ay be proper to say that _Old_
Aberdeen is as entirely distinct from New Aberdeen as Edinburgh is from
Leith--in a different way. The distance between them is somewhat
greater, about two miles; and whereas New Aberdeen is a highly
prosperous commercial city, as entirely devoid of beauty or interest as
any city under the sun, Old Aberdeen is a sweet, still, little place,
hardly more than a village in size, in appearance utterly unlike any
other place in Scotland, resembling a little English cathedral
town,--the towers and spires of college and cathedral beautifully seen
through ancient trees from the windows of Miss Peggy Paton's old house,
to which that managing lady added a wing, and which possessed a good
flower and fruit garden, wherein grew plenty of gooseberries, ever Dr
Burton's favourite fruit. His birthday, 22d August, was, during his
mother's life, always celebrated by a family feast of them.

Such were the scenes and circumstances of Dr Burton's childhood and
early youth. As he grew old enough to begin those long walks which to
the end were the great pleasure of his life, he made acquaintance with
the beautiful scenery of the Upper Dee and Don. In holiday time his
mother used to give him a small sum of money, at most one pound, and
allow him to travel as far as the amount would take him. His legs were
almost always his only conveyance; throughout his life he entertained an
aversion to either riding or driving. His temper was too impatient, too
energetic, to allow him to enjoy progress without exertion. After
railways existed he sometimes used them in aid of his walking power; but
all horse vehicles were odious to him, partly by reason of an excessive
tenderness for animals. He could not bear to see a horse whipped, or any
living creature subjected to bodily pain.

Wonderful are the accounts the writer has heard of the duration of that
holiday pound: how Dr Burton and sometimes a chosen companion would
subsist day after day on twopence-worth of oatmeal, that by so doing
they might travel the farther; or how, having improvidently finished
their supply, they would walk some incredible distance without any food
at all, till they reached either their home or the house of some friend.

In these holiday rambles Dr Burton made the acquaintance of several
families either more or less related to him through his Grandholm
kindred, or willing, in the old Scotch fashion, to extend hospitality to
any wayfarer who needed i