Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
Field | Content |
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Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
Title: | Praefectvrarvm Aberdonensis Et Banfiensis ... Nova Descriptio, Auctore Roberto Gordonio |
Pagination: | 112 |
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Translation of text:
whether by inheritance or otherwise, he must give up the second. Two miles from the town the river is crossed by a bridge, a distinguished work of seven arches, a strong and enduring structure of cut stone; this was the work of Bishop Gavin Dunbar. Close to the town at the foot of a low hill, named from women, flows a copious spring of very clear water, but acid and of an iron taste; it immediately merges into a neighbouring stream; this water is believed (on the basis of experience) to be friendly to upset intestines, and to have similar powers as the very celebrated waters of Spa in Belgium, whence too these have a common name with those. Some of our physicians have written what they learned by experiment about these of ours, having tested their powers: they are indeed sweet to drink, and no one has felt any ill effect even from the largest draughts; however for washing linen clothes, or for brewing beer, the drink of the people there, or for the kitchen they are quite useless, so as to seem to have been set apart by nature for medical use. The Universities in each town, apart from philosophical studies, have professors of Theology, Law, Medicine and Mathematics; hence there is a gathering of those who have a mind for such matters; many outstanding men have come from them, useful to the state; not a few of them have lived and live abroad, whose names I modestly withhold - some of them are sufficiently known by their writings, others have preferred to be hidden, as they shuddered, or if they are still alive shudder, at the incurable disease (so familiar in our time) of writing.
[End of A New Description of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire by Robert Gordon]