ABERDEEN, GEORGE GORDON, 1ST EARL OF (1637-1720), lord chancellor of Scotland, son of Sir John Gordon, 1st baronet of Haddo, Aberdeenshire, executed by the Presbyterians in 1644, was born on the 3rd of October 1637. He graduated M.A., and was chosen professor at King's College, Aberdeen, in 1658. Subsequently he travelled and studied civil law abroad. At the Restoration the sequestration of his father's lands was annulled, and in 1665 he succeeded by the death of his elder brother to the baronetcy and estates. He returned home in 1667, was admitted advocate in 1668 and gained a high legal reputation. He represented Aberdeenshire in the Scottish parliament of 1669 and in the following assemblies, during his first session strongly opposing the projected union of the two legislatures. In November 1678 he was made a privy councillor for Scotland, and in 1680 was raised to the bench as Lord Haddo. He was a leading member of the duke of York's administration, was created a lord of session in June and in November 1681 president of the court. The same year he is reported as moving in the council for the torture of witnesses.1 In 1682 he was made lord chancellor of Scotland, and was created, on the 13th of November, earl of Aberdeen, Viscount Formartine, and Lord Haddo, Methllck, Tarves and Kellie, in the Scottish peerage, being appointed also sheriff principal of Aberdeenshire and Midlothian. Burnet reflects unfavourably upon him, calls him "a proud and covetous man,'' and declares "the new chancellor exceeded all that had gone before him.''2 He executed the laws enforcing religious conformity with severity, and filled the parish churches, but resisted the excessive measures of tyranny prescribed by the English government; and in consequence of an intrigue of the duke of Queensberry and Lord Perth, who gained the duchess of Portsmouth with a present of L. 27,000, he was dismissed in 1684. After his fall he was subjected to various petty prosecutions by his victorious rivals with the view of discovering some act of maladministration on which to found a charge against him, but the investigations only served to strengthen his credit. He took an active part in parliament in 1685 and 1686, but remained a non-juror during the whole of William's reign, being frequently fined for his non-attendance, and took the oaths for the first time after Anne's accession, on the 11th of May 1703. In the great affair of the Union in 1707, while protesting against the completion of the treaty till the act declaring the Scots aliens should be repealed, he refused to support the opposition to the measure itself and refrained from attending parliament when the treaty was settled. He died on the 20th of April 1720, after having amassed a large fortune. He is described by John Mackay as "very knowing in the laws and constitution of his country and is belleved to be the solidest statesman in Scotland, a fine orator, speaks slow but sure.'' His person was said to be deformed, and his "want of mine or deportment'' was alleged as a disqualification for the office of lord chancellor. He married Anne, daughter and sole heiress of George Lockhart of Torbrecks, by whom he had six children, his only surviving son, William, succeeding him as 2nd earl of Aberdeen.

See Letters to George, earl of Aberdeen (with memoir: Spalding Club, 1851); Hist. Account of the Senators of-the College of Justice, by G. Brunton and D. Haig (1832), p. 408; G. Crawfurd's Lives of the Officers of State (1726), p. 226; Memoirs of Affairs in Scotland, by Sir G. Mackenzie (1821), p. 148; Sir J. Lauder's (Lord Fountainhall) Journals (Scottish Hist. Society, vol. xxxvi., 1900); J. Mackay's Memoirs (1733), p. 215; A. Lang's Hist. of Scotland, iii. 369, 376. (P. C. Y.) 1 Sir J. Lauder's Hist. Notices (Bannatyne Club, 1848), p. 297.

2 Hist. of his own Times, i. 523.

ABERDEEN, GEORGE HAMILTON GORDON, 4TH EARL OF (1784-1860), English statesman, was the eldest son of George Gordon, Lord Haddo, by his wife Charlotte, daughter of William Baird of Newbyth, Haddingtonshire, and grandson of George, 3rd earl of Aberdeen. Born in Edinburgh on the 28th of January 1784, he lost his father in 1791 and his mother in 1795; and as his grandfather regarded him with indifference, he went to reside with Henry Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville. At the age of fourteen he was permitted by Scotch law to name his own curators, or guardians, and selecting William Pitt and Dundas for this office he spent much of his time at their houses, thus meeting many of the leading politicians of the day. He was educated at Harrow, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated as a nobleman in 1804. Before this time, however, he had become earl of Aberdeen on his grandfather's death in 1801, and had travelled over a large part of the continent of Europe, meeting on his journeys Napoleon Bonaparte and other persons of distinction. He also spent some time in Greece, and on his return to England founded the Athenian Society, membership of which was confined to those who had travelled in that country. Moreover, he wrote an article in the Edinburgh Review of July 1805 criticizing Sir William Gill's Topography of Troy, and these circumstances led Lord Byron to refer to him in Eniglish Bardo and Scotch Reviewers as "the travell'd thane, Athenian Aberdeen.'' Having attained his majority in 1805, he married on the 28th of July Catherine Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of John James, 1st marquess of Abercorn. In December 1806 he was elected a representative peer for Scotland, and took his seat as a Tory in the House of Lords, but for some years he took only a slight part in public business. However, by his birth, his abilities and his connexions alike he was marked out for a high position, and after the death of his wife in February 1812 he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Vienna, where he signed the treaty of Toplitz between Great Britain and Austria in October 1813; and accompanying the emperor Francis I. through the subsequent campaign against France, he was present at the battle of Leipzig. He was one of the British representatives at the congress of Chatillon in February 1814, and in the same capacity was present during the negotiations which led to the treaty of Paris in the following May. Returning home he was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen (1814), and made a member of the privy council. On the 15th of Juby 1815 he married Harriet, daughter of the Hon. John Douglas, and widow of James, Viscount Hamilton, and thus became doubly connected with the family of the marquess of Abercorn. During the ensuing thirteen years Aberdeen took a less prominent part in public affairs, although he succeeded in passing the Entail (Scotland) Act of 1825. He kept in touch, however, with foreign politics, and having refused to join the ministry of George Canning in 1827, became a member of the cabinet of the duke of Wellington as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in January 1828. In the following June he was transferred to the office of secretary of state for foreign affairs, and having acquitted himself with credit with regard to the war between Russia and Turkey, and to affairs in Greece, Portugal and France, he resigned with Wellington in November 1830, and shared his leader's attitude towards the Reform Bill of 1832. As a Scotsman, Aberdeen was interested in the ecclesiastical controversy which culminated in the disruption of 1843. In 1840 he introduced a bill to settle the vexed question of patronage; but disliked by a majority in the general assembly of the Scotch church, and unsupported by the government, it failed to become law, and some opprobrium was cast upon its author. In 1843 he brought forward a similar measure "to remove doubts respecting the admission of ministers to benefices.'' This Admission to Benefices Act, as it was called, passed into law, but did not reconcile the opposing parties.

During the short administration of Sir Robert Peel in 1834 and 1835, Aberdeen had filled the office of secretary for the colonies, and in September 1841 he took office again under Peel, on this occasion as foreign secretary; the five years during which he held this position were the most fruitful and successful of his public life. He owed his success to the confidence placed in him by Queen Victoria, to his wide knowledge of European politics, to his intimate friendship with Guizot, and not least to his own conciliatory disposition. Largely owing to his efforts, causes of quarrel between Great Britain and France in Tahiti, over the marriage of Isabella II. of Spain, and in other directions, were removed. More important still were his services in settling the question of the boundary between the United States and British North America at a time when a single injudicious word would probably have provoked a war. In 1845 he supported Peel when in a divided cabinet he proposed to suspend the duty on foreign corn, and left office with that minister in July 1846. After Peel's death in 1850 he became the recognized leader of the Peelites, although since his resignation his share in public business had been confined to a few speeches on foreign affairs. His dislike of the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill, the rejection of which he failed to secure in 1851, prevented him from joining the government of Lord John Russell, or from forming an administration himself in this year. In December 1852, however, be became first lord of the treasury and head of a coalition ministry of Whigs and Peelites. Although united on free trade and in general on questions of domestic reform, a cabinet which contained Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, in addition to Aberdeen, was certain to differ on questions of foreign policy. The strong and masterful character of these and other colleagues made the task of the prime minister one of unusual difficulty, a fact which was recognized by contemporaries. Charles Greville in his Memoirs says, "In the present cabinet are five or six first-rate men of equal, or nearly equal, pretensions, none of them likely to acknowledge the superiority or defer to the opinions of any other, and every one of these five or six considering himself abler and more important than their premier''; and Sir James Graham wrote, "It is a powerful team, but it will require good driving.'' The first year of office passed off successfully, and it was owing to the steady support of the prime minister that Gladstone's great budget of 1853 was accepted by the cabinet. This was followed by the outbreak of the dispute between France and Turkey over the guardianship of the holy places at Jerusalem, which, after the original cause of quarrel had been forgotten, developed into the Crimean war. The tortuous negotiations which preceded the struggle need not be discussed here, but in defence of Aberdeen it may be said that he hoped and strove for peace to the last. Rightly or wrongly, however, he held that Russell was indispensable to the cabinet, and that a resignation would precipitate war. His outlook, usually so clear, was blurred by these considerations, and he lacked the strength to force the suggestions which he made in the autumn of 1853 upon his imperious colleagues. Palmerston, supported by Russell and well served by Lord Stratford de Redcllffe, British ambassador at Constantinople, favoured a more aggressive policy, and Aberdeen, unable to control Palmerston, and unwilling to let Russell go, cannot be exonerated from blame. When the war began he wished to prosecute it vigorously; but the stories of misery and mismanagement from the seat of war deprived the ministry of public favour. Russell resigned; and on the 29th of January 1855 a motion by J. A. Roebuck, for the appointment of a select committee to enquire into the conduct of the War, was carried in the House of Commons by a large majority. Treating this as a vote of want of confidence Aberdeen at once resigned office, and the queen bestowed upon him the order of the Garter. He smoothed the way for Palmerston to succeed him, and while the earl of Clarendon remained at the foreign office he aided him with advice and was consulted on matters of moment. He died in London on the 14th of December 1860, and was buried in the family vault at Stanmore. By his first wife he had one son and three daughters, all of whom predeceased their father. By his second wife, who died in August 1833, he left four sons and one daughter. His eldest son, George John James, succeeded as 5th earl; his second son was General Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon, K.C.B.; his third son was the Reverend Douglas Hamilton-Gordon; and his youngest son Arthur Hamilton, after holding various high offices under the crown, was created Baron Stanmore in 1893. Among the public offices held by the earl were those of lord-lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, president of the society of Antiquaries from 1812 to 1846 and fellow of the Royal Society.

