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ANTIQUARIAN GLEANINGS,

FROM

ABERDEENSHIRE RECORDS.

COMPILED BY

GAVIN TURREFF.

"WHATEVER MAKES THE PAST, THE DISTANT, OR THE FUTURE PREDOMINATE OVER THE
PRESENT ADVANCES US IN THE DIGNITY OF THINKING BEINGS."-DR. JOHNSON.

Aberdeen:

GEORGE &

ROBERT KING;

EDINBURGH: JAMES STILLIE;

GLASGOW: M. OGLE & SON;

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO.

MDCCCLIX.

181970 % 10 9466.2.15

Worḥrame gift

ABERDEEN:
PRINTED AT THE HERALD OFFICE,

BY JAMES BROWN.

9818

81

PREFACE.

THE following selections are taken from a variety of sources, but chiefly from the publications of the Spalding Club, Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen, the Aberdeen Journal down to the commencement of the present century, and Robertson's Book of Bon-Accord. A considerable number of them have, for the last three years, appeared in the Aberdeen Herald under the heading of "Antiquarian Notes," which, with numerous additions, are presented to the public in their present form.

The Compiler hopes that the Collection will prove useful as a book of reference, as the reader will find in it a narrative of the most striking events which have happened in the Town and County of Aberdeen for the last three hundred years, as well as the manners and customs of our forefathers described in their own quaint but graphic language.

An Engraving of Irvine's View of Castle Street is given for a Frontispiece, as having been the scene of so many of the events described in the volume. The older citizens will recognise the portraits of several well-known characters, whose appearance must have been familiar to them in their youthful days.

OLD ABERDEEN, July, 1859.

THE Scottish language has a fine Doric sound. When spoken by a woman, it is incomparably the most romantic and melodious language to which I ever listened.-Robert Hall.

THE Scotch is not to be considered as a Provincial Dialect-the vehicle only of rustic vulgarity and rude local humour. It is the language of a whole country, long an independent kingdom, and still separate in laws, character, and manners. It is by no means peculiar to the vulgar; but is the common speech of the whole nation in early life, and, with many of its most exalted and accomplished individuals, throughout their whole existence; and, though it be true that, in later times, it has been in some measure laid aside by the more ambitious and aspiring of the present generation, it is still recollected even by them as the familiar language of their childhood and of those who were the earliest objects of their love and veneration. It is an ignorant as well as an illiberal prejudice to confound it with the barbarous dialects of Yorkshire and Devon.-Lord Jeffrey.

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