbs, John Smith and Archibald Simpson.
“A new Episcopal Church, with a rich Gothic front, is a great ornament to this city.
Opposite they are erecting a school for surgery, which will also be a handsome building,
of the fine granite which this neighbourhood supplies.
The Scotch regard architectural beauty in their private houses,
as well as in their public edifices much more than we do;
partly because their materials are so much better.
For as for making fine buildings with brick,
you might as easily make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.”

Trade and prosperity had come hand in hand to Aberdeen,
at first trade with the Continent and then trade with the rest of the world.
The harbour at the mouth of the Dee served the city well until the latter half of the 18th century.
Work on the North Pier was begun by John Smeaton about 1775
and continued by Thomas Telford in 1810.

Good fortune was not always Aberdeen's lot.
The city suffered greatly in the wars for Scottish independence from England and during the Civil War.
In 1296 Edward I came to Aberdeen ready to ravage and subdue.
Robert I sought refuge at Aberdeen after his defeat at the battle of Methven on 19 June, 1306
and in 1308 the city gained her motto when Aberdonians supportive of King Robert
rallied to the cry “Bon Accord” and rose up and destroyed the local garrison of English soldiers.
After Aberdeen was burned in 1337 by Edward III
the citizens, undaunted and industrious, set about rebuilding their city from the ashes.
James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, alternately Covenanter and “King's Man”,
came three times in enmity to Aberdeen
and after the battle of the Justice Mills on 3 September, 1644,
he turned the Irish troops under his command to burn and sack the city.
And still Aberdeen survived to become a cornerstone of modern Scotland,
a rather splendid city where ancient and new blend in  “Bon Accord”.