Aberdeen was a distinguished scholar with a retentive memory and a wide knowledge of literature and art. His private life was exemplary, and he impressed his contemporaries with the loftiness of his character. His manner was reserved, and as a speaker he was weighty rather than eloquent. In public life he was remarkable for his generosity to his political opponents, and for his sense of justice and honesty. He did not, however, possess the qualities which impress the populace, and he lacked the strength which is one of the essential gifts of a statesman. His character is perhaps best described by a writer who says "his strength was not equal to his goodness.'' His foreign policy was essentially one of peace and non-intervention, and in pursuing it he was accused of favouring the despotisms of Europe. Aberdeen was a model landlord. By draining the land, by planting millions of trees and by erecting numerous buildings, he greatly improved the condition of his Aberdeenshire estates, and studied continually the welfare of his dependants. A bust of him by Matthew Noble is in Westminster Abbey, and his portrait was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence. He wrote An Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture (London, 1822), and the Correspondence of the Earl of Aberdeen has been printed privately under the direction of his son, Lord Stanmore.

The 6th earl, George (1841-1870), son of the 5th earl, was drowned at sea, and was succeeded by his brother John Campbell Gordon, 7th earl of Aberdeen, (b. 1847), a prominent Liberal politician, who was lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1886, governor-general of Canada 1893—1898, and again the lord-lieutenant of Ireland when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman formed his ministry at the close of 1905.

See Lord Stanmore, The Earl of Aberdeen (London, 1893); C. C. F. Greville, Memoirs, edited by H. Reeve (London, 1888); Spencer Walpole, History of England (London, 1878-1886), and Life of Lord John Russell (London, 1889); A. W. Kinglake, Invasion of the Crimea (London, 1877-1888); Sir T. Martin, Life of the Prince Consort (London, 1875-1880); J. Morley, Life of Gladstone (London, 1903). (A. W. H. deg. ) ABERDEEN, a royal burgh, city and county of a city, capital of Aberdeenshire, and chief seaport in the north of Scotland. It is the fourth Scottish town in population, industry and wealth, and stands on a bay of the North Sea, between the mouths of the Don and Dee, 130 1/2 m. N. E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway. Though Old Aberdeen, extending from the city suburbs to the southern banks of the Dob, has a separate charter, privileges and history, the distinction between it and New Aberdeen can no longer be said to exist; and for parliamentary, municipal and other purposes, the two towns now form practically one community. Aberdeen's popular name of the "Granite City,' is justified by the fact that the bulk of the town fs built of granite, but to appreciate its more poetical designation of the "Silver City by the Sea,'' it should be seen after a heavy rainfall when its stately structures and countless houses gleam pure and white under the brilliant sunshine. The area of the city extends to 6602 acres, the burghs of Old Aberdeen and Woodside, and the district of Torry (for parliamentary purposes in the constituency of Kincardineshire) to the south of the Dee, having been incorporated in 1891. The city comprises eleven wards and eighteen ecclesiastical parishes, and is under the jurisdiction of a council with lord provost, bailies, treasurer and dean of guild. The corporation owns the water (derived from the Dee at a spot 21 m. W.S.W. of the city) and gas supplles, electric lighting and tramways. Since 1885 the city has returned two members to Parliament. Aberdeen is served by the Caledonian, Great North of Scotland and North British railways (occupying a commodious joint railway station), and there is regular communication by sea with London and the chief ports on the eastern coast of Great Britain and the northern shores of the Continent. The mean temperature of the city for the year is 45.8 deg. F., for summer 56 deg. F., and for winter 37.3 deg. F. The average yearly rainfall is 30.57 inches. The city is one of the healthiest in Scotland.

Streets and Buildings.—Roughly, the extended city runs north and south. From the new bridge of Don to the "auld brig'' of Dee there is tramway communication via King Street, Union Street and Holburn Road—a distance of over five miles. Union Street is one of the most imposing thoroughfares in the British Isles. From Castle Street it runs W. S. W. for nearly a mile, is 70 ft. wide, and contains the principal shops and most of the modern public buildings, all of granite. Part of the street crosses the Denburn ravine (utilized for the line of the Great North of Scotland railway) by a fine granite arch of 132 ft. span, portions of the older town still fringing the gorge, fifty feet below the level of Union Street. Amongst the more conspicuous secular buildings in the street may be mentioned the Town and County Bank, the Music Hall, with sitting accommodation for 2000 persons, the Trinity Hall of the incorporated trades (originating in various years between 1398 and 1527, and having charitable funds for poor members, widows and orphans), containing some portraits by George Jamesone, a noteworthy set of carved oak chairs, dating from 1574, and the shields of the crafts with quaint inscriptions; the office of the Aberdeen Free Press, one of the most influential papers in the north of Scotland; the Palace Hotel; the office of the Nnrthern Assurance Company, and the Nutional Bank of Scotland. In Castle Street, a continuation eastwards of Union Street, are situated the Municipnl and County Buildings, one of the most splendid granite edifices in Scotland, in the Franco-Scottish Gothic style, built in 1867-1878. They are of four stories and contain the great hall with an open timber ceiling and oak-panelled walls; the Sheriff Court House; the Town Hall, with excellent portraits of Prince Albert (Prince Consort), the 4th earl of Aberdeen, the various lord provosts and other distinguished citizens. In the vestibule of the entrance corridor stands a suit of black armour believed to have been worn by Provost Sir Robert Davidson, who feh in the battle of Harlaw, near Inverurie, in 1411. From the south-western corner a grand tower rises to a height of 210 ft., commanding a fine view of the city and surrounding country. Adjoining the municipal buildings is the North of Scotland Bank, of Greek design, with a portico of Corinthian columns, the capitals of which are exquisitely carved. On the opposite side of the street is the fine building of the Union Bank. At the upper end of Castle Street stands the Salvation Army Citadel, an effective castellated mansion, the most imposing "barracks'' possessed anywhere by this organization. In front of it is the Market Cross, a beautiful, open-arched, hexagonal structure, 21 ft. in diameter and 18 ft. high. The original was designed in 1682 by Jnhn Montgomery, a native architect, but in 1842 it was removed hither from its old site and rebuilt in a better style. On the entablature surmounting the Ionic columns are panels containing medallions of Scots sovereigns from James I. to James VII. From the centre rises a shaft, 12 1/2 ft. high, with a Corinthian capital on which is the royal,unicorn rampant. On an eminence east of Castle Street are the military barracks. In Market Street are the Mechanics' Institution, founded in 1824, with a good library; the Post and Telegraph offices; and the Market, where provisions of all kinds and general wares are sold. The Fish Market, on the Albert Basin, is a busy scene in the early morning. The Art Gallery and Museum at Schoolhill, built in the Italian Renaissance style of red and brown granite, contains an excellent Collection of pictures, the Macdonald Hall of portraits of contemporary artists by themselves being of altogether exceptional interest and unique of its kind in Great Britain. The public llbrary, magnificently housed, contains more than 60,000 volumes. The theatre in Guild Street is the chief seat of dramatic, as the Palace Theatre in Bridge Place is of variety entertainment. The new buildings of Marischal College fronting Broad Street, opened by King Edward VII. in 1906, form one of the most splendid examples of modern architecture in Great Britain; the architect, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, a native of Aberdeen, having adapted his material, white granite, to the design of a noble building with the originality of genius.

