Something- About Aberdeen.

of course , m the design ; for the analogy does not hold good with regard to the materials . What Mr . Nash would have done with such obdurate stuff it is now useless to inquire ; but one thing is tolerably clear : there was greater room for free decoration and elaborative details in the

compo than in the granite . Although the granite buildings of Aberdeen are sometimes highly enriched , as we may observe on the Roman Catholic church iu Huntley-street , which has its crockets and finials carved from the solid blocks .

The most conspicuous object in Union-street is the Music Hall , which is adorned with a fine portico of six Ionic columns of whitish dressed granite , 30 ft . high . The Trades Hall , at the opposite side of the bridge , is a very handsome edifice in the Elizabethan style . The Aberdeen bank

is an elegant structure , of pure Grecian Doric ; and colour is sparingly brought into play in the town and county bank , which is profusely embellished with Corinthian capitals and cornices of grey Aberdeen granite , relieved by red interlaced shafts and soffits . The north parish churchwhich seems

, to have been modelled after St . Pancras , has a very imposing porticoand tower ; and the townhouse and North of Scotland bank , which are built adjoining each other , are excellent specimens of plain and substantial municipal offices . One of the best public buildings—to our judgment the very best

—in point of composition in Aberdeen , is the new Grammar Schools in Skene-street , tastefully planned in the Scotch Baronial style , to wliich style the hard and obdurate material seems to have a sort of natural affinity . There is a facade of Ionic pillars , with centre arch , which forms the entrance to the churchyard of St . Nicholas ; and

there are many architectural beauties scattered around , which we have no room to particularise . The grand defect—if we may be permitted to point out a defect—in the general aspect of the Aberdeen architecture , is the want of colour . So much white micaceous granite glittering in the

sun comes at length to have a cold and chilling influence on the mind ; and to such an extent does this feeling grow upon us , that the eye rests with positive relief on the tall and somewhat ungainly brick spire of that group of free churches which are so conspicuous from Union Bridge . In a

district of country where granite prevails in all shades of colour , this feature in the landscape might surely be of easy improvement . As a piece of good construction , as well as of appropriate design , there is little in the north of Scotland . we have seen to compare with the

quadran gle of Marischal College . The striking and harmonious range of mullioned windows , the open arcades and centre tower , give us an excellent idea of what a college ought to be , and a still hi gher conception than what we had previously entertained of the capabilities of the material . It Jf a pity that the approach to this college should he through the purlieus of a back street ; and

still greater we think that the effect of the beautiful buildings is destroyed by a clumsy and pretentious obelisk , 72 ft . high , erected in the very centre of the square , to the memory of Sir James Macgregor . However appropriate in itself such a monument may be , it is unquestionably out of

all keeping with the character and design of the quadrangle , and with the nature of the site . Speaking of the Aberdeen public monuments generally , we are sorry to say that there is far too much room for hostile criticism . In point of importance we may first advert to the bronze

statue of the Prince Consort , by Marochetti , which is anything but a favourable specimen of that artist ' s powers . It consists of a figure of the Prince in the costume of a field-marshal , seated on a chair of state , which rests on a pedestal of red Peterhead granite . But the

figure is far too diminutive and petit—in fact , it seems to represent rather a slender youth than a full-grown and handsome man , as the Prince undoubtedly was ; and there is too much prominence given to those accessories which ought always to be subordinate ; the chairfor example

, , and the militai-y boots , which are really the most conspicuous points in the statue . It is impossible to deny that there is much , ingenuity and skill displayed in the modelling ; but , as a work of art , it is a poor conception of an Albert memorial . In the Church of

St . Nicholas , close by , there is a very fine marble statue by Bacon ; and another in the south transept , " consecrated by his fellow-citizens to the memory of Provost Blackie , " by Westmacot . St . Andrew's episcopal chapel , in King-street , contains another marble statue of Bishop

Skinner , by Flaxman . In addition to these bronze and marble statues , there are at least two in granite : one to the late Duke of Gordon , in the centre of Castle-street , and one—a priest in full canonicals — in front of the Roman Catholic schools . Perhaps the most curious and original

of the Aberdeen statues is a very ancient eff gy of Wallace , stuck in a niche of that old building we have mentioned in the nether-Kirkgate . Of its history we know absolutely nothing ; and of its artistic pretensions the less we say the better . It is only curious as a Mediasval relic of that spirit

which in our time seems to have extinguished itself on the Abbey Crag , near Stirling ! When will the Scotch learn to say of their immortal patriot what Milton once said of Shakespeare : " Dear son of memory—great heir of fame , What need ' st thou such weak witness of thy name ?"

There are a number of excellent patriots m Aberdeen , some by Jamieson , the " Scottish Vandyck , " as he was ' called ; a portrait of Queen Anne , by Godfrey Kneller ; one of Prince Albert in Highland costume , by John Phillip , ( who we believe is a native of Aberdeen ); and there are others . by Lawrence , Pickersgill , & c . The market cross is worthy of notice as being a