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WESTPALSTOWN, a parish, in the barony of BALROTHERY, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER, 12 miles (N.) from Dublin; containing 280 inhabitants. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Dublin, forming part of the union and corps of the prebend of Clonmethan in the cathedral of Christ-Church, Dublin; the rectory is appropriate to the vicars choral of that cathedral. The tithes amount to £150, of which two-thirds are payable to the vicars choral, and the remainder to the vicar. In the R. C. divisions it is in the union or district of Damastown. The ruins of the church still exist.

WESTPORT, a sea-port, market and post-town, in the parish of AUGHAVAL, barony of MURRISK, county of MAYO, and province of CONNAUGHT, 8 1/2 miles (W.) from Castlebar, at the termination of the road from Dublin; containing 4448 inhabitants. This town is situated at the south-eastern extremity of Clew bay, and at the mouth of a small river, which falls into that portion of it constituting the bay or harbour of West-port. It is of modern date, and consists of three principal streets, and a Mall of large and handsome houses on both sides of the river, the banks of which are planted with trees and afford a pleasing promenade. The total number of houses is 617, most of which are well built and roofed with slate; a spacious and handsome hotel has been erected and splendidly furnished at the expense of the Marquess of Sligo, who assigns it rent-free to the landlord. The approach from Castlebar is singularly beautiful, being enriched with the plantations of the Marquess of Sligo, and commanding a fine view of the mountain of Croaghpatrick, the lofty ranges of Achill and Erris terminating in the stupendous mountain of Nephin, and of Clew bay studded with innumerable picturesque islands. Westport House, the elegant mansion of the Marquess, who is proprietor of the town, and to which is an entrance from the Mall, is a handsome and spacious structure of hewn freestone, situated on the margin of a small lake in the surrounding demesne, which is also embellished with the windings of the Westport river, on which are two picturesque waterfalls; it commands some beautiful views of the bay, with its islands and shipping. Near the town are also Murrisk Abbey, the seat of J. Garvey, Esq.; Marino, of J. Cuff, Esq.; and Trafalgar Lodge, of C. Higgins, Esq.

The trade of the port, which is of comparatively recent origin, consists in the exportation of agricultural produce, particularly corn, and in the importation of timber from America and the Baltic, and of articles of British manufacture. In the year 1834, 116,117 quarters of grain and 5140 cwts. of flour and meal were shipped hence for different ports in England and Scotland. The number of vessels registered as belonging to the port, in that year, was 6, of the aggregate burden of 123 tons; 4 foreign vessels and 97 from British ports entered inwards, and one foreign vessel and 153 to British ports cleared outwards, in the same year. The herring fishery is still carried on here, though not so extensively as in 1780, when the port was first established for its use; the number of boats employed and the quantity of fish taken vary considerably. The port is advantageously situated for trade at the head of Clew bay, which is 8 miles in breadth and from 10 to 12 in length, and has two entrances, one on the north and another on the south of Clare island, which occupies about a third part of the mouth of the bay, and on which a lighthouse has been erected. The ordinary channel leading into the bay or harbour of Westport is that of Beulascrona, which is marked out by a small lighthouse on the northern beach, erected by the corporation for improving the port of Dublin; and also by a light erected by the Marquess of Sligo. The entrance is 240 fathoms wide and 6 fathoms deep; but there are shoals on each side, extending on the north from 200 to 300 fathoms (N. W. by W.) of the light; and on the south, or Doreinnis side, nearly half a mile in the same direction seaward; but the intermediate channel is clear (S. E. by E.). When within the entrance, a vessel may anchor anywhere behind the bar of stones on the south side, called Doreinnis, in two fathoms or less, which is the ordinary place for vessels trading to Westport; or turning round the eastern end of the isle, a vessel may enter the harbour of Innis Gort, which is completely sheltered on all sides, and anchor in from three to five fathoms; or passing the entrance to Innis Gort, may anchor behind an island on the left, called Innis Lyre, in two fathoms or less. From Innis Lyre up to the quays at Westport, buoys are placed along the channel, a distance of three miles: vessels drawing 13 feet of water can come up to the quays, where the spring tides rise to the height of 14 and neap to 8 feet. The quays are now being extended, and when completed will be nearly a mile in length. A commodious range of warehouses and stores has been built for the merchants of the town, and ranging with them are the king's stores, a neat building but less extensive. The custom-house is well arranged; the amount of duties paid in 1836 was £577. 8. 4.