Churches.—-Like most Scottish towns, Aberdeen is well equipped with churches, most of them of good design, but few of special interest. The East and West churches of St Nicholas, their kirkyard separated from Union Street by an Ionic facade, 147 1/2 ft. long, built in 1830, form one continuous building, 220ft. in length, including the Drum Aisle (the ancient burial-place of the Irvines of Drum) and the Colllson Aisle, which divide them and which formed the transept of the 12th-century church of St Nicholas. The West Church was built in 1775, in the Italian style, the East originally in 1834 in the Gothic. In 1874 a fire destroyed the East Church and the old central tower with its fine peal of nine bells, one of which, Laurence or "Lowrie,'' was 4 ft. in diameter at the mouth, 3 1/2 ft. high and very thick. The church was rebuilt and a massive granite tower erected over the intervening aisles at the cost of the municipality, a new peal of 36 bells, cast in Holland, being installed to commemorate the Victorian jubilee of 1887. The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Huntly Street, a Gothic building, was erected in 1859. The see of Aberdeen was first founded at Mortlach in Banffshire by Malcolm II. in 1004 to celebrate his victory there over the Danes, but in 1137 David I. transferred the bishopric to Old Aberdeen, and twenty years later the cathedral of St Machar, situated a few hundred yards from the Don, was begun. Save during the episcopate of William Elphinstone (1484-1511), the building progressed slowly. Gavin Dunbar, who followed him in 1518, was enabled to complete the structure by adding the two western spires and the southern transept. The church suffered severely at the Reformation, but is still used as the parish church. It now consists of the nave and side aisles. It is chiefly built of outlayer granite, and, though the plainest cathedral in Scotland, its stately simplicity and severe symmetry lend it unique distinction. On the flat panelled ceiling of the nave are the heraldic shields of the princes, noblemen and bishops who shared in its erection, and the great west window contains modern painted glass of excellent colour and design. The cemeteries are St Peter's in Old Aberdeen, Trinity near the links, Nellfield at the junction of Great Western and Holburn Roads, and Allenvale, very tastefully laid out, adjoining Duthie Park.

Education.—-Aberdeen University consists of King's College in Old Aberdeen, founded by Bishop Elphinstone in 1494, and Marischal College, in Broad Street, founded in 1593 by George Keith, 5th earl Marischal, which were incorporated in 1860. Arts and divinity are taught at King's, law, medicine and science at Marischal. The number of students exceeds 800 yearly. The buildings of both colleges are the glories of Aberdeen. King's forms a quadrangle with interior court, two sides of which have been rebuilt, and a library wing has been added. The Crown Tower and the Chapel, the oldest parts, date from 1500. The former is surmounted by a structure about 40 ft. high, consisting of a six-sided lantern and royal crown, both sculptured, and resting on the intersections of two arched ornamental slips rising from the four corners of the top of the tower. The choir of the chapel still contains the original oak canopied stalls, miserere seats and lofty open screens in the French flamboyant style, and of unique beauty of design and execution. Their preservation was due to the enlightened energy of the principal at the time of the Reformation, who armed his folk to save the building from the barons of the Mearns after they had robbed St Machar's of its bells and lead. Marischal College is a stately modern building, having been rebuilt in 1836-1841, and greatly extended several years later at a cost of L. 100,000. The additions to the buildings opened by King Edward VII. in 1906 have been already mentioned. The beautiful Mitchell Tower is so named from the benefactor (Dr Charles Mitchell) who provided the splendid graduation hall. The opening of this tower in 1895 signalized the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the university. The University Library comprises nearly 100,000 books. A Botanic Garden was presented to the university in 1899. Aberdeen and Glasgow Universities combine to return one member to Parliament. The United Free Church Divinity Hall in Alford Place, in the Tudor Gothic style, dates from 1850. The Grammar School, founded in 1263, was removed in 1861-1863 from its old quarters in Schoolhill to a large new building, in the Scots Baronial style, off Skene Street. Robert Gordon's College in Schoolhill was founded in 1729 by Robert Gordon of Straloch and further endowed in 1816 by Alexander Simpson of Collyhill. Originally devoted (as Gordon's Hospital) to the instruction and maintenance of the sons of poor burgesses of guild and trade in the city, it was reorganized in 1881 as a day and night school for secondary and technical education, and has since been unusually successful. Besides a High School for Girls and numerous board schools, there are many private higher-class schools. Under the Endowments Act 1882 an educational trust was constituted which possesses a capital of L. 155,000. At Blairs, in Kincardineshire, five miles S.W. of Aberdeen, is St Mary's Roman Catholic College for the training of young men intended for the priesthood.

Charities.—-The Royal Infimary, in Woolmanhill, established in 1740, rebuilt in the Grecian style in 1833-1840, and largely extended after 1887 as a memorial of Queen Victoria's jubilee; the Royal Asylum, opened in 1800; the Female Orphan Asylum, in Albyn Place, founded in 1840; the Blind Asylum, in Huntly Street, established in 1843; the Royal Hospital for Sick Children; the Maternity Hospital, founded in 1823; the City Hospital for Infectious Diseases; the Deaf and Dumb Institution; Mitchell's Hospital in Old Aberdeen; the East and West Poorhouses, with lunatic wards; and hospitals devoted to specialized diseases, are amongst the most notable of the charitable institutions. There are, besides, industrial schools for boys and girls and for Roman Catholic children, a Female School of Industry, the Seabank Rescue Home, Nazareth House and Orphanage, St Martha's Home for Girls, St Margaret's Convalescent Home and Sisterhood, House of Bethany, the Convent of the Sacred Heart and the Educational Trust School.

Parks and Open Spaces.—-Duthie Park, of 50 acres, the gift of Miss Elizabeth Crombie Duthie of Ruthrieston, occupies an excellent site on the north bank of the Dee. Victoria Park (13 acres) and its extension Westburn Park (13 acres) are situated in the north-western area; farther north lies Stewart Park (11 acres), called after Sir D. Stewart, lord provost in 1893. The capacious links bordering the sea between the mouths of the two rivers are largely resorted to for open-air recreation; there is here a rifle range where a "wapinschaw,'' or shooting tournament, is held annually. Part is laid out as an 18-hole golf course; a section is reserved for cricket and football; a portion has been railed off for a race-course, and a bathing-station has been erected. Union Terrace Gardens are a popular rendezvous in the heart of the city.

Statues.—-In Union Terrace Gardens stands a colossal statue in bronze of Sir William Wallace, by W. G. Stevenson, R.S.A. (1888). In the same gardens are a bronze statue of Burns and Baron Marochetti's seated figure of Prince Albert. In front of Gordon's College is the bronze statue, by T. S. Burnett, A.R.S.A., of General Gordon (1888). At the east end of Union Street is the bronze statue of Queen Victoria, erected in 1893 by the royal tradesmen of the city. Near the Cross stands the granite statue of the 5th duke of Gordon (d. 1836). Here may also be mentioned the obelisk of Peterhead granite, 70 ft. high, erected in the square of Marischal College to the memory of Sir James M'Grigor (1778-1851), the military surgeon and director-general of the Army Medical Department, who was thrice elected lord rector of the College.

Bridges.—The Dee is crossed by four bridges,—the old bridge, the Wellington suspension bridge, the railway bridge, and Victoria Bridge, opposite Market Street. The first, till 1832 the only access to the city from the south, consists of seven semicircular ribbed arches, is about 30 ft. high, and was built early in the 16th century by Bishops Elphinstone and Dunbar. It was nearly all rebuilt in 1718—1723, and in 1842 was widened from 14 1/2 to 26 ft. The bridge of Don has five granite arches, each 75 ft. in span, and was built in 1827—1832. A little to the west is the Auld Brig o' Balgownie, a picturesque single arch spanning the deep black stream, said to have been built by King Robert I., and celebrated by Byron in the tenth canto of Don Juan.

Harbour.—A defective harbour, with a shallow sand and gravel bar at its entrance. long retarded the trade of Aberdeen, but under various acts since 1773 it was greatly deepened. The north pier, built partly by Smeaton in 1775-1781, and partly by Telford in 1810-1815, extends nearly 3000 ft. into the North Sea. It increases the depth of water on the bar from a few feet to 22 or 24 ft. at spring tides and to 17 or 18 ft. at neap. A wet dock, of 29 acres, and with 6000 ft. of quay, was completed in 1848 and called Victoria Dock in honour of the queen's visit to the city in that year. Adjoining it is the Upper Dock. By the Harbour Act of 1868, the Dee near the harbour was diverted from the south at a cost of L. 80,000, and 90 acres of new ground (in addition to 25 acres formerly made up) were provided on the north side of the river for the Albert Basin (with a graving dock), quays and warehouses. A breakwater of concrete, 1050 ft. long, was constructed on the south side of the stream as a protection against south-easterly gales. On Girdleness, the southern point of the bay, a lighthouse was built in 1833. Near the harbour mouth are three batteries mounting nineteen guns.

Industry.—-Owing to the variety and importance of its chief industries Aberdeen is one of the most prosperous cities in Scotland. Very durable grey granite has been quarried near Aberdeen for more than 300 years, and blocked and dressed paving "setts,'' kerb and building stones, and monumental and other ornamental work of granite have long been exported from the district to all parts of the world. This, though once the predominant industry, has been surpassed by the deep-sea fisheries, which derived a great impetus from beam-trawling, introduced in 1882, and steam line fishing in 1889, and threaten to rival if not to eclipse those of Grimsby. Fish trains are despatched to London daily. Most of the leading industries date from the 18th century, amongst them woollens (1703), linen (1749) and cotton (1779). These give employment to several thousands of operatives. The paper-making industry is one of the most famous and oldest in the city, paper having been first made in Aberdeen in 1694. Flax-spinning and jute and combmaking factories are also very flourishing, and there are successful foundries and engineering works. There are large distilleries and breweries, and chemical works employing many hands. In the days of wooden ships ship-building was a flourishing industry, the town being noted for its fast clippers, many of which established records in the "tea races.'' The introduction of trawllng revived this to some extent, and despite the distance of the city from the iron fields there is a fair yearly output of iron vessels. Of later origin are the jam, pickle and potted meat factories, hundreds of acres having been laid down in strawberries and other fruits within a few miles of the city.

