Something- About Aberdeen.

year 1829 . The town is distinguished for its shipping trade and manufactures . It has long been celebrated in the annals of commerce for its large exports of " salmon fish and granite stone ;" and it is altogether worthy of its honourable position as the seat of a university , and the capital

of the north of Scotland . The population of Aberdeen , at the census of 1861 , was 73 , 794 . And now , having given our readers a proper quantum of historical knowledge , we shall proceed to survey the principal features of the town . It is first of all necessary to explain that the capital

of the north of Scotland comprises two towns—Old Aberdeen and New Aberdeen—situated about a mile and a half from each other , of different aspects , and with distinct charters and privileges . Although included within the limits of one parliamentary burgh , they are , in fact , two separate towns . Of course it will be understood that our

examination is chiefly confined to New Aberdeen , which , although not so interesting to the antiquary , is infinitely more , so to the engineer and the architect . Aberdeen , then , is situated on a cluster of eminences , wliich rise along the northern bank of

the river Dee , and which slope gently through the Old Town to the south bank of the river Don . Although prettily enough environed , it has nothing of that grand and picturesque beauty which distinguishes Stirling or Perth . Its general plan is very irregular . All the modern streets ,

however , run at right angles to eacli other ( or nearly so ) , and , accordingly , we can easily detect the incongruities of the junction with the older portions of the town . At present , reckoning only the extent of surface which is fully built on and inhabitedit covers a space of about eight

, miles in circumference . An error which is by no means peculiar to Aberdeen seems to have been committed in planning a poor street between two rich ones , such as Gordon-street , between Dee-street and Bon Accord-street . Most of the

houses have gardens attached to them even in the town . But this is always the case in the suburbs , which from this cause present a rich -and exuberant appearance . Rubislaw-terrace is much superior to anything of the kind we have seen elsewhere in Scotland .

The greater portion of the city , as we have seen , is comparatively of modern date . Nevertheless , a few of the ancient houses remain—sufficient to instruct the student in the style and manner of the Scotch domestic architecture of the

the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries . Passing through Justice-street we have within Bothwellcourt the last vestige of a tower which , is said to have belonged to the Knights Templars . In the School Hill there is another old house with projecting circular staircase and antique lintel , wliich

is said to have been the ancient manse or parsonage of St . Nicholas . In the Ship-row , and that building in the nether-Kirkgate denominated

" Wallace Tower , " we have specimens of the ancient hostelries ; and lastly , we may note the old tenement in the Gallowgate , known as " Mars-Castle , "—a very ancient building capped with a diminutive crow-stepped and corbelled gable with circular staircase and small square openings for

windows . All of these ancient buildings bear a strong generic resemblance to each other , and are deserving , in our opinion , of more study than the local antiquaries seem to have bestowed on them . Of that portion of the old town which belongs to the latter part of last century , there

is nothing to observe except in a sanitary point of view ; it hasvery little architectural interest ; indeed the only thing worth noticing is the house in which Byron spent part of his boyhood . But of the most recent and improved quarters of the town we can only observe that these are the most

remarkable things of their kind it is possible to conceive . Supposing we take our stand in Castle-street , which is the original market-place of the city , and has been described by the enthusiastic

natives as " the glory , the pride , and the apple of the eye of Aberdeen , " —and look westward along Union-street , we have before us a vista such as no other city in the empire could furnish . It . might be easy to find fault with its proportions ; but Union-street , on the whole , is an architectural

feature without a compeer . About a mile in length , it consists of a double line of handsome public buildings and houses , all built of a greyish white aud glistening granite . The tombs of Thebes , the Cyclopean walls , the marble temples of ancient Greece—all rise up to the imagination

of the spectator as the prototypes of this remarkable street . By moonlight , the coup d ' oeil is singularly surprising and romantic ; for not only is the street spacious and elegant of itself , but it runs on a much higher level than the ancient parts of the town on its southern flankand is

, carried over the ravine of the Den-burn by a magnificent bridge of solid granite , the view from the parapet of which approaches something to that which we so well remember from the North Bridge of Ediiiburp-h .

This Union Bridge , which is undoubtedly the finest in Aberdeen , was designed by Telford . It consists of three arches , two of them concealed , 50 ft . in span , and a large and elegantly built centre arch , of which the span is 132 ft . The height from the top of the balustrade is 50 ft . ; the rise above the spring , including cornice , parapet , and balustrade , is 29 ft . ; and the breadth across the soffit is 43 ft . It consists

wholly of Aberdeen granite , and the materials are supposed to weigh over 2 , 000 tons . It cost upwards of £ 13 , 000 . We may here point out that it is easy to understand why Aberdeen should be called par emphasis "the granite city . " As an improvement to Aberdeen , Union-street occupies pretty much the same position that Regent-street does to the metropolis . We mean ,