In the town is an extensive distillery belonging to W. Livingston, Esq., established in 1826, producing annually about 60,000 gallons of whiskey and consuming 9000 bushels of grain; a brewery belonging to the same gentleman, and established by his father in 1800, has very much declined since the reduction of the duty on spirits, but is still considerable; in both these concerns about 150 men are regularly employed. Another brewery, with a malting concern, has been established by Messrs. Graham, who have two salt-works and three corn-stores on the quay, and a tannery in the town, affording together employment to 30 persons, and to double that number during the winter. The Manor flour and oatmeal-mills were built in 1808, and are set in motion by two water-wheels equal in power to 30 horses. At Belcarra is a cotton factory, in which are 26 looms, affording employment to 30 men and a considerable number of women and children. About two miles from the town are the bleach-green and linen and cotton-manufactory of Messrs. Pinkerton and Thompson, in which are 24 power-looms, producing weekly 48 webs of 52 yards each, and affording constant employment to 50, and when in full operation to more than 200, men. The market is on Thursday; and fairs are held on Jan. 1st, May 25th, Aug. 6th, and Dec. 1st. A chief constabulary police force is stationed in the town, which is also the head of the coast-guard district, comprising the stations of Innisturk, Old Head, Islandmore, Mynish, Achilbeg, and Keem, and including a force of 6 officers and 52 men, under the control of a resident inspecting commander. The general sessions for the county are held here annually in April, and petty sessions every Thursday; a manorial court is also held on the last Friday in every month, at which debts not exceeding £10 Irish are recoverable. The court-house is a neat and well-adapted building; there are also a good market-house and a linen-hall. The parish church is situated within the demesne of the Marquess of Sligo; and on the Mall is a handsome R. C. chapel, erected in 1820 by Dr. Kelly, at an expense of £6000; the altar is embellished with a fine painting of the Crucifixion. There are also places of worship for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod of Ulster, of the third class, and for Wesleyan Methodists. On the estate of Mr. Garvey are some interesting remains of the ancient abbey of Murrisk, founded by the O'Malleys, lords of this country.

WEXFORD (County of), a maritime county of the province of LEINSTER, bounded on the north by the county of Wicklow; on the west by those of Carlow and Kilkenny, and Waterford harbour; on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the east by St. George's channel. It extends from 52° 2' to 52° 44' (N. Lat.), and from 6° 17' to 7° 4' (W: Lon.); comprising an extent, according to the Ordnance survey, of 564,479 statute acres, of which 545,979 are cultivated land, and 18,500 unimproved mountain and bog. The population, in 1821. was 170,806; and in 1831, 182,991.