History.—Aberdeen was an important place as far back as the 12th century. William the Lion had a residence in the city, to which he gave a charter in 1179 confirming the corporate rights granted by David I. The city received other royal charters later. It was burned by the English king, Edward III., in 1336, but it was soon rebuilt and extended, and called New Aberdeen. The burgh records are the oldest in Scotland. They begin in 1398 and with one brief break are complete to the present day. For many centuries the city was subject to attacks by the neighbouring barons, and was strongly fortified, but the gates were all removed by 1770. In 1497 a blockhouse was built at the harbour mouth as a protection against the English. During the struggles between the Royalists and Covenanters the city was impartially plundered by both sides. In 1715 the Earl Marischal proclaimed the Old Pretender at Aberdeen, and in 1745 the duke of Cumberland resided for a short time in the city before attacking the Young Pretender. The motto on the city arms is "Bon Accord,'' which formed the watchword of the Aberdonians while aiding Robert Bruce in his battles with the English.

Population.—-In 1396 the population was about 3000. By 1801 it had become 26,992; in 1841 it was 63,262; (1891) 121,623; (1901) 153,503.

AUTHORITIES.—The charters of the burgh; extracts from the council register down to 1625, and selections from the letters. guildry and treasurer's accounts, forming 3 vols. of the Spalding Club; Cosmo Innes, Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, Spalding Club; Walter Thore, The History of Aberdeen (1811); Robert Wilson, Historical Account and Delineation of Aberdeen (1822); William Kennedy, The Annals of Aberdeen (1818); Orem, Descripjion of the Chanonry, Cathedral and King's College of Old Aberdeen, 1724-1725 (1830); Sir Andrew Leith Hay of Rannes, The Castellated Architecture of Aberdeen; Giles, Specimens of old Castellated Houses of Aberdeen (1838); James Bryce, Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen (1841); J. Gordon, Description of Both Towns of Aberdeen (Spalding Club, 1842); Joseph Robertson, The Book of Bon-Accord (Aberdeen, 1839); W. Robbie, Aberdeen: its Traditions and History (Aberdeen, 1893); C. G. Burr and A. M. Munro, Old Landmarks of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1886); A. M. Munro, Memorials of the Aldermen, Provosts and Lord Provosts of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1897); P. J. Anderson, Charters, &c., illustrating the History of Records of Marischal College (New Spalding 1890); Selections from the Records of Marischal College (New Spalding Club, 1889, 1898..1899); J. Cooper, Chartulary of the Church of St Nicholas (New Spalding Club, 1888, 1892); G. Cadenhead, Sketch of the Territorial History of the Burgh of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1876); W. Cadenhead, Guide to the City of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1897); A. Smith, History and Antiquities of New and Old Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1882).

ABERDEEN, a city and the county-seat of Brown county, South Dakota, U.S.A., about 125 m. N.E. of Pierre. Pop. (1890) 3182; (1900) 4087, of whom 889 were foreign born; (1905) 5841; (1910) 10,753. Aberdeen is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul, the Great Northern, the Minneapolis and St Louis, and the Chicago and North Western railways. It is the financial and trade centre for the northern part of the state, a fine agricultural region, and in 1908 had five banks and a number of wholesale houses. The city is the seat of the Northern Normal and Industrial School, a state institution, and has a Carnegie Library; the principal buildings are the court house and the government buildings. Artesian wells furnish good water-power, and artesian-well supplies, grain pitchers, brooms, chemicals and flour are manufactured. The municipality owns and operates the water-works. Aberdeen was settled in 1880, and was chartered as a city in 1883.

ABERDEENSHIRE, a north-eastern county of Scotland, bounded N. and E. by the North Sea, S. by Kincardine, Forfar and Perth, and W. by Inverness and Banff. It has a coast-line of 65 m., and is the sixth Scottish county in area, occupying 1261,887 acres or 1971 sq. m. The county is generally hilly, and from the south-west, near the centre of Scotland, the Grampians send out various branches, mostly to the north-east. The shire is popularly divided into five districts. Of these the first is Mar, mostly between the Dee and Don, which nearly covers the southern half of the county and contains the city of Aberdeen. It is mountainous, especially Braemar (q.v.), which contains the greatest mass of elevated land in the British Isles. The soil on the Dee is sandy, and on the Don loamy. The second district, Formartine, between the lower Don and Ythan, has a sandy coast, which is succeeded inland by a clayey, fertile, tilled tract, and then by low hills, moors, mosses and tilled land. Buchan, the third district, lies north of the Ythan, and, comprising the north-east of the county, is next in size to Mar, parts of the coast being bold and rocky, the interior bare, low, flat, undulating and in places peaty. On the coast, 6 m. S. of Peterhead, are the Bullers of Buchan—a basin in which the sea, entering by a natural arch, boils up violently in stormy weather. Buchan Ness is the most easterly point of Scotland. The fourth district, Garioch, in the centre of the shire, is a beautiful, undulating, loamy, fertile valley. formerly called the granary of Aberdeen. Strathbogie, the fifth district, occupying a considerable area south of the Deveron, mostly consists of hills, moors and mosses. The mountains are the most striking of the physical features of the county. Ben Macdhui (4296 ft.), a magnificent mass, the second highest mountain in Great Britain, Braeriach (4248), Cairntoul (4241), Ben-na-bhuaird (3924), Ben Avon (3843), "dark'' Lochnagar (3786), the subject of a well-known song by Byron, Cairn Eas (3556), Sgarsoch (3402), Culardoch (2953), are the principal heights in the division of Mar. Farther north rise the Buck of Cabrach (2368) on the Banffshire border, Tap o' Noth (1830), Bennachie (1698), a beautiful peak which from its central position is a landmark visible from many different parts of the county, and which is celebrated in John Imlah's song, "O gin I were where Gadie rins,'' and Foudland (1529). The chief rivers are the Dee, 90 m. long; the Iyon, 82 m.; the Ythan, 37 m., with mussel-beds at its mouth; the Ugie, 20 m., and the Deveron, 62 m., partly on the boundary of Banffshire. The rivers abound with salmon and trout, and the pearl mussel occurs in the Ythan and Don. A valuable pearl in the Scottish crown is said to be from the Ythan. Loch Muick, the largest of the few lakes in the county, 1310 ft. above the sea, 2 1/2 m. long and 1/3 to 1/2 m. broad, lies some 8 1/2 m. S.W. of Ballater, and has Altnagiuthasach, a royal shooting-box, near its south-western end. Loch Strathbeg, 6 m. S.E. of Fraserburgh, is only separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land. There are noted chalybeate springs at Peterhead, Fraserburgh, and Pannanich near Ballater.

