278 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



I was much pleased with the town of Aberdeen, the principal street 

 of which (Union-street), at least a mile long, is by far the finest I 

 ever saw in a town of this description ; and the lively and cleanly 

 appearance of the granite with which the houses are built, adds much 

 to the beauty of it. The Provost was kind enough to show me the 

 Court-house, which, together with the Reading and Banquet-rooms, are 

 quite superb of their kind. 



I remember hearing an anecdote, some years back, in reference to 

 this town, which has long been a nursery of science. The first man 

 who possessed a barometer in Great Britain — and, for aught I know, he 

 may have been the inventor of it — was one David Gregory, of Aber- 

 deen, born in 1661. Being able, by the means of this instrument, to 

 foretell, to a certain extent, the future state of the weather, he was 

 believed to have held intercourse with beings of another world* ! I of 

 course looked into the College, in which the students wear red gowns 

 (but not red coats), as I conclude they did in the days of Burnet and 

 Arbuthnot, who finished their education within its walls; and also when 

 Dr. Johnson found a constellation of talent in its chairs, which did 

 honour to Scotland, as well as great service to mankind. 



At a comfortable hour of the morning of the 2'2nd, I found myself 

 on the box of — not the Earl of Fife's coach — but of the Earl of Fife Banff 

 drag, the driver of which had received the office from Mr. M'Cray that 

 I was to drive his horses if I liked ; and surely no man had a greater 

 right to give such an order, the said horses being his own. This coach 

 was to convey me to a certain point of the great North road — about 

 twenty- five miles from Aberdeen — which Lord Kintore would cross that 



* This, perhaps, was only an idle tale to amuse those who knew no better. Dr. 

 Gregory, of Aberdeen, was the inventor of the reflecting telescope. 



