Lord Provost Henderson said he should have liked to have heard a little more about how to make the beach safer to bathers. This was a subject which had occupied the attention of the magistrates, and he should have liked if some practical suggestions had been made on that head. He did not know if this promenade pier and small harbour would make the beach safer; Mr. Smith appeared to have looked at the matter mainly from a pleasure resort point of view. He (the Lord Provost) was rather afraid that, with such a stormy bay as we had, there would be very few who would like to frequent the pier. They had only two and a half to three months every year that they could call summer, and that would be too short a time to draw sufficient revenue to meet the cost of this pier. However, now that the subject has been ventilated, a company might be formed for carrying the scheme into effect (a laugh)—and not only provide a pleasure promenade, but a harbour of refuge for small fishing boats. If that were the case he should have some hope that the Links would be occupied with beautiful villas for those who would like to frequent our bay and enjoy its health-giving breezes.

Mr. A. D. Milne said that his first impression was that the stability of the structure, both the pier and the boat refuge, would be doubtful, but he was glad to find that both Mr. Smith and Mr. Willet agreed that there would be nothing to fear as to this. As to the financial aspect of the scheme, there might be difficulties, but the Aberdonians, although considered specially careful on this point, had not hesitated, when the good of the city was involved, to lay out money when little return in the shape of dividend, or even none at all, was promised or expected, as in the case of the Music Hall. He was hopeful that if a carriage or road way could be constructed, possibly by the Municipal Authorities, along the bay between the rivers Dee and Don, the surrounding sands would in time become consolidated, either naturally or by artificial means, and residences could be built, for occupation for the summer or for all the year. It was well that Mr. Smith had opened up the whole question, so that, whether his plans were adopted in the near or distant future, the operations along the bay might be carried on with a view to preserving the amenities of the locality and working step by step towards the best results.

Ex-Baillie Paterson thought it was a mistake to suppose that few people would use the promenade pier. Look, he said, at the North Pier even during stormy weather. The numbers who visited the North

Pier, especially on Sundays, were very large, and he had no doubt that such a promenade pier as Mr. Smith proposed would be well patronised. He was strongly of opinion that boating should be encouraged, as he was convinced that it could be made a very useful adjunct to the teaching of navigation which it was proposed should be given in the public schools. He thought the scheme should be prepared with a view to the ultimate extension of the promenade pier towards the North Pier; the two piers would embrace the most sheltered part of the bay and afford a fine field for the development of the locality as a watering-place.

Mr. Ferguson of Kinmundy spoke highly of the valuable nature of Mr. Smith's paper, coming as it did from one who had given careful attention to the condition of things in the bay of Aberdeen. So far as he could judge, the carrying out of this scheme was a mere question of money. Engineers could do anything nowadays, and if the estimate of £26,000 was anything like the amount required to carry out this scheme, and if the further estimate of half a million visitors in the course of a year was reliable, that would yield not only a good return for the money, but a margin for a 10 per cent. dividend-(laughter and applause). He would like to see some

effort made to carry out the scheme.

Professor Minto expressed regret that no proper access to the Links was provided. If one went down to get a sniff of the seabreeze, he had to sniff something of an altogether different character before he got to his home-(laughter). He was confident that, if our sea-beach were made as pleasant as that of Scarborough, the town of Aberdeen would be amply repaid by a large influx of visitors. Although some cold water had been thrown on Mr. Smith's proposal, he was glad to think that, while from an engineering point of view, there was no practical difficulty in the way of the scheme being carried out, its social and financial prospects were good.

In reply to remarks made by various speakers, Mr. Smith stated that the climate of Aberdeen compared favourably with that of most of the watering places on the British coasts. It was one of the driest places in the country, as might be seen from the Meteorological reports; we had comparatively little fog, and for eight months in the year the prevailing wind was from the south-west. The course of storms from the east appeared to lie more frequently over the district between the Forth and the Humber, Yorkshire having a more rigorous