Geology.—-The greater part of the county is composed of crystalline schists belonging to the metamorphic rocks of the Eastern Highlands. In the upper parts of the valleys of the Dee and the Don they form well-marked groups, of which the most characteristic are (1) the black schists and phyllites, with calcflintas, and a thin band of tremolite limestone, (2) the main or Blair Atholl limestone, (3) the quartzite. These divisions are folded on highly inclined or vertical axes trending north-east and south-west, and hence the same zones are repeated over a considerable area. The quartzite is generally regarded as the highest member of the series. Excellent sections showing the component strata occur in Glen Clunie and its tributary valleys above Braemar. Eastwards down the Dee and the Don and northwards across the plain of Buchan towards Rattray Head and Fraserburgh there is a development of biotite gneiss, partly of sedimentary and perhaps partly of igneous origin. A belt of slate which has been quarried for roofing purposes runs along the west border of the county from Turriff by Auchterless and the Foudland Hills towards the Tap o' Noth near Gartly. The metamorphic rocks have been invaded by igneous materials, some before, and by far the larger series after the folding of the strata. The basic types of the former are represented by the sills of epidiorite and hornblende gneiss in Glen Muick and Glen Callater, which have been permeated by granite and pegmatite in veins and lenticles, often foliated. The later granites subsequent to the plication of the schists have a wide distribution on the Ben Macdhui and Ben Avon range, and on Lochnagar; they stretch eastwards from Ballater by Tarland to Aberdeen and north to Bennachie. Isolated masses appear at Peterhead and at Strichen. Though consisting mainly of biotite granite, these later intrusions pass by intermediate stages into diorite, as in the area between Balmoral and the head-waters of the Gairn. The granites have been extensively quarried at Rubislaw, Peterhead and Kemnay. Serpentine and troctolite, the precise age of which is uncertain, occur at the Black Dog rock north of Aberdeen, at Belhelvie and near Old Meldrum. Where the schists of sedimentary origin have been pierced by these igneous intrusions, they are charged with contact minerals such as sillimanite, cordierite, kyanite and andalusite. Cordierite-bearing rocks occur near Ellon, at the foot of Bennachie, and on the top of the Buck of Cahrach. A banded and mottled calc-silicate hornfels occurring with the limestone at Iyerry Falls, W. N.W. of Braemar, has yielded malacolite, wollastonite, brown idocrase, garnet, sphene and hornblende. A larger list of minerals has been obtained from an exposure of limestone and associated beds in Glen Gairn, about four miles above the point where that river joins the Dee. Narrow belts of Old Red Sandstone, resting unconformably on the old platform of slates and schists, have been traced from the north coast at Peterhead by Turriff to Fyvie, and also from Huntly by Gartly to Kildrummy Castle. The strata consist mainly of conglomerates and sandstones, which, at Gartly and at Rhyme, are associated with lenticular bands of andesite indicating contemporaneous volcanic action. Small outliers of conglomerate and sandstone of this age have recently been found in the course of excavations in Aberdeen. The glacial deposits, especially in the belt bordering the coast between Aberdeen and Peterhead, furnish important evidence. The ice moved eastwards off the high ground at the head of the Dee and the Don, while the mass spreading outwards from the Moray Firth invaded the low plateau of Buchan; but at a certain stage there was a marked defection northwards parallel with the coast, as proved by the deposit of red clay north of Aberdeen. At a later date the local glaciers laid down materials on top of the red clay. The committee appointed by the British Association (Report for 1897, p. 333) proved that the Greensand, which has yielded a large suite of Cretaceous fossils at Moreseat, in the parish of Cruden, occurs in glacial drift, resting probably on granite. The strata from which the Moreseat fossils were derived are not now found in place in that part of Scotland, but Mr Jukes Brown considers that the horizon of the fossils is that of the lower Greensand of the Isle of Wight or the Aptien stage of France. Chalk flints are widely distributed in the drift between Fyvie and the east coast of Buchan. At Plaidy a patch of clay with Liassic fossils occurs. At several localities between Logie Coldstone and Dinnet a deposit of diatomite (Kieselguhr) occurs beneath the peat.

Flora and Fauna.—-The tops of the highest mountains have an arctic flora. At the royal lodge on Loch Muick, 1350 ft. above the sea, grow larches, vegetables, currants, laurels, roses, &c. Some ash-trees, four or five feet in girth, are growing at 1300 ft. above the sea. T rees, especially Scotch fir and larch, grow well, and Braemar is rich in natural timber, said to surpass any in the north of Europe. Stumps of Scotch fir and oak found in peat are sometimes far larger than any now growing. The mole is found at 1800 ft. above the sea, and the squirrel at 1400. Grouse, partridges and hares are plentiful, and rabbits are often too numerous. Red deer abound in Braemar, the deer forest being the most extensive in Scotland.

Climate and Agriculture.—-The climate, except in the mountainous districts, is comparatively mild, owing to the proximity of much of the shire to the sea. The mean annual temperature at Braemar is 43.6 deg. F., and at Aberdeen 45.8 deg. . The mean yearly rainfall varies from about 30 to 37 in. The summer climate of the upper Dee and Don valleys is the driest and most bracing in the British Isles, and grain is cultivated up to 1600 ft. above the sea, or 400 to 500 ft. higher than elsewhere in North Britain. Poor, gravelly, clayey and peaty solis prevail, but tile-draining, bones and guano, and the best methods of modern tillage, have greatly increased the produce. Indeed, in no part of Scotland has a more productive soil been made out of such unpromising material. Farm-houses and steadings have much improved, and the best agricultural implements and machines are in general use. About two-thirds of the population depend entirely on agriculture . Farms are small compared with those in the south-eastern counties. Oats are the predominant crop, wheat has practically gone out of cultivation, but barley has largely increased. The most distinctive industry is cattle-feeding. A great number of the home-bred crosses are fattened for the London and local markets, and Irish animals are imported on an extensive scale for the same purpose, while an exceedingly heavy business in dead meat for London and the south is done all over the county. Sheep, horses and pigs are also raised in large numbers.

Fisheries.—-A large fishing population in villages along the coast engage in the white and herring fishery, which is the next most important industry to agriculture, its development having been due almost exclusively to the introduction of steam trawlers. The total value of the annual catch, of which between a half and a third consists of herrings, amounts to L. 1,000,000. Haddocks are salted and rock-dried (speldings) or smoked (finnans). The ports and creeks are divided into the fishery rllstricts of Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Aberdeen, the last of which includes also three Kincardineshire ports. The herring season for Aberdeen, Peterhead and Fraserburgh is from June to September, at which time the ports are crowded with boats from other Scottish districts. There are valuable salmon-fishings—rod, net and stake-net—on the Dee, Don, Ythan and Ugie. The average annual despatch of salmon from Aberdeenshire is about 400 tons.

Other Industries.—Manufactures are mainly prosecuted in or near the city of Aberdeen, but throughout the rural districts there is much milling of corn, brick and tile making, smith-work, brewing and distilling, cart and farm-implement making, casting and drying of peat, and timber-felling, especially on Deeside and Donside, for pit-props, railway sleepers, laths and barrel staves. There are a number of paper-making establishments, most of them on the Don near Aberdeen.

The chief source of mineral wealth is the noted durable granite, which is quarried at Aberdeen, Kemnay, Peterhead and elsewhere. An acre of land on being reclaimed has yielded L. 40 to L. 50 worth of causewaying stones. Sandstone and other rocks are also quarried at different parts. The imports are mostly coal, lime, timber, iron, slate, raw materials for the textile manufactures, wheat, cattle-feeding stuffs, bones, guano, sugar, alcoholic liquors, fruits. The exports are granite (roughdressed and polished), flax, woollen and cotton goods, paper, combs, preserved provisions, oats, barley, live and dead cattle.

Communications.—-From the south Aberdeen city is approached by the Caledonian (via Perth, Forfar and Stonehaven), and the North British (via Dundee, Montrose and Stonehaven) railways, and the shire is also served by the Great North of Scotland railway, whose main line runs via Kintore and Huntly to Keith and Elgin. There are branch lines from various points opening up the more populous districts, as from Aberdeen to Ballater by Deeside, from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh (with a branch at Maud for Peterhead and at Ellon for Cruden Bay and Boddam), from Kintore to Alford, and from Inverurie to Old Meldrum and also to Macduff. By sea there is regular communication with London, Leith, Inverness, Wick, the Orkneys and Shetlands, Iceland and the continent. The highest of the macadamized roads crossing the eastern Grampians rises to a point 2200 ft. above sea-level.

Population and Government.—-In 1801 the population numbered 284,036 and in 1901 it was 304,439 (of whom 159,603 were females), or 154 persons to the sq. m. In 1901 there were 8 persons who spoke Gaelic only, and 1333 who spoke Gaelic and English. The chief towns are Aberdeen (pop. in 1901, 153,503), Bucksburn (2231), Fraserburgh (9105), Huntly (4136), Inverurie (3624), Peterhead (11,794), Turriff (2273). The Supreme Court of Justiciary sits in Aberdeen to try cases from the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine. The three counties are under a sheriff, and there are two sheriffs-substitute resident in Aberdeen, who sit also at Fraserburgh, Huntly, Peterhead and Turriff. The sheriff courts are held in Aberdeen and Peterhead. The county sends two members to parliament —one for East Aberdeenshire and the other for West Aberdeenshire. The county town, Aberdeen (q.v.), returns two members. Peterhead, Inverurie and Kintore belong to the Elgin group of parliamentary burghs, the other constituents being Banff, Cullen and Elgin. The county is under school-board jurisdiction, and there are also several voluntary schools. There are higher-class schools in Aberdeen, and secondary schools at Huntly, Peterhead and Fraserburgh, and many of the other schools in the county earn grants for secondary education. The County Secondary Education Committee dispense a large sum, partly granted by the education department and partly contributed by local authorities from the "residue'' grant, and support, besides the schools mentioned, local clases and lectures in agriculture, fishery and other technical subjects, in addition to subsidizing the agricultural department of the university of Aberdeen. The higher branches of education have always been thoroughly taught in the schools throughout the shire, and pupils have long been in the habit of going directly from the schools to the university.

The native Scots are long-headed, shrewd, careful, canny, active, persistent, but reserved and blunt, and without demonstrative enthusiasm. They have a physiognomy distinct from the rest of the Scottish people, and have a quick, sharp, rather angry accent. The local Scots dialect is broad, and rich in diminutives, and is noted for the use of e for o or u, f for wh, d for th, &c. So recently as 1830 Gaelic was the fireside language of almost every family in Braemar, but now it is little used.

