But the two divisions of Aberdeen the old and the new town--are
as unlike each other as Canterbury and Manchester. The old town, or
'Alton,' as it is locally termed, is not the most ancient part of a city
of different periods, around which its modern streets and squares have
ramified. It is a distinct hamlet or village, at some distance from the
city, and edged away in privacy apart from the great thoroughfares
connecting the manufacturing centre with other districts of the country.
Its houses are venerable, standing generally in ancient gardens; and
save that the beauty and tranquillity of the spot have led to the
erection of a few pleasant modern villas, dotting it here and there,
whoever treads the one echoing street of the Alton for the first time,
feels that two centuries must have brought very little external change
to the objects by which he is surrounded. In this pristine place, the
short-spiked steeples, and the broad-slated roof of the old cathedral of
St. Machar may be seen rising over a cluster of fine old trees which top
the sloping bank of the winding Don, from the opposite shore of which
the whole scene--comprehending the river, the sloping banks, the trees,
and the gray old church--makes a very perfect landscape, rather English
than Scottish in its aspect.
"A near approach develops something very peculiar in the character of
this edifice.
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