University of Aberdeen

“ 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 classes and lectures in agriculture, fishery and other technical subjects, in addition to subsidizing the agricultural department of the university of Aberdeen. ”

“ To the Senatus of the University of Aberdeen I offer, as my last word, not only my thanks for the opportunity which that body gave me to put into this form my philosophical studies, and for the kind hospitality shown to me personally, but my cordial recognition of the interest thus expressed in closer relations between Scottish and American University life and work. May we learn still further the arts of coöperation with our brethren. ”

“ Being destined by his parents, poor as they were, for a learned profession, he was kept at the parish school till he was thought fit to come forward as a bursar, at the university of Aberdeen. He made this attempt, but failed, and was requested by the judges to go back and study for another year at school. This incident only stimulated him to fresh exertions. He was prevented, however, from renewing his attempt at Aberdeen, by the representations of the Rev. Mr Watson, a minister at Edinburgh, and a relation of his mother, who induced him to try his fortune in the metropolis. ”

“ For the future life, the Aberdonian has no fears, and if he will only recommend you to Saint Peter, you will not have to wait long at the gates of Paradise.
Society in Aberdeen is of the choicest. Its aristocracy is an aristocracy of talent. In Aberdeen, as in Edinburgh, the local lions are the professors of the university, literary people, doctors, barristers, and artists. To cut a figure there, you need not jingle your guineas, but only show your brains and good manners. In Glasgow, show your savoir-faire; but, in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, your savoir-vivre. ”

“ No university in wide Britain can be named with Aberdeen, in point of the wild romantic grandeur of its environs, if we include in these the upper courses of the two rivers which meet beside it and Byron Hall. Macintosh, as well as Beattie, have owned the inspiration which the scenery, still more than the scholastic training of the Northern Metropolis, breathed into their opening minds. ”

“ It has instituted its own syllabus of examinations for granting "Fellowships in Agriculture," and stimulated pupils of the secondary schools to make the effort by offering prizes and scholarships to the ambitious students.
The University of Aberdeen has lately entered the field as an agricultural educator by becoming what the Government styles a "collegiate center," receiving a straight subsidy of £100 per annum, and furnishing professional instructors to rural assemblies arranging lectures for them. ”

“ Bain insists that the bearing of modern science upon the higher education creates the demand for three fundamental elements in any adequate university curriculum, and he maintains that Aberdeen University holds the leading place in having recognized these elements for the past hundred years. ”

“ Teaching was not one of his duties as mediciner. A few years apprenticeship to any doctor sufficed for training, and gave the students all the preparation they desired for a degree. John Gregory and Dr Skene fretted against 109this, and in the hope of founding a Medical School opened Lectures on Medicine. But the students did not attend. It was an indignity to the university, keenly felt by these professors, that an Aberdeen degree should be the laughing stock of all the other universities ”

“ But at Aberdeen or elsewhere no one carried his head more erect than Eric Ericson—not from pride, but from simplicity and inborn dignity; and there was not a man during his curriculum more respected than he. An excellent classical scholar—as scholarship went in those days—he was almost the only man in the university who made his knowledge of Latin serve towards an acquaintance with the Romance languages. He had gained a small bursary, and gave lessons when he could. ”

“ What particular parts of commerce are chiefly exercised by the merchants of Aberdeen, I have not inquired. The manufacture which forces itself upon a stranger’s eye is that of knit-stockings, on which the women of the lower class are visibly employed.
In each of these towns there is a college, or in stricter language, an university; for in both there are professors of the same parts of learning, and the colleges hold their sessions and confer degrees separately, with total independence of one on the other. ”

“ Margaret, of Cardinal Beaton, of Knox and Andrew Melville, of Archbishop Sharp, and Samuel Rutherford. The nature of life and education in a Scottish university is now, probably, better understood in England than it used to be. Of the Scottish universities, St. Andrews varies least, though it varies much, from Oxford and Cambridge. Unlike the others, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, the United College of St. Leonard and St. Salvator is not lost in a large town. The College and the Divinity Hall of St. Mary’s are a survival from the Middle Ages. ”

“ There is a full teaching staff in the faculties of arts, medicine, science, and divinity, and two professors in that of law. There are in all 25 professors and some 900 matriculated students. The constitution of the university is similar to that of Edinburgh and the other Scottish universities. The library contains over 80,000 volumes. The university unites with those of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrews in sending three members to Parliament.
Aberdeen′, George Hamilton Gordon, Earl of, British statesman, born 28th Jan., 1784, died 14th Dec., 1860. ”