History.—-The country now forming the shires of Aberdeen and Banff was originally peopled by northern Picts, whom Ptolemy called Taixall, the territory being named Taixalon. Their town of Devana, once supposed to be the modern Aberdeen, has been identified by Prof. John Stuart with a site in the parish of Peterculter, where there are remains of an ancient camp at Normandykes, and by Dr W. F. Skene with a station on Loch Davan, west of Aboyne. So-called Roman camps have also been discovered on the upper Ythan and Deveron, but evidence of effective Roman occupation is still to seek. Traces of the native inhabitants, however, are much less equivocal. Weems or earth-houses are fairly common in the west. Relics of crannogs or lake-dwellings exist at Loch Ceander, or Kinnord, 5 m. north-east of Ballater, at Loch Goul in the parish of New Machar and elsewhere. Duns or forts occur on hills at Dunecht, where the dun encloses an area of two acres, Bnrra near Old Meldrum, Tap o' Noth, Dunnideer near Insch and other places. Monoliths, standing stones and "Druidical'' circles of the pagan period abound, and there are many examples of the sculptured stones of the early Christian epoch. Efforts to convert the Picts were begun by Teman in the 5th century, aad continued by Columba (who founded a monastery at Old Deer), Drostan, Maluog and Machar, but it was long before they showed lasting results. Indeed, dissensions within the Columban church and the expulsion of the clergy from Pictland by the Pictish king Nectan in the 8th century undid most of the progress that had been made. The Vikings and Danes periodically raided the coast, but whhen (1040) Macbeth ascended the throne of Scotland the Northmen, under the guidance of Thorfinn, refrained from further trouble in the north-east. Macbeth was afterwards slain at Lumphanan (1057), a cairn on Perkhill marking the spot. The influence of the Norman conquest of England was felt even in Aberdeenshire. Along with numerous Anglo-Saxon exiles, there also settled in the country Flemings who introduced various industries, Saxons who brought farming, and Scandinavians who taught nautical skill. The Celts revolted more than once, but Malcolm Canmore and his successors crushed them and confiscated their lands. In the reign of Alexander I. (d. 1124) mention is first made of Aberdeen (originally called Abordon and, in the Norse sagas, Apardion), which received its charter from William the Lion in 1179, by which date its burgesses had alfeady combined with those of Banff, Elgin, Inverness and other trans-Grampian communities to form a free Hanse, under which they enjoyed exceptional trading privileges. By this time, too, the Church had been organized, the bishopric of Aberdeen having been established in 1150. In the 12th and 13th centuries some of the great Aberdeenshire famines arose, including the earl of Mar (c. 1122), the Leslies, Freskins (ancestors of the dukes of Sutherland), Durwards, Bysets, Comyns and Cheynes, and it is significant that in most cases their founders were immigrants. The Celtic thanes and their retainers slowly fused with the settlers. They declined to take advantage of the disturbed condition of the country during the wars of the Scots independence, and made common cause with the bulk of the nation. Though John Comyn (d. 1300?), one of the competitors for the throne, had considerable interests in the shire, his claim received locally little support. In 1296 Edward I. made a triumphal march to the north to terrorize the more turbulent nobles. Next year Wilham Wallace surprised the English garrison in Aberdeen, but failed to capture the castle. In 1303 Edward again visited the county, halting at the Castle of Kildrummy, then in the possession of Robert Bruce, who shortly afterwards became the acknowledged leader of the Scots and made Aberdeen his headquarters for several months. Despite the seizure of Kildrummy Castle by the English in 1306, Bruce's prospects brightened from 1308, when he defeated John Comyn, earl of Buchan (d. 1313?), at Inverurie. For a hundred years after Robert Bruce's death (1329) there was intermittent anarchy in the shire. Aberdeen itself was burned by the English in 1336, and the re-settlement of the districts of Buchan and Strathbogie occasioned constant quarrels On the part of the dispossessed. Moreover, the crown had embroiled itself with some of the Highland chieftains, whose independence it sought to abolish. This policy culminated in the invasion of Aberdeenshire by Donald, lord of the Isles, who was, however, defeated at Harlaw, near Inverurie, by the earl of Mar in 1411. In the 15th century two other leading county families appeared, Sir Alexander Forbes being created Lord Eorbes about 1442, and Sir Alexander Seton Lord Gordon in 1437 and earl of Huntly in 1445. Bitter feuds raged between these families for a long period, but the Gordons reached the height of their power in the first half of the 16th century, when their domains, already vast, were enhanced by the acquisition, through marriage, of the earldom of Sutherland (1514). Meanwhile commerce with the Low Countries, Poland and the Baltic had grown apace, Campvere, near Flushing in Holland, becoming the emporium of the Scottish traders, while education was fostered by the foundation of King's College at Aberdeen in 1497 (Marischal College followed a century later). At the Reformation so little intuition had the clergy of the drift of opinion that at the very time that religious structures were being despoiled in the south, the building and decoration of churches went on in the shire. The change was acquiesced in without much tumult, though rioting took place in Aberdeen and St Machar's cathedral in the city suffered damage. The 4th earl of Huntly offered some resistance, on behalf of the Catholics, to the influence of Lord James Stuart, afterwards the Regent Murray, but was defeated and killed at Corrichie on the hill of Fare in 1562. As years passed it was apparent that Presbyterianism was less generally acceptable than Episcopacy, of which system Aberdeenshire remained for generations the stronghold in Scotland. Another crisis in ecclesiastical affairs arose in 1638, when the National Covenant was ordered to be subscribed, a demand so grudgingly responded to that the marquis of Montrose visited the shire in the following year to enforce acceptance. The Cavaliers, not being disposed to yield, dispersed an armed gathering of Covenanters in the affair called the Trot of Turriff (1639), in which the first blood of the civil war was shed. The Covenanters obtained the upper hand in a few weeks, when Montrose appeared at the bridge of Dee and compelled the surrender of Aberdeen, which had no choice but to cast in its lot with the victors. Montrose, however, soon changed sides, and after defeating the Covenanters under Lord Balfour of Burleigh (1644), delivered the city to rapine. He worsted the Covenanters again after a stiff fight on the 2nd of July 1645, at Alford, a village in the beautiful Howe of Alford. Peace was temporarily restored on the "engagement', of the Scots commissioners to assist Charles I. On his return from Holland in 1650 Charles II. was welcomed in Aberdeen, but in little more than a year General Monk entered the city at the head of the Cromwellian regiments. The English garrison remained till 1659, and next year the Restoration was effusively hailed, and prelacy was once more in the ascendant. Most of the Presbyterians conformed, but the Quakers, more numerous in the shire and the adjoining county of Kincardine than anywhere else in Scotland, were systematically persecuted. After the Revolution (1688) episcopacy passed under a cloud, but the clergy, yielding to force majeure, gradually accepted the inevitable, hoping, as long as Queen Anne lived, that prelacy might yet be recognized as the national form of Church government. Her death dissipated these dreams, and as George I., her successor, was antipathetic to the clergy, it happened that Jacobitism and episcopalianism came to be regarded in the shire as identical, though in point of fact the non-jurors as a body never countenanced rebellion. The earl of Mar raised the standard of revolt in Braemar (6th of September 1715); a fortnight later James was proclaimed at Aberdeen cross; the Pretender landed at Peterhead on the 22nd of December, and in February 1716 he was back again in France. The collapse of the first rising ruined many of the lairds, and when the second rebellion occurred thirty years afterwards the county in the main was apathetic, though the insurgents held Aberdeen for five months, and Lord Lewis Gordon won a trifling victory for Prince Charles Edward at Inverurie (23rd of December 1745). The duke of Cumberland relieved Aberdeen at the end of February 1746, and in April the Young Pretender was a fugitive. Thereafter the people devoted themselves to agriculture, industry and commerce, which developed by leaps and bounds, and, along with equally remarkable progress in education, transformed the aspect of the shire and made the community as a whole one of the most prosperous in Scotland.

See W. Watt, History of Aberdeen and Banff (Edinburgh, 1900); Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff. (edited by Dr Joseph Robertson, Spalding Club); Sir A. Leith-Hay, Castles of Aberdeenshire (Aberdeen, 188R); J; Davidson, Inverurie and the Earldom of the Garioch (Edinburgh, 1878); Pratt, Buchan (rev. by) R. Anderson), (Aberdeen, 1900); A. I. M'Connochie, Deeside (Aberdeen, 1895).

ABERDOUR, a village of Fifeshire, Scotland. Pleasantly situated on the shore of the Firth of Forth, 17 1/2 m. N.W. of Edinburgh by the North British railway and 7 m. N.W. of Leith by steamer, it is much resorted to for its excellent sea-bathing. There are ruins of a castle and an old decayed church, which contains some fine Norman work. About 3 m. S.W. is Donibristle House, the seat of the earl of Murray (Moray), and the scene of the murder (Feb. 7, 1592) of James, 2nd (Stuart) earl of Murray. The island of Inchcolm, or Island of Columba, 1/4 m. from the shore, is in the parish of Aberdour. As its name implies, its associations date back to the time of Columba. The primitive stone-roofed oratory is supposed to have been a hermit's ceil. The Augustinian monastery was founded in 1123 by Alexander I. The buildings are well preserved, consisting of a low square tower, church, cloisters, refectory and small chapterhouse. The island of Columba was occasionally plundered by English and other rovers, but in the 16th century it became the property of Sir James Stuart, whose grandson became 2nd earl of Murray by virtue of his marriage to the elder daughter of the 1st earl. From it comes the earl's title of Lord St Colme (1611).