The whole or the greater portion of the county was inhabited in the time of Ptolemy by the Menapii, whose territory bordered on the Modonus, now called the river Slaney, on the bank of which stood their chief town Menapia, supposed to have occupied the site of the present town of Wexford. They are considered to have derived their origin from the Menapii of Belgic Gaul, perhaps through the Belgae of Britain, and to have been the race styled by Irish annalists Fir-bolgs, i. e., Viri Belgici, or Belgians. Some writers are of opinion that the peninsula of Hook, the most southern point of the county, is the Hieron Promontorium, or "Sacred Promontory," of the Grecian geographer. Before the arrival of the Danes or English, the county was distinguished by the names Corteigh, Moragh, and Laighion, all signifying the maritime country. The first of these appears to be preserved in the designation of Enniscorthy; the second, it is thought, gave the family name to its chief, Mac Murrough or Mac Murchad; and from the third came the denomination of Leinster, which, in the productions of the Irish, Danish, and Latin writers towards the close of the middle ages, is mostly confined to Wexford. This and the adjoining county of Wicklow were also distinguished by the name of Dalmach-sevel, or "the maritime counties." Weisford, from which its present name is formed, was given to its chief town by the Danes, who, after devastating the country by predatory incursions, made the town of Wexford the centre of a permanent settlement. In later times, a popular designation of this district was, according to Camden, County Reogh, or "the rough county;" and the northern part was included in Hy Kinselagh, the peculiar territory of the Mac Murroughs, afterwards known by the name of Kavanagh. A principal seat of the royal family of Leinster was at Ferns, in this territory, the favourite place of residence of the last king, Dermod Mac Murrough. Hither he conveyed Dervorghal, wife of O'Rourk, Prince of Breffny, whom he had carried off from her husband; and after he had been driven out of the country by Roderic, King of Ireland, and had engaged the assistance of some English leaders to reinstate him in his authority, he returned hither to await in the privacy of the abbey the arrival of his new allies. The landing of the first body of the English was at Bagenbon, on the south side of Fethard bay, in the south-western part of the county, in May 1169. This party consisted only of 30 knights, 60 men at arms and 300 archers, under the command of Robert Fitz-Stephen, whom Mac Murrough had engaged in the attempt by the promise of conferring on him the town of Wexford, with a large adjacent territory. Being reinforced by Maurice Prendergast, who landed on the following day at the same place with 10 knights and 200 archers, and joined by Mac Murrough, Fitz-Stephen attacked Wexford; but its Danish inhabitants made a stubborn resistance, and it was not until after a contest of four days that they were induced to surrender on articles, through the interference of the clergy. Mac Murrough then confirmed his grant in favour of Fitz-Stephen and his companion in arms, Maurice Fitzgerald: he also granted two cantreds, which lay between the town of Wexford and the Suir, to Harvey de Monte Marisco or Montmorency, the uncle of Strongbow and associate of Fitz-Stephen. The successful settlement of the English, whose numbers were augmented by reinforcements from their own country, alarmed the other native princes, and Roderic, King of Ireland, aided by a confederacy of the subordinate chiefs, made an effort to drive out both the rebellious king of Leinster and his allies. To resist this formidable invasion, Mac Murrough fortified himself in a strong position near Ferns, and presented such a front to the assailing army, that hostilities terminated in a treaty between the Irish kings, in which a secret article was inserted for the expulsion of the English. But the arrival of additional forces gave a new direction to Mac Murrough's views. Aided by them he took the city of Dublin from the Danes, and was projecting a scheme for asserting his right to the monarchy of the whole island, when the arrival of Richard de Clare, surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Chepstow, gave a new turn to the aspect of affairs; extending still wider by his conquests the power of the English arms and the ambitious views of Dermod, whose daughter Eva he espoused. Fitz-Stephen and his party, to secure their new possessions, had erected the castle of Carrigg near Wexford, where the native inhabitants quickly besieged them, and they were induced to surrender on articles by the false intelligence of the death of Strongbow and the extirpation of his followers. On surrendering, most of his men were killed, and Fitz-Stephen himself was committed to the island of Beg-Erin, in Wexford harbour, where all the inhabitants of the town sought safety on the approach of Strongbow with his victorious forces. The latter, however, was deterred from practising hostilities towards them by a threat that Fitz-Stephen's life should be answerable for such a proceeding; so that he remained in captivity until the arrival of Hen. II., to whom he was given up by his captors on a promise of redress for any ill treatment inflicted by him on the natives.

