History is a subject that has appealed to Aberdonians. Dr David Masson’s monumental work on Milton must be mentioned. Other historians are Joseph Robertson, John Stuart, John Hill Burton, Bishop Burnet, who wrote the _History of his Own Time_, Sir John Skene, and Robert Gordon of Straloch, antiquarian and map-maker, as well as his son James, minister of Rothiemay and historian of the early years of the Troubles. The first Principal of the University, Hector Boece, wrote histories somewhat credulous and imaginative but quite authoritative where his own times are concerned. Of painters connected with the district may be mentioned Jamesone, Dyce, and Phillip called “of Spain” from his success with Spanish subjects. Architecture claims Gibbs, whose Radcliffe Library at Oxford, and London churches such as St Martin’s-in-the-Fields, still stand a testimony to his art; the Smiths and Archibald Simpson have already been mentioned. Sculpture owns the two Brodies and Sir John Steell. Scholars like Wedderburn and Ruddiman, Cruden of _Concordance_ reputation, Dr James Legge, the Orientalist, and Professor Robertson Smith, born in the Donside parish of Keig, editor of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, and one of the most learned pundits of his time—are but a few representatives of a long list. The thirst for education and the well-taught parish schools of the county contributed to bring about such results. The doors of the University have for centuries been opened by bursaries to the poorest boys, and in this way many who were endowed with capacity above ordinary entered the learned professions and rose to eminence. 25. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF ABERDEENSHIRE. (The figures in brackets after each name give the population in 1911, and those at the end of each section are references to pages in the text.) =Aberdeen= (161,952). From being entirely built of granite, Aberdeen is best known as “The Granite City.” The light grey stone gives the town a clean look which strikes visitors from cities built of brick or of sandstone. Its many handsome public buildings, banks, offices, churches and schools, all solid and substantial, and of great architectural interest, are undoubtedly finer than those of any other town of the same size in the kingdom. The first historical reference to it is in the twelfth century; later a charter was obtained from King William the Lion, granting the city certain trading privileges. Long before Edinburgh and Glasgow had begun to show signs of rising to greatness, Aberdeen was a port of extensive trade, but its growth was slow until the dawn of the nineteenth century. In 1801, its population was only 27,608; in 1831 this figure had doubled, and in recent years, owing chiefly to the phenomenal growth of the fishing industry, its progress has been rapid.