ABERDEEN. From a Drawing by W. Purser. "As auld langsyne' brings Scotland, one and all — Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue bells and clear streams The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's brig's black wall All my boy's feelings, all my gentler dreams Of what I then dreamt, clothed in their own pall, I care not-'tis a glimpse of auld langsyne.'” "The brig of Don, near the auld toun' of Aberdeen, with its one arch and its black deep salmon-stream below, is in my memory as yesterday. I still remember, though perhaps I may misquote, the awful proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it with a childish delight, being an only son, at least by the mother's side. The saying, as recollected by me, was this; but I have never heard or seen it since I was nine years of age: Brig of Balgounie, black's your wa', Wi' a wife's de son and a mear's ae foal It was in the year 1790, when Byron was two years old, that his mother took up her residence in Aberdeen, where his earliest years were spent, except in the summers of 1796 and 97, when, for the benefit of Byron's health, his mother went with him into the Highlands, and lived at a farm-house at Ballater, about forty miles up the Dee above Aberdeen; but this town may be considered his place of residence from the year 1790 to the summer of 1798; when he left Scotland, in his eleventh year, with his mother, to take possession of Newstead Abbey, which, together with the title of Lord Byron, had devolved upon him at the death of his great-uncle. Boasting as he did that he was "half a Scot by birth, and bred a whole one," he cherished through life a recollection of the early scenes in which he had been brought up. "To meet with an Aberdonian,' says Moore," was, at all times, a delight to him; and when the late Mr. Scott, who was a native of Aberdeen, paid him a visit at Venice in the year 1819, and talking of the haunts of his childhood, one of the places he particularly mentioned was Wallace-nook, a spot where there is a rude statue of the Scottish chief still standing. From first to last, indeed, these recollections of the country of his youth never forsook him. In his early voyage into Greece, not only the shapes of the mountains, but the kilts and hardy forms of the Albaneseall, as he says, carried him back to Morven ;' and in his last fatal expedition, the dress which he chiefly ABERDEEN. wore at Cephalonia was a tartan jacket.” "There is on the part of the people of Aberdeen-who consider him almost as their fellow-townsman-a correspondent warmth of affection for his memory and name. The various houses where he resided in his youth are pointed out to the traveller: to have seen him but once is a recollection boasted of with pride; and the brig of Don, beautiful in itself, is invested, by his mere mention of it, with an additional charm." The recollection of the early days of Byron have been carefully collected, and anecdotes of his childhood obtained from all who could relate them, and form an interesting portion of his life by Moore. "When not quite five years old, young Byron was sent to a day school at Aberdeen, taught by Mr. Bowers, and remained there, with some interruptions, during a twelvemonth, as appears by the following extract from the Day-book of the school:- George Gordon Byron, 19th November, 1792.-19th of November, 1793,—paid one guinea.'-Lord Byron, in one of his MS. journals, mentions his first master, who, he says, was called 'Bodsy Bowers,' by reason of his dapperness. He subsequently passed under the care of two other preceptors -a clergyman named Ross, and a young man called Paterson, and continued with the latter until he entered the grammar-school of Aberdeen." The following information, as immediately descriptive of the view in these " Illustrations," was furnished by a gentleman, a schoolfellow of Byron at Dr. Glennie's, one, who from early association with him there, felt a deep interest in all that related to him, and who has visited the scenes of the boyhood of Byron with the enthusiasm of a pilgrim. "I am very familiar with the subject you have sent me, though it is not taken from one of my sketches. It is a view of Broad Street, or Broad Gate, as it is called by some of the older inhabitants of Aberdeen. Gate, you are aware, perhaps, is the old Scotch for street, or way. In the latter acceptation it was used formerly in English; for Chaucer says, in the Romant of the Rose,' that reason went her gate;' and so the Scotch still say, Gang your gate,' Ye'll no gang that gate,' &c. To this day they have in Aberdeen the Gallowgate, where was the ancient place of public execution; and the upper and nether Kirkgate. I can vouch for the accuracy of the present view, being well acquainted with almost every window in it, from having myself taken a sketch of the same street, only looking up it instead of down. The first floor (or flat, as it is called in Scotland,) of the house on which the bright light is thrown, (and which, by the by, is in itself brighter than its neighbours, being built of freestone, whereas they are of granite), was occupied by Mrs. Byron; whilst her son, previous to his entering the ABERDEEN. grammar-school, attended Bodsy Bowers' day-school in Long Acre, a narrow street, which meets the Broad Gate at right angles, and is entered through a small archway immediately beyond the house in question. Moore has, I believe, explained Bodsy as the dapper pedagogue. He was, I understand, a worthy man; and his son, a most excellent person, is now minister of Mary Culter, formerly my grandfather's parish. The old and picturesque building, with the round watchtower in its angle-an appendage by no means uncommon in houses of a certain date and of some pretension in Aberdeen-is now used as a printing-office; that with the clock in the pediment is the conduithouse, which supplies a large portion of the town with water; and the archway, in which two figures are placed, is the entrance to the school in Mareschal College. I again repeat, that I can give you nothing to connect Byron with the subject beyond what you may find in Moore's Life. Moore, no doubt, raked up every straw which could be found connected with him upon the field of his early exploits. As to the town of Aberdeen itself, (or city, as it is called by courtesy,) it is not romantic enough, either in its situation or from association, to become the subject of much interesting remark. It is a bustling, flourishing place. Its linen and cotton manufactories are on a large scale; and the busy appearance of the quay, with the constant |