ABERDOVEY (Aberdyfi: the Dyfi is the county frontier), a seaside village of Merionethshire, North Wales, on the Cambrian railway. Pop. (1901) 1466. It lies in the midst of beautiful scenery, 4 m. from Towyn, on the N. bank of the Dyfi estuary, commanding views of Snowdon, Cader Idris, Arran Mawddy and Plynllmmon. The Dyfi, here a mile broad, is crossed by a ferry to Borth sands, whence a road leads to Aberystwyth. The submerged "bells of Aberdovey'' (since Seithennin "the drunkard'' caused the formation of Cardigan Bay) are famous in a Welsh song. Aberdovey is a health and bathing resort.

ABERFOYLE, a village and parish of Perthshire, Scotland, 34 1/4 m. N. by W. of Glasgow by the North British railway. Pop. of parish (1901) 1052. The village is situated at the base of Craigmore (1271 ft. high) and on the Laggan, a head-water of the Forth. Since 1885, when the duke of Montrose constructed a road over the eastern shoulder of Craigmore to join the older road at tho entrance of the Trossachs pass, Aberfoyle has become the alternauve route to the Trossachs and Loch Katrine. Loch Ard, about 2 m. W. of LIberfoyle, lies 105 ft. above the sea. It is 3 m. long (including the narrows at the east end) and 1 m. broad. Towards the west end is Eilean Gorm (the green isle), and near the north-western shore are the falls of Ledard. Two m. N.W. is Loch Chon, a90 ft. above the sea, 1 1/4 m. long, and about 1/2 m. broad. It drains by the Avon Dhu to Loch Ard, which is drained in turn by the Laggan. The slate quarries on Craigmore are the Only industry in Aberfoyle.

ABERGAVENNY, a market town and municipal borough in the northern parliamentary division of Monmouthshire, England, 14 m. W. of Monmouth on the Great Western and the London and North-Western railways. Pop. (1901) 7795. It is situated at the junction of a small stream cailed the Gavenny with the river Usk; and the site, almost surrounded by lofty hills, is very beautiful. The town was formerly walled, and has the remains of a castle built soon after the conquest, frequently the scene of border strife. The church of St Mary belonged originally to a Benedictine monastery founded early in the 12th century. The existing building, however, is Decorated and Perpendicular, and contains a fine series of memorials of dates from the 13th to the 17th century. There is a free grammar school, which till 1857 had a fellowship at Jesus College, Oxford. Breweries, ironworks, quarries, brick fields and collieries in the neihbourhood are among the principal industrial establishments. Abergavenny was incorporated in 1899, and is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 825 acres.

This was the Roman Gobannium, a small fort guarding the road along the valley of the Usk and ensuring quiet among the hill tribes. There is practically no trace of this fort. Abergavenny (Bergavenny) grew up under the protection of the lords of Abergavenny, whose title dated from William I. Owing to its situation, the town was frequently embroiled in the border warfare of the 12th and 13th centuries, and Giraldus Cambrensis relates how in 1173 the castle was seized by the Welsh. Hamelyn de Baalun, first lord of Abergavenny, founded the Benedictine priory, which was subsequently endowed by William de Braose with a tenth of the profits of the castle and town. At the dissolution of the priory part of this endowment went towards the foundation of a free grammar school, the site itself passing to the Gunter family. During the Civil War prior to the siege of Ragban Castle in 1645, Charles I. visited Abergavenny, and presided in person over the trial of Sir Trevor Williams and other parliamentarians. In 1639 Abergavenny received a charter of incorporation under the title of bailiff and burgesses. A charter with extended privileges was drafted in 1657, but appears never to have been enrolled or to have come into effect. OV1ng to the refusal of the chief officers of the corporation to take the oath of allegiance to William III. in 1688, the charter was annullod, and the town subseunentlv declined in prosperity. The act of 27 Henry VIII., which provided that llonmouth, as county town, should return one burgess to parliament, further stated that other ancient Monmouthshire boroughs were to contribute towards the payment of the member. In consequence of this clause Abergavenny on various occasions shared in the election, the last instance being in 1685. Reference to a market at Abergavenny is found in a charter granted to the prior by William de Braose (d. r211). The right to hold two weekly markets and three yearly fairs, as hitherto held, was confirmed in 1657. Abergavenny was celebrated for the production of Welsh flannel, and also for the manufacture, whilst the fashion prevailed, of periwigs of goats, hair.

The title of Baron Abergavenny, in the Neville family, dates from Edward Neville (d. 1476), who was the youngest son of the 1st earl of Westmoreland by Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt. He married the heiress of Richard, earl of Worcester, whose father had inherited the castle and estate of Abergavenny, and was summoned in 1392 to parliament as Lord Bergavenny. Edward Neville was summoned to parliament with this title in 1450. His direct male descendants ended in 1387 in Henry Neville, but a cousin, Edward Neville (d. 1622), was confirmed in the barony in 1604. From him it has descended continuously, the title being increased to an earldom in 1784; and in 1876 William Nevill (sic) 5th earl (b. 1826), an indefatigable and powerful supporter of the conseruative party, was created 1st marquess of Abergavenny. (See NEVILLE.)

ABERIGH-MACKAY, GEORGE ROBERT (1848-1881), Anglo-Indian writer, son of a Bengal chaplain, was born on the 25th of July 1848, and was educated at Magdalen College School and Cambridge University. Entering the Indian education department in 1870, he became professor of English literature in Delhi College in 1873, tutor to the raja of Rutlam 1876, and principal of the Rajkumar College at Indore in 1877. He is best known for his book Twenty-one Days in India (1878—1879), a satire upon Anglo-Indian society and modes of thought. This book gave promise of a successful literary Career, but the author died at the age of thirty-three.

ABERNETHY, JOHN (1680-1740), Irish Presbyterian divine, was born at Coleraine, county Londonderry, where his father was Nonconformist minister, on the 19th of October 1680. In his thirteenth year he entered the university of Glasgow, and on concluding his course thore went on to Edinburgh, where his intellectual and social attainments gained him a ready entrance into the most cultured circles. Returning home he received licence to preach from his Presbytery before he was twenty-one. In 1701 he was urgently invited to accept charge of an important congregation in Antrim; and after an interval of two years, mostly spent in further study in Dublin, he was ordained there on the 8th of August 1703. Here he did notable work, both as a debater in the synods and assemblies of his church and as an evangelist. In 1712 he lost his wife (Susannah Jordan), and the loss desolated his life for many years. In 1717 he was invited to the congregation of Usher's Quay, Dublin, and contemporaneously to what was called the Old Congregation of Belfast. The synod assigned him to Dublin. After careful consideration he declined to accede, and remained at Antrim. This refusal was regarded then as ecclesisstical high-treason; and a controversy of the most intense and disproportionate character followed, Abernethy standing firm for religious freedom and repudiating the sacerdotal assumptions of all ecclesiastical courts. The controversy and quarrel bears the name of the two camps in the conflict, the "Subscribers'' and the "Non-subscribers.'' Out-and-out evangelical as (John Abernethy was, there can be no question that he and his associates sowed the seeds of that after-struggle (1821—1840) in which, under the leadership of Dr Henry Cooke, the Arian and Socinian elements of the Irish Presbyterian Church were thrown out. Much of what he contended for, and which the "Subscribers'' opposed bitterly, has been silently granted in the lapse of time. In 1726 the "Non-subscribers,'' spite of an almost wofully pathetic pleading against separation by Abernethy, were cut off, with due ban and solemnity, from the Irish Presbyterian Church. In 1730, although a "Non-subscriber,'' he was invited to Wood Street, Dublin, whither he removed. In 1731 came on the greatest controversy in which Abernethy engaged, viz. in relation to the Test Act nominally, but practically on the entire question of tests and disabilities. His stand was "against all laws that, upon account of mere differences of religious opinions and forms of worship, excluded men of integrity and ability from serving their country.'' He was nearly a century in advance of his age. He had to reason with those who denied that a Roman Catholic or Dissenter could be a "man of integrity and ability.'' His Tracts—-afterwards collected—did fresh service, generations later, and his name is honoured by all who love freedom of conscience and opinion. He died in December 1740.

See Dr Duchal's Life, prefixed to Sermons (1762): Diary in MS., 6 vols. 4to; Reid's Presbyterian Church in Ireland, iii. 234.