After the death of Mac Murrough in 1172, Strong-bow became lord of Leinster, which was confirmed to him as a palatinate in the same year by Hen. II., when he visited Ireland. This monarch at first retained the town of Wexford in his immediate possession, but in 1174 he granted it to the earl, who made it one of the principal scats of his power, which extended over the whole of the present county, as well as the other parts of Leinster. The county of Wexford is one of those erected by King John in 1210, and it formed part of the inheritance of William le Mareschal, who succeeded to the possessions of Earl Strongbow by marriage with his daughter. On the extinction of the male line of William, Earl Marshal, his possessions were divided among his five daughters; and the corpus comitatus of Wexford, with the assizes, perquisites, &c., valued at £50. 12. 6., and the burgh of Wexford, valued at £42. 1. 5., with the manors of Rossclare, Carrick, Ferns, &c., were assigned to the second daughter, Joan, married to Warren de Mountchensy, the richest baron in England. Through this marriage the lordship descended by the female line successively to William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke and half brother of Hen. III., and to Lawrence, Lord Hastings of Abergavenny, after the death of whose grandson, John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, the king, in 1395, ordered possession of all his estates to be given to his next heirs, and the lordship of Wexford came to the family of Talbot, and was inherited by John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who, in 1446, was created Earl of Waterford and Baron of Dungarvan. In the mean time, however, in consequence of these changes and the non-residence of the great English lords, the county fell into a state of such confusion, that, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, a great part of it was seized by one of the Kavanaghs, who assumed the title of Mac Murrough, declared himself king of Leinster, and maintained possession of a large portion of Carlow and Wexford by means of his alliance with the O'Tooles and Byrnes, the chieftains of Wicklow. Nor did the county suffer merely from the efforts of the natives to regain their ancient dominion. John Esmond, Bishop of Ferns, having been deprived of his episcopal dignity by the pope in 1349, maintained himself in his castle of Ferns, in defiance of the power of his superiors. The sheriff declared himself unable to execute the king's writ against him, and he was at length with difficulty brought to enter into articles to keep the peace. His immediate successor was equally warlike, for, when his castle was assaulted by some Irish septs about the year 1360, he made a sortie in person at the head of his servants and retainers, and routed the assailants with considerable slaughter. During the minority of George, great grandson of John, Earl of Shrewsbury, it was enacted by parliament, in 1474, that Gilbert Talbot, Esq., might exercise and enjoy the liberty of the county of Wexford, with cognizance of all pleas and jurisdictions royal, under the name of Seneschal of the Liberty of Wexford, with power to appoint all officers established of old within that liberty. Earl George afterwards enjoyed it, until 1537, when an act was passed vesting in the crown this and the other possessions of the great absentee lords of Ireland; and the separate jurisdiction of the liberty was thereby terminated. During its existence, the county returned two sets of representatives to the Irish parliament, two members being sent for the liberty, in which the return was made by the lord's seneschal, and two for the Cross, or Church lands within the county, over which was a sheriff appointed by the king, to whom the writs were addressed.

In the year 1571 the people of this county had a feud with the Kavanaghs of Carlow, in which 30 gentlemen of rank in Wexford were killed: but it led to no important consequences. In the civil war which broke out in 1641, it was the scene of important military operations; the Marquess of Ormonde was repulsed, in the early part of it, from before New Ross; and Duncannon fort was afterwards taken by the Catholic party who thus became masters of the whole. But in 1649 it was reduced to submission by Cromwell, who put the garrison of Wexford to the sword in the same sanguinary manner in which Drogheda had been treated. In the war of the Revolution it was much less distinguished; and from this period the history of the county presents a perfect blank, until 1798, when it acquired a melancholy notoriety as the chief seat of the insurrection of that year. In the month of April the county was subjected to martial law in consequence of the suspicions of the secret organization of the society of United Irishmen, which had already pervaded most of the other counties, having been extended to it; but it was not until after actual hostilities had broken out in other parts that any military force was sent hither. The burning of the chapel of Boulavogue, in the parish of Kilcormuck, by the military, and the cruel treatment of the peasantry in order to force them to confess their guilt, hastened the assembly of the people in arms on the two neighbouring hills of Oulart and Kilmacthomas. They were immediately driven from the latter position with some loss, but at the former they routed and cut to pieces the detachment of the military sent to disperse them. Increasing now in numbers and confidence, the insurgents attacked Enniscorthy the next day, and forced the garrison to fall back upon Wexford. Having at the same time cut off a party of infantry and artillery that was advancing from Duncannon fort to strengthen the garrison of the latter place, the insurgents moved upon that also, and the garrison made a hasty retreat to Waterford. At the same time a camp was formed at Vinegar hill, in the immediate vicinity of Enniscorthy, which was the head-quarters of the insurgent army during its short existence. The possession of Wexford gave occasion to the slaughter of many of the loyalists who had not been able to effect a timely escape, and also of several of the prisoners brought in from time to time; nor were these atrocities without their counterpart in the excesses of the royalist soldiery. At the commencement of hostilities Beauchamp Bagnal Harvey, Esq., a Protestant gentleman of the county, who had long signalised himself as an advocate of the people, and an enemy to the severe measures of the Irish government, was chosen general. A few days after the occupation of Wexford, the insurgents attacked the town of New Ross, but after ten hours hard fighting they were repulsed on all sides with considerable loss. Shortly afterwards Harvey was superseded, and the command was given to a Roman Catholic clergyman named Roche. The royal forces which had been collecting from various parts now made a simultaneous attack from all sides on the position at Vinegar hill, which was taken with little difficulty, and the main body of insurgents forced to retreat. The re-capture of Wexford immediately followed, and a fresh torrent of blood was poured forth in the punishment of numbers engaged in the rebellion, which was thus terminated in this district, except in the lingering efforts of detached parties.

