<p><b>Economic and social profile</b>:</p><p>Aberdeenshire contained 1,260,800 acres, of which ‘two-thirds were uncultivated’.<fn><em>Dod’s electoral facts, 1832-53, impartially stated</em>, ed. H.J. Hanham (1978 edn.), 1-2.</fn> A contemporary observer remarked that the county ‘abounds in fine granite, has numerous sea-ports, and the most extensive woods in Great Britain’.<fn>Ibid.</fn> The county town, Aberdeen, was Scotland’s third most populous city and a commercial and manufacturing centre, particularly of linen.