Aberdeen has long been a great educational centre. Its Grammar School claims to have existed in the thirteenth century. Its first University, King’s College in Old Aberdeen, was founded in 1494 by Bishop Elphinstone, and its second, Marischal College in New Aberdeen, by Earl Marischal in 1593. These were united in 1860 as the University of Aberdeen. Since that time the buildings of both Colleges have been largely added to, and the number of professorships greatly increased. Its students in the different faculties, Arts, Medicine, Science, Law and Divinity are little short of 1000. [Illustration: The Old Grammar School, Schoolhill] Being the only really large town in the county, and for that matter in the whole north of Scotland, it tends to grow in importance, and its business connections are ever extending. It is the focus of the trawling industry, and of the granite trade; while the agricultural interests of the county look to Aberdeen as their chief mart and distributing medium. Its secondary schools, its technical college, its agricultural college, its University, all help to swell its population by bringing strangers to reside within its boundaries. In itself it is clean, healthy and attractively built, while its fairly equable climate, its relatively low rain-fall (29 inches) and its equally low death-rate (14·2 per 1000) conduce to its popularity as a residential town. Being the northern terminus of the Caledonian Railway, and having excellent service to London by the West Coast, the Midland, and the East Coast routes, it obtains a large share of the tourist traffic; and the sportsmen who fish in the Aberdeenshire rivers or shoot grouse in the Aberdeenshire moors must all do more or less homage to the county town.