The county, with the exception of parts of two parishes (which are in the diocese of Dublin), is entirely within the diocese of Ferns, and in the province of Dublin. For civil purposes it is divided into the baronies of Ballaghkeen, Bantry, Bargy, Forth, Gorey, Scarawalsh, Shelbourne, and Shelmalier. It contains the ancient episcopal town of Ferns; the borough and market-towns of Wexford and New Ross; the market and post-towns of Gorey, Enniscorthy, Newtownbarry, and the disfranchised borough of Fethard; and the post-towns of Arthurstown, Broadway, Clonegal, Camolin, and Taghmon, the last of which was anciently a borough, as were also Clonmines and Bannow. The penny posts are Ballycarny, Bannow, Bridgetown, Duncannon, Kyle, and Oulart. It sent eighteen members to the Irish parliament, two for the county at large, and two for each of the boroughs of Wexford, New Ross, Gorey, Enniscorthy, Taghmon, Fethard, Clonmines, and Bannow; but since the Union its representatives in the Imperial parliament have been two sent by the county and one for each of the boroughs of Wexford and New Ross. The county members are elected at Wexford. The county constituency, up to the 5th of Jan. 1837, consists of 456 £50, 284 £20, and 2227 £10 freeholders; and 21 £20 and 244 £10 leaseholders; making a total of 3234. The county is included in the Leinster circuit: the assizes are held at Wexford; general sessions of the peace are held twice in the year at each of the towns of Gorey, Wexford, Enniscorthy, and New Ross; and petty sessions are held, at various intervals, at each of the above towns and at Newtownbarry, Burkestown, Clonroche, Duncormuck, Killinick, Oulart, and Taghmon. The county gaol is at Wexford, and there are bridewells at New Ross, Gorey, and Enniscorthy. The local government is vested in a lieutenant, 16 deputy-lieutenants, and 81 other magistrates. The number of constabulary police stations, in 1834, was 36, having unitedly a force of 7 officers, 39 constables, and 170 men, with 8 horses. The district lunatic asylum is at Carlow, the county infirmary and house of industry at Wexford; there are fever hospitals at Wexford, New Ross, Gorey, Enniscorthy, Arthurstown, Castleborough, Oulart, and Newtownbarry, in each of which places there is a dispensary, as also at Taghmon, Kilcavan, Bannow, Broadway, Ferns, Bridgetown, Killenagh, Skreen and Ardcolme, and Clongeen and Newbawn: the dispensaries are maintained by Grand Jury presentments and private subscriptions in equal proportions. The Grand Jury presentments for the year 1835 amounted to £29,039. 13. 11 1/4., of which £2548. 2. 2. was for roads and bridges, being the county charge; £9070. 2. 5 3/4. for roads and bridges, being the baronial charge; £9425. 5. 5 1/2. for public buildings, charities, officers' salaries and incidents; 4113. 10. 11 1/2. for the police, and £3882. 12. 10 1/2. for repayment of advances by Government. In the military arrangements the county is in the eastern district, and within its limits are barracks at Wexford, New Ross, and Duncannon, for cavalry, artillery, and infantry; the whole capable of accommodating 18 officers and 372 men.

