ABERDEENSHIRE, a large and important county of Scotland, forming the north-east corner of the island, and the most easterly point of an extensive triangle which advances far into the German Ocean. It is bounded on the north and east by the German Ocean; on the south by the counties of Kincardine, Forfar, and Perth; and on the west by the counties of Banff, Moray, and Inverness. The southern boundary of the county runs in a direction from east to west, and consists of the great ridges of the Grampians, which stretch along the north of the counties of Kincardine, Forfar, and a part of Perthshire. A long north-western boundary runs along the eastern side of the county of Banff and part of Inverness, and between the northern boundary and Caithness rolls that part of the German Ocean called the Moray Frith. The southern or south-western portion of the county forms a part of the Grampian range, and is consequently very mountainous, but the surface descends towards the north-east; and the greater part of the county may be described as a level plain, agreeably diversified by knolls and occasional eminences, with vales between each, intersected by its rill or stream. The greatest length of the county is 86 miles from north to south, and its greatest breadth from east to west is 42 miles. It consists of about 1985 square miles, of 1,270,740 English acres, of which about 300,000 are cultivated, 450 uncultivated, and 520,740 in waste. The county is ecclesiastically divided into 88 parishes, which with other parishes form eight Presbyteries, and these Presbyteries one Provincial Synod. Several of the parishes, however, in these Presbyteries belong to the adjoining counties. The county of Aberdeen comprehends five districts—Mar (with its subdivisions of Braemar, Strathdee, and Cromar), Formartine, Garioch, Strathbogie, and nearly all Buchan. In the court of Lieutenancy it is divided into ten districts, each district superintended by a certain number of deputy-lieutenants, viz. Braemar, Deeside, Aberdeen, Alford, Huntly, Turriff, Garioch, Ellon, Deer, and New Machar districts. The population of the county in 1831 was 177,657; the inhabited houses 29,502; in 1838 the Parliamentary constituency was 3142, and the polling places for the county are—1. The Court-House, Aberdeen; 2. Village of Ellon; 3. Village of Strichen; 4. Village of Tarland; 5. At or near Bridge of Alford, across the Don; 6. Town of Huntly; 7. Town of Turriff; 8. Burgh of Inverury. A similar division is made in all the counties of Scotland, in proportion to tlieir extent, in conformity with the clause in the Reform Bill, in which it is provided that " every voter shall poll at the polling place of the district within which the premises, or any part of them, in respect of which he may claim to vote, may be situated." The county sends one member to the Imperial Parliament. There are three royal burghs in the county, namely, the city of Aberdeen, Kintore, and Inverury. Of these Aberdeen sends one member; and Kintore and Inverury are classed with the royal burghs of Banff, Cullen, and Elgin, and the Parliamentary burgh of Peterhead, in returning a member, so that Aberdeen, instead of returning one member, and occasionally two, when the city happened to be the returning burgh, now returns two of its own, and its fraction of a third, to the House of Commons. In 1815 the valued rent of the county was L.235,605, 8s. 11d. Scots money, and the land-tax, L.2715, 4s. sterling. Since that time L.53,853, 7s. 1Od. have been redeemed, leaving assessed in 1837 the sum of L.181,812,8d., the land-tax arising from which, at the rate o L.13, 16s. 8d. per L.100 Scots, amounts to L.2101, 17s. 8d. sterling. The amount of assessed taxes in 1837 was L.11,205, 4s. 1Od. sterling. The fiars of the county are the rates or prices of the various kinds of grain and other crops grown in it, determined by the sheriff and a jury annually in the month of February or March for the preceding crop after hearing evidence. The fiars, of course, vary every year. As the parishes, rivers, mountains, and other matters, arc severally described under the proper alphabetical order in the present work, any observations on this county in this, place must be very general, to avoid repetition. The rivers are in general too rapid in tlieir course to admit navigation to any extent. The most considerable of these are the Dee, the Don, the Deveron, the Ythan, and the Ugie. These rivers all flow towards the north or north-east, and the largest of them rise in the mountainous quarter of the south-western part of the cuunty. They all abound with trout, and especially