King Street Road, commenced in 1869, and has developed an admirable establishment, in which the best machinery and appliances are brought into operation, and a considerable number of hands employed. Mr. William Boddie, St. Clair Street and King Street, began about twenty-three years ago, and has recently produced some fine and elaborate specimens of monumental work. Messrs. Garden & Co., King Street, employ a number of hands, and turn out excellent work.6

A large quantity of granite in the form of monuments, and other finished stones, is exported annually; the average value of these articles exported in recent years to America and the British colonies was upwards of £50,000 per annum. This was written is 1887, since, the value of the granite exported from Aberdeen has increased. For the twelve months ending on the 30th of September, 1894, the declared value of the polished granite exported from Aberdeen to the United States of America was £63,938.

6 Amongst the other works may be noticed: Mr. William Keith's works, King Street; J. Petrie & Co., Wellington Road; Mr. J. Hunter, King Street; Mr. Alex. Milne, St. Clair Street; Messrs. M'Intosh & Rae, Hutcheon Street West; Mr. Robert Gibb, King Street Road; Mr. William Edwards, King Street; Mr. James Taggart, Great Western Road; Mr. Arthur Taylor, Jute Street; and Mr. Robert Simpson, Constitution Street.

CHAPTER L.

Fine Art, Music, and Painting.

SECTION I.

Music.

IN

N the preceding volumes frequent references were made to the national music, the music of schools, and teaching of music; and in this section a concise account of the progress of music and Scottish musicians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will be presented.

The earliest collection of genuine Scottish melodies are those in the Skene MS., which belong to the early part of the seventeenth century. A translation of the MS. was executed by George F. Graham, edited by William Dauney,1 who added a dissertation on Scottish music, and published in 1838. The MS. contains one hundred and fifteen airs, of these eighty-five were published, eleven were found to be duplicates, and the rest rejected as unintelligible or uninteresting. In the collection there are forty-five Scottish tunes, of which twenty-five were previously unknown.

The Celtic people had music from a very early period. In the last and present centuries many collections of Highland tunes, laments, marches, pibrochs, reels, and strathspeys have been published.

1. Until recently the dance music of Scotland mostly consisted of reels and strathspeys. The reel is probably of Celtic origin, and possibly indigenous. It was usually danced by two couples, and the figures differed slightly according to the locality; the dancers stand face to face, and when reeling describe a series of figures of eight. The music consists of eight bar phrases, generally in common time, but

1 William Dauney was born in Aberdeen in 1800. He finished his education at the University of Edinburgh, and was called to the Scottish Bar in 1823. He found the Skene MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and, as indicated above, he devoted much attention and labour to it. In 1839 he left Scotland for Demerara, where he became Solicitor General for British Guiana. He died at Demerara in July, 1843.

occasionally in 6-4. The strathspey style of dance music derives its name from the valley of the Spey, where it appears to have been first practised. The word does not occur in connection with music till the last century, but earlier than this there were tunes suited to the strathspey style of dancing. The reel is a gliding dance, but the strathspey abounds in quick motions which brings every muscle into play.

The sword dance, and Highland fling are well-known styles of dancing. The first is performed thus:-Two swords are placed cross-wise, which gives four equal spaces between the points and the handles; the performer then begins to dance over the blade ends of the sword, and dances over each of the four parts in succession; he next dances heel and toe over the centre of the cross formed by the swords, and closes by dancing in quick time over all the spaces. between the swords. In this dance the evolutions are very numerous, as they must all be performed without touching the swords; when properly and gracefully executed, it is a fine and beautiful atheletic exercise. The Highland fling, of which there are many varieties, is danced to the music of the strathspeys.2

2 In a dissertation prefixed to "A collection of Highland vocal airs, a few of the most lively reels, and some specimens of bagpipe music," published by the Rev. Patrick Macdonald in 1781, Dr. Young says that—" at one time the music of the reels and strathspeys over all Scotland was played by the bagpipes, but at a later period Neil Gow and his sons did much to promote the use of the violin in playing Scottish dance music. The Gow family, with the famous Neil at their head, all showed great originality in their tunes; "Caller Herrin'," by his son Nathaniel, has deservedly taken its place among our local melodies since Lady Nairne wrote her excellent words for it. But it is to be regretted that by changing the characteristic names of many of our old dance tunes, giving them the titles of the leaders of fashion of the day, they have created much uncertainty as to the age, and even the composition, of the tunes themselves."