“ The session had opened, and once again the streets of Aberdeen were gay with the crimson togas of the students. Everybody was glad to see everybody else, and the several professors professed themselves rejoiced to meet again their pupils in the old and classic halls of the University. They hoped work would now go on apace, so that in after years of their lives the students would be able to look back with pleasure to the time they spent so profitably within the embrace of their beloved alma mater. ”

“ About 1498 Boece became acquainted with William Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen since 1483-4, who had served in several high offices at home as well as embassies abroad, and had kept up his knowledge of what was passing in the French universities. Elphinstone had himself taught law, both at Paris and Orleans, between 1402 and 1471, and he now required Boece's aid in carrying out the favourite project of his old age, the foundation of a university in Aberdeen. ”

“ There are a large number of well-endowed chairs and lectureships and the normal number of students exceeds 2000. The universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen unite to return one member to parliament. Queen Margaret College for women, established in 1883, occupies a handsome building close to the botanic gardens, has an endowment of upwards of £25,000, and was incorporated with the university in 1893. Muirhead College is another institution for women. ”

“ In addition to prizes in mathematics and physics at Aberdeen, obtained also prizes in Latin, natural history, and moral philosophy. At Edinburgh University was awarded either first or second prizes in Scots Law, conveyancing, civil law, public law, and constitutional history. Practises as advocate at Scotch Bar.
bro, Alexander Bain Chree, died young, having graduated at Aberdeen University with first class honours in mathematics, obtaining prizes in mathematics, physics, Latin, Greek, moral philosophy, and natural history. ”

“ In 1757 he competed unsuccessfully for a ‘bursary’ at Aberdeen University, and soon afterwards, on the invitation of a relation of his mother who was a clergyman in Edinburgh, he removed to that city, where he had free admission to the college lectures, and in the course of a year and a half he gained the head-mastership of Watson's Hospital. ”

“ Andrews, and Glasgow. Hector Boece, professor of philosophy at Paris, was appointed first principal of the university, which was established in what is now known as Old Aberdeen, near the ancient Cathedral of St. Machar. ”

“ A few students from this wild region, to which Christianity had scarcely penetrated, were indeed a peculiar feature of the educational institutions of Aberdeen, and in a modified shape so remain to this day, since some wild men from the hills, spending a brief period at school or college to acquire a fragment of education, are yet known by the term extranni, of old applied to them. ”

“ He was assisted in his studies by Mr Thomson, minister of the parish. In 1749, when he reached the age of fourteen, he entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, and such was his proficiency that he took by competition the first of those bursaries or exhibitions which are given to those students who are unable to support the expenses of their own education. Aberdeen has been always distinguished by its eminent professors. Blackwell, Gerard, Reid, Campbell, the subject of this sketch, Brown, Blackie, &c. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the more we know about these old masters and the mediaeval universities the less are we likely to think of their work as lacking in seriousness in any sense. The quarter of a century that has elapsed since Huxley so cogently urged this at Aberdeen has brought many facts unknown to us before and has shown us what good work, even in the physical sciences, was accomplished in these old-time universities. ”

“ I cannot but think that, in essence, Aberdeen has departed but little from the primitive intention of the founders of Universities, and that the spirit of reform has so much to do on the other side of the Border, that it may be long before he has leisure to look this way. ”

“ In Aberdeen, these endowments are numerous, but so small that, taken altogether, they are not equal to the revenue of a single third-rate English college. They are scholarships, not fellowships; aids to do work--not rewards for such work as it lies within the reach of an ordinary, or even an extraordinary, young man to do. You do not think that passing a respectable examination is a fair equivalent for an income, such as many a grey-headed veteran, or clergyman would envy ”

“ Sir Thomas Urquhart's name does not appear in the list of graduates in 1626, so that there are no means of determining from the records of King's College how many years he spent there. For the city in which he had received his education he ever afterwards had a high regard. Thus he says of it: "For honesty, good fashions, and learning, Aberdeen surpasseth as far all other cities and towns in Scotland, as London doth for greatness, wealth, and magnificence, the smallest hamlet or village in England." ”

“ There is no city that looks so Scottish, and yet so different, as Aberdeen. It is a dignified and an extraordinarily clean city. After a rain its granite glitters as though it had been newly cut, and to one accustomed to smoke-grimed American cities Aberdeen looks as though it were built this morning, when no doubt much of this granite has a right to the hoar of antiquity. ”