Statistics of grave-yards in Scotland / by John Webster.

  • Webster, John.
Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistics of grave-yards in Scotland / by John Webster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the weather being fine and enlivened by sunshine, I was enabled to observe more extensively its teeming population. I was then much struck by the tall figures, strong physical conformation, and out¬ ward favourable aspec's of the numerous persons whom chance thus brought under observation. Similar to the East Angles, alluded to in my former communication, the Aberdonians likewise supply many excellent specimens of the “ genus homo ” ; whilst their reputed quick intellect, and often high mental endowments, fostered and improved by the diffusion of good general education amongst the masses, from having two universities, with other advantages, place natives of this classico-mercantile region of Scot¬ land in a favourable position amongst their countrymen. Were whiskey-drinking less frequently indulged in by the lower classes ; if no seaport existed, always causing certain evils amongst its variable and often reckless population; and lastly, but not the least importantly, were residents always fully employed and amply remunerated for their labour, so as to enable them to obtain abun¬ dant necessaries of life, with more creature comforts than many have of late been able to procure, this northern district would, doubtless, have become even more remarkable in many respects than it now is, as regards salubrity. Longevity is one of the cha¬ racteristics of this part of Scotland. This may be shown, irre¬ spectively of any data detailed in subsequent paragraphs, by the well known fact that many speculators on the London Stock Exchange have often selected aged inhabitants living in this neighbourhood as lives upon which to purchase annuities; by this process considerable sums of money were once gained at the expense of government, and a former chancellor of the exchequer was not a little mystified. At length some check was put upon these gambling proceedings, heavy losses having been entailed on the public revenue from the unexpected vitality of numerous annuitants resident in this northern district. In the old burying-ground adjoining Union Street, the very centre and most frequented part of Aberdeen, as also several new cemeteries in its vicinity, numerous gravestones record a number of persons interred therein at ages from 70 to 80 ; whilst a larger proportion than ordinary ranged from that period to 85 ; numbers were from 85 to 90 ; and beyond that limit, up to 95, were many more instances than I have anywhere else observed; the last quoted figures marking the highest recorded age which came under my observation. In old Aberdeen churchyard, however, several tomb¬ stones bore witness of even more advanced ages. Besides many from 70 to 80, a large proportion ranged from that to 85 ; numbers were even as high as 90; that term, as also 95, supplying various examples. One monument had 97 as the age of the person in¬ terred, being that of a man; whilst another male named “ May ” was stated to have lived to 102 years; the highest churchyard recorded age met with during my peregrination through Scotland. In the Foot-Dee churchyard, chiefly used as a burying-place