climate than Aberdeen. The statement that the summer at Aberdeen lasted only 2 to 3 months referred to a very exceptional season when the weather was even more disagreeable at Scarborough and other southern watering places. For boating purposes especially, there were eight months in the year which would be made available by the provision of suitable harbour accommodation in the Bay. This was a permanent remedial measure with regard to the dangers of the Bay. The boat harbour opposite the bathing station would also check the surf and prevent the formation of under-currents. The attraction of visitors to Aberdeen as a watering-place was not necessarily the object of improvements; there were 125,000 people obliged to reside in Aberdeen and make the best of it, many of whom go to other coast towns for the summer at considerable inconvenience and expense. During an easterly gale the surf extended far out to sea in the bay, presenting the appearance of an exposure even more dangerous than that opposite the harbour entrance. The cause of this appearance was the extensive shoal and high submerged banks in the bay, which, far from being detrimental, formed the most perfect natural breakwater outside the proposed works, sheltering the harbour and Promenade Pier, with the boats and bathers frequenting them. An instance of the value of the natural shelter of submerged banks was the ancient port and modern watering-place and fishing station of Scheveningen, near the Hague. An open beach on a straight coast, without a vestige of protective works, Scheveningen was a sea-port of historic note, whence William of Orange embarked to ascend the English throne; Charles II. of England also embarked here when leaving the Hague, yet the nearest visible land or protective island on the North Sea is our own coast. The influence of fresh-water springs emerging between high and low-water mark in forming dangerous quicksands should not be under-rated. Further north, along the shore of the bay, streams of considerable volume disappeared in the sand dunes to rise. with great power through the sand below high water, when the combined action of the waves and the currents on the sand was observed to be very powerful. The waves being an exceedingly varying force both in direction and degree, it would at once be seen that the combination rendered the sand shifty and liable to alteration by scour. The subsoil drainage of the Links could do no possible harm to the growth of vegetation there. The country of Holland, within historic time a marshy waste, was in the course of two centuries converted

by the Dutch into the most fertile and wealthiest land in Europe. Nothing retarded germination in cold climates so much as the dampness of undrained soil; the first step towards the improvement of the Links and beach must be the formation of a thorough system of subsoil drainage. The Links and the beach would be largely frequented in case of their improvement and the construction of a promenade pier and boat harbour, with improved access from the town to the Links and a circular Tramway extension. All the improvements effected in the town and neighbourhood during the century had avoided the Links or the beach, the only works undertaken in that quarter being a sewage farm at the north end and a sewage outfall into the harbour at the south end, drawing a cordon of sickly smell round the bay between the city and the fresh sea breeze. Few understood the damage done all over the harbour by the deposit of sewage sludge, and the malarious nature conveyed to the soil on the bents and Links by the filtration of sewage. The whole of the sewage of the City should be conveyed either directly out to deep water at the end of the north pier, or else filtration works on a large scale started at a considerable distance from the City and bathing station, say at Donmouth. The occasion of the writing of the paper was upon the Author reading in a newspaper when in the south, an account of the danger to four soldiers who were swept out to sea and rescued with difficulty last summer. It appeared to him that an extension of the system of buoyed ropes, placing them in two or three rows parallel with the shore, would render the beach more safe for bathing. It was simple, could easily be kept up or replaced if occasionally washed ashore by storms, and instead of being in the way would be a source of amusement to swimmers and practice in diving. The idea of the proposed promenade pier and boat harbour occurred to Mr. Smith while writing the paper, as a reasonable provision against accidents from bathing and boating, while it would present an additional attraction for the citizens.

March 16, 1887.--Rev. J. M. DANSON, President, in the Chair.

Mr. ALEXANDER WALKER, F.S.A., Scot., read a paper entitled, "The Knights Templar in and around Aberdeen."

The Knights Templar in and around Aberdeen.

By Mr. ALEXANDER WALKER, F.S.A.

Mr. WALKER, at the outset, alluded to the origin of the Order. He said-It was when that monarch ruled in Scotland who, in consequence of his liberality to the Church, was said to have been "ane sair sanct to the Crown," that the Knights Templar first appeared in this part of Britain. The task I have set myself to attempt to-night is not a narrative of all that emerged from the creation of this magnificent Order of Knighthood at the time when Christendom saw, in the 11th century, in the hands of the Infidel that "land over whose acres walked those blessed feet," and believing that the 1000 years of the Apocalypse had terminated, that the end of the world had come, and the Saviour's advent nigh, Christians in countless thousands hurried to the Holy Land to meet in the Valley of Jehosophat their risen Lord. No such theme is mine. I only ask your indulgence for a little this evening while I try, in some small degree, to show the value and importance of the property held in and around Aberdeen by the Knights Templar and their heirs, the Knights of S. John of Jerusalem, commonly designated "Hospitallers," fondly known, long after the Templars had ceased to exist, as Knights of Cyprus, Rhodes, and last, but not least gloriously, of Malta. Prior to the formation of the Order of the Knights Templar, the Knights of S. John had cared for sick pilgrims at the Hospital of S. John, near the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem. Something more than nursing the sick was needed, and so, in the year of our Lord, 1118, nine French knights of noble birth, under Hugo de Peyens, bound themselves together to raise a sort of permanent militia, to do battle for the defence and extension of the small area of Christian light and truth enclosed within the walls of Jerusalem. They had to