This district is much detached from the rest of Ireland, having the sea on its eastern and southern sides, the estuary of the Suir and the river of Ross along the greater part of its western border, the remainder of which and the northern side are hemmed in by a lofty range of mountain land, through which there are but few lines of communication. The mountains on the side of the county of Wicklow extend from Slievebuy, a beautiful conical hill covered with verdure, to the valley through which the Slaney flows, dividing this part of the range from the still more extensive and lofty chain of Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs, three remarkable pointed summits of which are distinguished by the names of the "Leaps of Ossian's Greyhounds." Except on the confines, there are no high or extensive ridges of mountains, but the surface is diversified with many single hills of considerable height, and, towards the north, the mountain of Forth forms a less elevated ridge of about 500 feet above the level of the sea, extending 5 or 6 miles in a north-eastern and south-western direction. The general surface between these hills does not expand into large plains: the land declines from the primitive mountains on the north towards the sea in unequal elevations, and, where the depositions of alluvial substances are considerable, the surface has a beautifully waving outline, and is enlivened by numerous gently winding streams. The Slaney, which traverses the northern and eastern part, presents a succession of highly picturesque views, beautifully ornamented with remains of antiquity, and with modern mansions, villas, and plantations. The scenery on the Barrow, in the vicinity of New Ross, which is marked by grander features, can scarcely be surpassed. The southern baronies of Bargy and Forth, which are shut out from the remainder of the county by the Forth mountain, consist of low land that owes its attractions more to human labour and ingenuity than to the gifts of nature. The entire county presents nothing meriting the name of lake, except Lady's Island lake, in Forth, which claims notice, not from its extent or beauty, but from the singularity of its formation, receiving several small rivulets and having no natural outlet, so that once in every three or four years an opening is cut through the sand bank which separates it from the sea. The sea-coast on the eastern side presents no opening for shelter from foul weather from Arklow to Wexford harbour, and is rendered still more dangerous to shipping by a range of sand banks parallel to the shore, the most northern of which is marked by a light-ship. Towards the northern extremity of this line of coast a harbour has been formed for small craft at the inlet of Courtown, in Kilbride bay, consisting of two rough piers forming a floating dock. Wexford harbour is large and capacious, but its entrance is obstructed by a bar, and the navigation is in other respects dangerous. The Tuscar rock lies about seven miles southeast of Greenore Point: it is marked by a revolving light of three faces, two bright, the third a deep red; a bell also rings in foggy weather. In the northern part of Wexford harbour are the islands of Beg Erin, or Little Ireland, and Great Island, both inhabited: the former is of very small extent, but ancient fame; the latter contains about 80 acres. On doubling Carnsore Point, the Saltee islands, two in number, the larger and the smaller, present themselves off the southern coast. A late return from the resident incumbent of the adjoining parish on the mainland states that these islands are considered to form part of the county of Tipperary. The larger is a mile long and half a mile broad, but not more than one-third of it consists of arable land: the lesser is about a mile in circuit: both are high and contain some rocky pasture. From the lesser island to the mainland is a ridge of rocks called St. Patrick's bridge, extremely dangerous, having not more than from 7 to 10 feet of water above them at low tide. Farther westward is Bagenbon Head, and near it the small dry harbour of Fethard. What was formerly called "Slade Island" is connected with Bannow by a narrow isthmus of sand. The extreme south-west point of the county is marked by a lighthouse at Hook head, 140 feet high, with a steady fixed light. On doubling this point the navigator finds himself within the grand and safe estuary of Waterford harbour, into which the united streams of the Suir, Barrow, and Nore are received.

