ABERDEEN. BYRON. BRIDGE OF DON. 14'9 



operations, and left the pile a monument of premature decay. Of King's College, 

 founded at the close of the fifteenth century, the learned Hector Boethius was 

 the first principal. 



New Aberdeen, though irregularly built, is a handsome city, and beautifully 

 situated on three gentle eminences at the mouth of the Dee. The streets are 

 spacious, and many of the public buildings of elegant design. In ancient times, 

 several religious establishments flourished here, belonging to the different orders 

 of Dominicans, Carmelites, and Gray Friars, with an hospital, or maison-Dieu. 

 Marischal College, so named from its liberal founder, George, Earl Marischal 

 of Scotland, has, like its predecessor, been long celebrated as a seat of the 

 muses. Its professors and lecturers twenty-seven in number have shone 

 conspicuous in every department of human learning, and are continually sending 

 forth in their pupils the living proofs of that zeal and assiduity with which 

 their important functions are discharged. With the fame of this university, 

 the names of Campbell and Beattie are more especially associated, as the cham- 

 pions of religion, and the ornaments of our native literature. 



The environs of this ancient city exhibit many pleasing indications of com- 

 mercial improvements, which are daily acquiring fresh impulse, adding new 

 embellishments to the landscape, and evincing an increase of comfort and 

 independence among the inhabitants, who amount to nearly fifty thousand. 



About a mile from the old city is the bridge over the Don, well known to 

 every reader of Byron as " Balgounie Brig's black wa'."* It consists of one 

 spacious gothic arch, spanning the river from bank to bank, and built in the 

 reign of Bruce. Although a fine object in itself, it is now chiefly visited by 

 strangers on account of its poetical association with the illustrious poet. It 

 was in the year 1790, when Byron was two years old, that his mother took up 

 her residence in Aberdeen. In the fourth and fifth summers after this event, 

 he was taken for the benefit of his health to Ballater, a farm house, about 

 forty miles up the Dee. Aberdeen, however, may be considered his place of 



* " And ' Auld lang syne" brings Scotland one and all 



Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams, 

 The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's Bng's black wall," &c. 



Don Juan, cant. x. St. 18. 



" I still remember," says Byron, in a note on this stanza " though, perhaps, I may misquote the 

 awful proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it with ?. childish delight, being an only 

 son, at least by the mother's side." This proverb, or rather prophecy (slightly misquoted by the noble 

 bard) is 



" Brig of Balgony, wight's (strong) thy wa' ! 

 Wi' a wife's ae son on a mare's ae foal 

 Down sal ye fa' !" 



VOL. II. Q Q 