ABERNETHY, JOHN (1764-1831), English surgeon, grandson of John Abernethy (see above), was born in London on the 3rd of April 1764. His father was a London merchant. Educated at Wolverhampton grammar school, he was apprenticed in 1779 to Sir Charles Blicke (1745-1815), surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He attended the anatomical lectures of Sir William Blizard (1743-1835) at the London Hospital, and was early employed to assist as "demonstrator''; he also attended Percival Pott's surgical lectures at St Bartholomew's Hospital, as well as the lectures of John Hunter. On Pott's resignation of the office of surgeon of St Bartholomew's, Sir Charles Blicke, who was assistant-surgeon, succeeded him, and Abernethy was elected assistant-surgeon in 1787. In this capacity he began to give lectures at his house in Bartholomew Close, which were so well attended that the governors of the hospital built a regular theatre (1790-1791), and Abernethy thus became the founder of the distinguished school of St Bartholomew's. He held the office of assistant-surgeon of the hospital for the long period of twenty-eight years, till, in 1815, he was elected principal surgeon. He had before that time been appointed lecturer in anatomy to the Royal College of Surgeons (1814). Abernethy was not a great operator, though his name is associated with the treatment of aneurism by ligature of the external iliac artery. His Surgical Observations on the Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases (1809)—known as "My Book,'' from the great frequency with which he referred his patients to it, and to page 72 of it in particular, under that name—was one of the earliest popular works on medical science, He taught that local diseases were frequently the results of disordered states of the digestive organs, and were to be treated by purging and attention to diet. As a lecturer he was exceedingly attractive, and his success in teaching was largely attributable to the persuasiveness with which he enunciated his views. It has been said, however, that the influence he exerted on those who attended his lectures was not beneficial in this respect, that his opinions were delivered so dogmatically, and all who differed from him were disparaged and denounced so contemptuously, as to repress instead of stimulating inquiry. The celebrity he attained in his practice was due not only to his great professional skill, but also in part to the singularity of his manners. He used great plainness of speech in his intercourse with his patients, treating them often brusquely and sometimes even rudely. In the circle of his family and friends he was courteous and affectionate; and in all his dealings he was strictly just and honourable. He resigned his position at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1827, and died at his residence at Enfield on the 20th of April 1831.

A collected edition of his works was published in 1830. A biography, Memoirs of John Abernethy, by George Macilwain, appeared in 1853.

ABERRATION (Lat. ab, from or away, errare, to wander), a deviation or wandering, especially used in the figurative sense: as in ethics, a deviation from the truth; in pathology, a mental derangement; in zoology and botany, abnormal development or structure. In optics, the word has two special applications: (1) Aberration of Light, and (2) Aberration in Optical Systems. These subjects receive treatment below.

I. ABERIIATION OF LIGHT This astronomical phenomenon may be defined as an apparent motion of the heavenly bodies; the stars describing annually orbits more or less elliptical, according to the latitude of the star; consequently at any moment the star appears to be displaced from its true position. This apparent motion is due to the finite velocity of light, and the progressive motion of the observer with the earth, as it performs its yearly course about the sun. It may be familiarized by the following illustrations. Alexis Claude Clairaut gave this figure: Imagine rain to be falling vertically, and a person carrying a thin perpendicular tube to be standing on the ground. If the bearer be stationary, rain-drops will traverse the tube without touching its sides; if, however, the person be walking, the tube must be inchued at an angle varying as his velocity in order that the rain may traverse the tube centrally. (J. J. L. de Lalande gave the illustration of a roofed carriage with an open front: if the carriage be stationary, no rain enters; if, however, it be moying, rain enters at the front. The "umbrella', analogy is possibly the best known figure. When stationary, the most efficient position in which to hold an umbrella is obviously vertical; when walking, the umbrella must be held more and more inclined from the vertical as the walker quickens his pace. Another familiar figure, pointed Out by P. L. M. de Maupertuis, is that a sportsman, when aiming at a bird on the wing, sights his gun some distance ahead of the bird, the distance being proportional to the velocity of the bird. The mechanical idea, named the parallelogram of velocities, permits a ready and easy graphical representation of these facts. Reverting to the analogy of Clairaut, let AB (fig. 1) represent the velocity of the rain, and AC the relative velocity of the person bearing the tube. The diagonal AD of the parallelogram, of which AB and AC are adjacent sides, will represent, both in direction and magnitude, the motion of the rain as apparent to the observer. Hence for the rain to centrally traverse the tube, this must be inclined at an angle BAD to the vertical; this angle is conveniently termed the aberration: due to these two motions. The umbrella analogy is similarly explained; the most efficient position heing when the stick points along the resultant AD.

The discovery of the aberration of light in 1725, due to James Bradley, is one of the most important in the whole domain of astronomy. That it wus unexpected there can be no doubt; and it was only by extraordinary perseverance and perspicuity that Bradley was able to explain it in 1727. Its origin is seated in attempts made to free from doubt the prevailing discordances as to whether the stars possessed appreciable parallaxes. The Copernican theory of the solar system—that the earth revolved annually about the sun—had received confirmation by the observations of Galileo and Tycho Brahe, and the mathematical investigations of Kepler and Newton. As early as 1573, Thomas Digges had suggested that this theory should necessitate a parallactic shifting of the stars, and, consequently, if such stellar parallaxes existed, then the Copernican theory would receive additional confirmation. Many observers claimed to have determined such parallaxes, but Tycho Brahe and G. B. Riccioll concluded that they existed only in the minds of the observers, and were due to instrumental and personal errors. In 1680 Jean Picard, in his Voyage d'Uranibourg, stated, as a result of ten years' observations, that Polaris, or the Pole Star, exhibited variations in its position amounting to 40" annually; some astronomers endeavoured to explain this by parallax, but these attempts were futile, for the motion was at variance with that which parallax would occasion. J. Flamsteed, from measurements made in 1689 and succeeding years with his mural quadrant, similarly concluded that the declination of the Pole Star was 40" less in July than in September. R. Hooke, in 1674, pubilshed his observations of g Draconis, a star of the second magnitude which passes practically overhead in the latitude of London, and whose observations are therefore singularly free from the complex corrections due to astronomical refraction, and concluded that this star was 23" more northerly in July than in October.

When James Bradley and Samuel Moineux entered this sphere of astronomical research in 1725, there consequently prevailed much uncertainty as to whether stellar parallaxes had been observed or not; and it was with the intention of definitely answering this question that these astronomers erected a large telescope at the house of the latter at Kew. They determined to reinvestigate the motion of g Draconis; the telescope, constructed by George Graham (1675-1751), a celebrated instrument-maker, was affixed to a vertical chimneystack, in such manner as to permit a small oscillation of the eyepiece, the amount of which, i.e. the deviation from the vertical, was regulated and measured by the introduction of a screw and a plumb-line. The instrument was set up in November 1725, and observations on g Draconis were made on the 3rd, 5th, 11th, and 12th of December. There was apparently no shifting of the star, which was therefore thought to be at its most southerly point. On the 17th of December, however, Bradley observed that the star was moving southwards, a motion further shown by observations on the 20th. These results were unexpected, and, in fact, inexplicable by existing theories; and an examination of the telescope showed that the observed anomalies were not due to instrumental errors. The observations were continued, and the star was seen to continue its southerly course until March, when it took up a position some 20" more southerly than its December position. After March it began to pass northwards, a motion quite apuarent by the middle of April; in June it passed at the same distance from the zenith as it did in December; and in September it passed through its most northerly position, the extreme range from north to south, i.e. the angle between the March and September positions, being 40".

This motion is evidently not due to parallax, for, in this case, the maximum range should be between the June and December positions; neither was it due to observatiooal errors. Bradley and Molyneux discussed several hypotheses in the hope of fixing the solution. One hypothesis was: while g Draconis was stationary, the plumb-line, from which the angular measurements were made, varied; this would follow if the axis of the earth varied. The oscillation of the earth's axis may arise in two distinct ways; distinguished as "nutation of the axis'' and "variation of latitude.'' Nutation, the only form of oscillation imagined by Bradley, postulates that while the earth's axis is fixed with respect to the earth, i.e. the north and south poles occupy permanent geographical positions, yet the axis is not directed towards a fixed point in the heavens; variation of latitude, however, is associated with the shifting of the axis within the earth, i.e. the geographical position of the north pole varies.

Nutation of the axis would determine a similar apparent motion for all stars: thus, all stars having the same polar distance as g Draconis should exhibit the same apparent motion after or before this star by a constant interval. Many stars satisfy the condition of equality of polar distance with that of g Draconis, but few were bright enough to be observed in Molyneux's telescope. One such star, however, with a right ascension nearly equal to that of g Draconis, but in thc opposite sense, was selected and kept under observation. This star was seen to possess an apparent motion similar to that which would be a consequence of the nutation of the earth's axis; but since its declination varied only one half as much as in the case of g Draconis, it was obvious that nutation did not supply the requisite solution. The question as to whether the motion was due to an irregular distribution of the earth's atmosphere, thus involving abnormal variations in the refractive index, was also investigated; here, again, negative results were obtained.

Bradley had already perceived, in the case of the two stars previously scrutinized, that the apparent difference of declination from the maximum positions was nearly proportional to the sun's distance from the equinoctial points; and he reallzed the necessity for more observations before any generalization could be attempted. For this purpose he repaired to the Rectory, Wanstead, then the residence of Mrs Pound, the widow of his uncle James Pound, with whom he had made many observations of the heavenly bodies. Here he had set up, on the 19th of August 1727, a more convenient telescope than that at Kew, its range extending over 6 1/4 deg. on each side of the zenith, thus covering a far larger area of the sky. Two hundred stars in the British Catalogue of Flamsteed traversed its field of view; and, of these, about fifty were kept under close observation. His conclusions may be thus summatized: (1) only stars near the solstitial colure had their maximum north and south positions when the sun was near the equinoxes, (2) each star was at its maximum positions when it passed the zenith at six o'clock morning and evening (this he afterwards showed to be inaccurate, and found the greatest change in declination to be proportional to the latitude of the star), (3) the apparent motions of all stars at about the same time was in the same direction.