In the eastern and southern districts, which lie open to the sea, the temperature is milder than that of the adjoining counties of Carlow and Kilkenny. Snow seldom continues on the ground, and the lands may be tilled, and the surface is verdant, while those ten miles inland are frost-bound, and their elevated parts covered with snow. The southern district is subject to storms in spring and autumn, and to heavy rains in winter; but the harvest is as early, if not earlier, than in the opposite Welsh counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen, which lie more southerly. It is even earlier here than in the north of Devonshire; and the climate is altogether eminently favourable to the perfection of grain crops. The soil is mostly of a cold clayey nature, being deficient in the substrata of limestone and limestone gravel, universally found in the midland counties. On the whole, the maritime districts are superior to those in the interior, as to fertility. The whole of the eastern and southern borders has a deep alluvial soil, abounding with various kinds of marl and calcareous sand, with some limestone. The western and inland baronies contain little marl, but in compensation for this defect they have abundance of bog, which affords an adequate supply of turf for burning the lime imported from the neighbouring counties, while the southern baronies are extremely deficient in this useful article. The prevailing clayey and gravelly loam, though apparently stubborn and untractable, when judiciously under-drained and limed, is productive of abundant crops. In the Hook, a peninsula entirely open to the ocean, and little elevated above its level, the subsoil is of a compact limestone, overspread with a thin layer of vegetable mould: it produces grasses of wonderful luxuriance, and both wheat and barley of superior excellence.

The parishes along the sea coast, particularly in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, are divided into small farms of from five to twenty acres, the competition for which produces high rents, and on which is exhibited that wonderful exertion of industry which seldom fails to shew itself in Ireland where the inhabitants are secured in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour. The crops consist of wheat, oats, barley, and beans; also tares, rape, and turnips. Barley is the principal corn crop throughout the county, and, though uncertain, it generally repays the cultivator by a luxuriant produce. Beans are sown on the lea after it has been manured with marl; the kind sown is the small horse bean, and the produce is generally exported to the West Indies: in seasons of scarcity, this crop has been found of great utility in diminishing the severity of famine. The potato, however, is the staple crop here, as in all the other counties, and all the manure is used for its culture: the seed is planted with the plough in small ridges, three rows in the ridge, and covered with the spade. The general succession of crops is potatoes, barley, and oats; but, in the barony of Forth, beans are introduced. The sowing of clover, which has been for some time increasing, is now very general; but the English green crops for winter feeding are still chiefly confined to the lands of the resident gentry or experimental agriculturists. In some parts, particularly in the peninsula of Hook, the natural grasses are very luxuriant: in the interior, on the cold clay soils, they are thin and of little value: the farmers in general depend upon artificial grasses. Dairies are numerous, but they are not managed with the attention to neatness requisite for ensuring the best kind of butter; nor is sufficient pains taken in the selection of a suitable stock of cows; yet nevertheless there is a large annual export of that article. In Forth and Bargy the farmers manure with marl found in abundance in the interior of those baronies; also with calcareous sand, which is procured in the vicinity of Duncannon fort; floating sea weed is much used in some parts: by these kinds of manure the land is kept permanently in a state of great fertility. In Carne, where the tillage grounds are so overspread with large stones that the superficial observer would think that the plough could hardly be used at all, the land has been kept, from time immemorial, under alternate crops of barley and beans, affording abundant returns. In the eastern district, where also marl is abundant, use is made of it. In this tract, particularly on both sides of the Slaney, pebble limestone is burned, and applied to the purpose of manure. In the western baronies lime, brought with much toil and expense from the neighbouring counties, is the chief manure. The cottiers on the side of Mount Leinster travel with a horse a journey of two days in going and returning to bring home a load of limestone, forty loads of which are required for manuring an acre. The farmers on the parts adjacent to the Barrow and Suir procure from the beds of these rivers, at low water, a rich sediment of the nature of marl, but which is so heavy that it cannot be carried to a distance without much expense. Under all their various natural disadvantages, the lands of this county, by incessant industry and superior skill, are generally kept in an excellent state unknown in many other parts of Ireland; and in the baronies of Forth and Bargy this distinction is of long standing.