salmon, the fishing and curing of which has long been carried on to a great extent in Aberdeenshire. The fishings in the Dee and the Don are the most valuable and considerable. Salmon are also occasionally taknn along the shores. The coast of Aberdeen abounds with haddocks, cod, ling, and tusk, the fishing of which is carried on to a vast extent, and the sea is thus a source of immense emolument to a great number of the population. Lobsters are taken in thousands, and sent to the London market-There are many large fishing villages along the coast, particularly between the Ythan and the Deveron, the inhabitants of which, by their remarkable industry, live in easy circumstances, and many of them are possessed of considerable wealth. In these villages, and near the city of Aberdeen, the well-known Finnan Haddocks, peculiar to the county, and which have caused many imitations in other parts, are prepared. It is a characteristic of the Aberdeenshire fishermen, that while they are so industrious, that even their wives and daughters are seen knitting stockings along the road with heavy creels of fish upon their backs, they have an invincible aversion to engage in the operations of agriculture, in consequence of which, the neighbouring farmers derive very little assistance from them during the harvest. The general appearance of the county of Aberdeen is rather bleak and uninviting, but there are many exceptions. Some splendid, rich, romantic, and magnificent scenery is continually to be met with; the woods and plantations are increasing in extent and beauty; much waste land has been rendered arable, and produces excellent crops. There are few trees to be found along the coast, which is for the most part rocky, and exposed to the easterly winds and hoars, or mists, which greatly prevail during the spring and summer months along the east coast of Scotland. The woods, orchards, and fruits of all descriptions, thrive the farther they are planted inland. Immense plantations of trees now present themselves where at no recent date none were to be seen for many miles, and every gentleman or proprietor is careful to remedy this defect on his estate. Among the first proprietors, and certainly the first who made any extensive plantations, was Sir Archibald Grant, Bart. of Monymusk, who is said to have planted, during the course of a long life, about fifty millions of trees, and before he died he saw some nearly one hundred feet high, and more than six feet in diameter. These trees are chiefly of the spruce kind. Other proprietors have also made, and are still making, great exertions, and the county of Aberdeen, from being most conspicuous in Scotland for the want of trees, will at no distant period become the very reverse. Indeed, the want of wood was a priBcipnl cause of retarding the prosperity of the county. As the climate rendered the rearing of solitary trees very hazardous, and in many parts hopeless, the plantations are all in large masses, which lias greatly lessened the expense. These plantations in the more elevated parts of the county make a most conspicuous appearance. There is comparatively little natural wood except upon tlie banks of the Dee. The plantations consist of every variety of trees. The state of agriculture in the county is noticed minutely in the account of tlie parishes. The usual crops are reared, such as wheat, barley, oats, and a species of inferior oats called small oats, ryegrass, clover, turnips, potatoes, beans, and peas. Lime is a manure in great use, and seems to be well adapted to the soil in many places. The roads ,are kept in good order, and there is now a ready access to the markets in all directions. It need h.wdly be added, that the Aber deenshire farmers are a highly respectable, intelligent, and industrious class of individuals, most of them in easy, and some of them in affluent circumstances. In one part of the county there is a peculiar tract of waste land between the rivers Dee and the Ythan, a low sandy beach, on the margin of which are sand hills, whence the sand is frequently blown over the adjoining arable fields. Entire mosses have been covered near the mouth of the Don, and peat has been dug up from beneath three or four feet of sand. Attempts have been in many instances successfully made to resist this disastrous ravage of many excellent fields, by trenching down the sand to the depth of several feet, and turning above it the former soil. " But the greatest calamity," says the author of the Beauties of Scotland, " that ever befel this county was a tract extending about three miles to the northward of the Ythan, where