240 The Library. Scottish monarchy, and down to the union of the crowns was the frequent and the favourite residence of many of the sovereigns. In the wars of Robert the " Brus," and also of Queen Mary, several of their most momentous conflicts took place in the county, and there the rebellion of 1715 originated. Charles I. had a warm regard for it, and bestowed on its citizens high privileges by his charters, because, alone faithful amongst the faithless Scottish burghs, it stood out on behalf of his divine rights. By his cavaliers and divines it was known as the Oxford of Scotland, and the reputation of its doctors, professors, and clergy was known to Clarendon, upheld by Archbishop Laud, and greatly praised and lauded by him. But if famous in England, the reputation of Aberdeen was infamous amongst the Scottish Covenanters. Samuel Rutherford called it " dreich and dry." It became the battlefield of every faction into which the distracted country was then divided, and was seized and plundered, its inhabitants murdered, and its houses burnt by each of the contending parties time after time as they got a temporary ascendency. The famous historian of the period, our clerk Spalding, who amongst annalists holds much the same position as Izaak Valton does amongst fishers, tells the story in such quaint fashion, and in such minute detail, that it is not to be wondered at although he gave the name to a Book Club, and that his " Memorialls " should have been printed by two of them. After reading them, the surprising thing to the reader will be that any annals or records of the city should have escaped the severe plundering and the general havoc and conflagration in the city. Although not absolutely fatal to Aberdeen, yet the effects of the Civil War were extremely disastrous. After the accession of the Hanoverian dynasty the conservative inhabitants, cling- ing to the old .Scottish Stewart kings and to their favoured form of Church Government, fell from the high position they had formerly held at court. But "Then closed the age of sturt and strife, And better times sprung into life Whaur cannons smoked, noo houses reek, Whaur bullets whizzed, noo engines shriek, In peacefu' tilts the people strive, And at their simple labours thrive, Work blithely in the braid daylicht, And sweetly, soundly sleep at nicht.'