Dancing has always been popular in Scotland, and I will adduce an instance in the person of a Scottish clergyman, a well-known and influential man in his time :-"I was very fond of dancing, in which I was a great proficient, having been taught at two different periods in the country, though the manners were then so strict that I was not allowed to exercise my talent at penny-weddings or any balls but those of the dancing-school. Even this would have been denied me, as it was to Robertson and Witherspoon and other clergymen's sons at that time, had it not been for the persuasion of those aunts of mine, who had been bred in England, and for some papers in the Spectator which were pointed out to my father, which seemed to convince him that dancing would make me a more accomplished preacher if ever I had the honour to mount the pulpit. My VOL. IV. 27

The period from the Revolution of 1688 till past the middle of the eighteenth century was a stirring one in music and song; yet much of the music was not really new, for the writers of the songs, or those who selected the tunes, usually adapted melodies which the people knew and could sing; thus many of the old favourite airs got new names, while others have been preserved by Jacobite verses, though their earlier names are lost. The song on the Battle of Killiecrankie has the honour of having a Latin translation. It is sung to a stirring Gaelic bagpipe tune, which is doubtless older than the song. This tune seems to have quickly spread, for it was found in a Northumbrian MS. of 1694, under the name of the Irish Gillicranky.

It has been alleged that Neil Gow transformed some of our vocal melodies into dance tunes. "But the most that can be charged against him is that he altered the old names of many tunes, calling them after his patrons and patronesses, thus often rendering it doubtful whether a tune was his own composition or belonging to an earlier time."

Scotland has no great musicians and composers like those of Italy, Germany, and France. Yet Scottish music is national, and within a limited circle has its own characteristics. This has been long recognised on the Continent. Its distinctive features mainly consist in the charming tunes associated with the national songs, bagpipe music, and violin playing. We have had notable vocalists, many eminent pipers, excellent violin players, and numerous performers on other instruments. It has been admitted that in the development of bagpipe music the Scots are pre-eminent. In the development of the opera, oratario, and orchestra, the Scottish composers have not attained a very high position.

II. A brief account of noted Scottish musicians of the period is all that I can attempt. Adam Craig was born in 1667. He was an

mother, too, who generally was right, used her sway in this article of education. But I had not the means of using this talent, of which I was not a little vain, till luckily I was introduced to Madame Violante, an Italian stage-dancer, who kept a much frequented school for young ladies, but admitted no boys above eight years of age, so that she wished very much for senior lads to dance with her grown-up misses weekly at her practisings. I became a favourite of this dancing-mistress, and attended her very faithfully with two or three of my companions, and had my choice of partners on all occasions, insomuch that I became a great proficient in this branch at little or no expense."-Autobiography of the Rev. Dr. Alex. Carlyle, Minister of Inveresk, pp., 47-8, 1860. He was a minister from 1750 to 1805.

excellent violin player, a teacher, and composer. In 1730 he published a Collection of Scots Tunes. He died at Edinburgh on the 3rd of September 1741.

William Macgibbon was born in 1695, and was a noted violinist and composer. He published Six Sonatas for the German Flutes; and between 1740 and 1755 he compiled and edited three Collections of Scots Tunes, of which three editions were issued. He died at Edinburgh on the 5th of October 1756, and was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard.

Robert Bremner was born about 1713. He acted for some time as a teacher of singing, but in 1748 he became a music seller in Edinburgh. He was the author of a number of works. His Rudiments of Music was published in 1756, and reached a third edition in 1763; his Collection of Reels and Country Dances appeared in 1761. He also published Thoughts on the Performance of Concert Music, and other works. He died on the 12th of May 1789.

John Riddell (of Glengarnock, Ayrshire,) was born on the 2nd of September 1718, and was a composer and compiler of music. He composed a number of strathspeys and reels, and several other pieces. Burns adapted Riddell's tune, "Finlayston House," to his fine song, "Fate gave the word, the arrow sped," for insertion in Johnson's Musical Museum. In 1776 he published two books of reels, etc. Some of his reels were popular, such as "The Merry Lads of Ayr."

Francis Peacock was born in 1723, and was a dancing master in Aberdeen. In 1776 he published Fifty Favourite Scotch Airs for a Violin, German Flute, and Violincello; in 1805 he issued Sketches relative to the History and Theory, but more especially to the Practice of Dancing, as a necessary accomplishment to the Youth of both Sexes. He died in Aberdeen on the 26th of June 1807, at the advanced age of eighty-four. He bequeathed a sum of money to the charitable institutions of Aberdeen.

Daniel Dow was born in 1732, a native of Perthshire. He was a popular teacher of music, and an excellent composer of strathspeys and reels. He was the author of Twenty Minuets and Sixteen Reels, which appeared in 1775; and also of Ancient Scots Music for the Violin. Many of his tunes were highly esteemed, such as "Athole House," "Monymusk," "The Brig o' Perth," "The Duchess of Gordon," and others. From 1765 he resided in Edinburgh, where he died on the 20th of January 1783.

John Holden was born about 1733. He was the author of a re