A New History of Aberdeenshire. By Alex. Smith. 2 vols.
(Lewis Smith, Aberdeen; Blackwood, Edinburgh and London.)—A copious history, which seems to contain an account of everything that one can possibly want to know about the past and present of the county. Two volumes of something like 700 pages each, crowded with local information, are obviously beyond any reviewer's power. We can only bear our testimony to the systematic and complete method that has been employed in compiling the materials, and to the relief afforded by judi- cious literary illustrations. Here is • a stanza of the Rev. Murdoch McLennan's ballad on Sheriffmuir, which, though not new to many of our readers, will bear quoting :— "There's some say that we wan,
Some say that they wan, Some say that none wan at a', man; But one thing I'm sore, That at Sheriffmuir A battle there was. which I saw, man.
And we ran and they ran, and they ran and we ran,
And we ran and they ran, awe, man."
Glancing through the book, we saw many curious things. Every one does not know that "Bayard°, or Boiardo, the Italian poet, who wrote 'Orlando Inamorato,' belonged to the family of the Bairds, of Auchmedden. And every parish cannot boast a Board of Health so economical as that which rules the sanitary affairs of the pariah of Cluny. We give the balance-sheet in abstract :—
Receipts 58 2 3 1 Expended on Salaries £0 10 0 Balance in hand 2 12 8
It must be allowed, however, that the item of management bears an enormous proportion to the general expenditure.
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