a great many fields, which formed the best part of a parish called Fervie, were entirely covered with sand, to such a depth as to be totally abandoned, and the remaining part of the parish has been since annexed to another. The walls of the church and minister's house are still to be seen, rising to a greater or lesser height, as the moving sands are lower or higher around them. A great many hillocks of bent have now established themselves in this district, the bases of which are every year extending farther and farther, and will probably in time come to close entirely; but at present there are considerable seas of sand, as they may be called, between the hillocks, which makes it extremely dangerous to cross them when there is the smallest puff of Wind. A great many rabbits have taken up their abode in this waste, which will make any attempt at improving it very difficult to be accomplished. This may be accounted one of the most hopeless wastes in the kingdom." The chief mineral production of Aberdeenshire is its celebrated granite, of which its stores are inexhaustible. The houses of the city of Aberdeen and other towns in the county are constructed of this fine stone; it is to be found in various public buildings, particularly bridges, pavements, and other works of durability throughout the United Kingdom, and in various parts of the British Empire, whither it is often exported. There are large quarries of this stone, which is called by the people of Aberdeenshire pacey whin, but it is also to be found over the face of the country in large irregular masses, leaving in many parts scarcely the appearance of soil. The excellence, hardness, and durability of this stone are well known; it may be almost said never to decay, and no weather makes upon it for ages the slightest impression. Notwithstanding its hardness, and its capability of resisting the finest-tempered tool, the masons of Aberdeenshire split it into blocks with apparent ease, after carefully ascertaining the direction of its natural greet, as they call it, and cut it into the size and form required. In the art of splitting the granite, they draw a straight line along the stone in the direction of its greet; they then dig a row of little oblong grooves along the line with a weighty tool in the shape of a hammer called a pick, which is highly tempered at the point, and drawn to a blunt point at both ends. They fix a wedge into each groove, which they strike repeatedly with a very weighty hammer, one wedge after the other along the whole line, and by this process the stone is gradually split asunder, cleaving it into two parts nearly as straight, though not so smooth, as if it had been done by a saw. This operation is repeated as often as is necessary, until the whole stone is cut, and these slabs are cut into lengths, then divided across into the dimensions wanted. The stones thus prepared are used for ordinary mason-work without any farther dressing, but when they are wanted to be smoothed so as to furm ashlar-work in the front of houses and public buildings they are picked, and then smoothed by a tool or small hat diet. The other minerals, though not nearly so abundant, are quartz, abestos, freestone, lime, blue slate, and there are several quarries which yield excellent millstones. Several precious stones are occasionally found on the mountains, and small pieces of amber on the Buchan coast. The mountains of Aberdeenshire are noticed in the accounts of the parishes, and some of these rise to a great height. It has been discovered that the highest mountain in Great Britain is in Aberdeenshire, and consequently Ben Nevis in Inverness-shire, which lias been generally admitted to be the king of British mountains, must abdicate in favour of his Aberdeen brother. Aberdeenshire is a flourishing and wealthy county, and connected with it are many Families of Noble and distinguished rank, as also extensive landed proprietors and wealthy merchants. The county is consequently ornamented with many fine and ancient seats, such as Aboyne Castle, the seat of the Marquis of Huntly; Slains Castle, Earl of Erroll; Keith Hall, Earl of Kintore; Mar Lodge, Delgaty Castle, and Skene, Earl of Fife; Castle Forbes, Lord Forbes; Philorth House, Lord Salton; Eliock, Bannerman, Bart.; Scotetown, Bruce, Bart.; Pitsligo and Fettercairn, Forbes, Bart.; Craigievar Castle and Fintray House, Forbes, Bart.; Pitlurg, Seton, Bart.; Monymusk, Grant, Bart.; Logie-Elphinstone, Elphinstone, Bart.; Cluny, Gordon; Drum, Irving; Hatton House, Duff; and many others. Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of Scotland, circa 1841