The fences in the southern baronies are in general good and well kept, being formed of mounds of earth and sods, planted with furze on the sides and top, which affords good shelter for cattle, and has the additional advantage of being extremely useful for fuel, while it presents an impenetrable barrier against trespassing. In some cases they are still farther improved by a row of quickset on the summit, which increases both the shelter and ornament. In those parts where turf is plentiful, less attention is paid to the construction of fences; and there they are generally rugged and defective. The farmers are by no means so attentive to the improvement of the breed of cattle as in many other counties: the long-horned was most prevalent, but the short-horned is now most encouraged. Although all the farmers, even the smallest, keep a few sheep for their wool and milk, the common breed reared here is by no means of a good kind, being long-legged, narrow-backed, large-boned, and as wild as deer, insomuch that they are kept from destroying the fences and breaking into the corn-fields by tying their feet with side lines: of the improved breeds, the Leicester is the most encouraged. Swine are numerous, but, like the former kinds of stock, not in general of the best kind. The poultry is excellent; farmers and even cottiers rear vast quantities of turkies and other domestic fowl; and many old leases contain a clause binding the tenant to rear poultry for the landlord. In the neighbourhood of Wexford they are fattened by cramming, and sent to Dublin and Liverpool. There is a fair every Michaelmas at. Ballyhack for poultry only, where the various kinds are sold in large quantities and very cheap, owing to the great number of small land-holders who rear them at a trifling expense from their potato offal and a little barley meal. Bees are in some parts much attended to, and much mead is made. Means are used in some places to save the honey without destroying the bees, by driving them into a fresh hive instead of smothering them. A source of riches, arising from the contiguity to the sea, is found in the extent of sandy warren which furnishes great numbers of rabbits yearly. The burrow of Rosslare, near Wexford harbour, furnishes the market weekly with 300 pair for three months: they are considered peculiarly delicate and well-flavoured. Pigeons are also attended to and found profitable; and, in consequence of the growth of a peculiar kind of grass or sea weed, myriads of wild fowl frequent the shores, the flesh of which is of remarkably delicate flavour. The barnacle, whynyard, widgeon, teal, and duck, are most esteemed; besides which there is a great supply of sea fowl, which are readily bought, though of inferior quality. Fuel in some parts of the county is very scarce, especially in places remote both from the sea coast, where coal from England can be obtained at a reasonable rate, and from the mountains, where turf can be procured. The great improvement which has been made in the agriculture of the county, even within the last few years, has been mainly effected by the exertions of two agricultural associations, one in the northern and the other in the southern part, in the success of which a lively interest has been taken by the resident gentry, as well by pecuniary contributions as by personal attendance and encouragement,: the former is held at Gorey, and is in a flourishing state; the latter, held at Fook's Mill, is on the decline. An agricultural school was carried on for some time at Bannow, and an horticultural institution has been established at Kyle, the particulars of each of which are given in the accounts of the parishes of Ban-now and Kilpatrick.

The county, in its geological relations, forms part of the clay-slate tract, which stretches, on the eastern side of the granitic range, from the northern part of the county of Wicklow to the Atlantic. The strata in the southern portions are in some places considerably inflected, but in the northern parts of the county they maintain a tolerably uniform north-eastern and southwestern direction, with a dip to the south-east; and the clay-slate is here found immediately in contact with granite, which is the chief component of the Blackstairs and Mount Leinster ranges. The Forth mountain consists almost entirely of quartz rock, with a tendency to the slaty structure from interposed laminae of clay-slate. The strata range 25° north of east and south of west, and dip 45° towards the north-west: they are occasionally traversed by fissures and by veins of quartz, and in these veins have appeared in some places indications of lead, copper, and iron. The lower grounds and eminences in the vicinity of Forth are composed of alternations of quartz rock and clay-slate: the former rock, which is sometimes iron-shot and of a deep reddish hue, ranges to the north of Wexford town, forming its foundation, and in its southern progress constituting the White Rocks near Kerlogue, extending still further south: clay-slate is visible on the south-eastern side of Forth, and to the north-west is distinctly seen at Carrigg bridge, and in several other parts around the inner haven of Wexford. It is traversed by contemporaneous veins of quartz, and probably contains several beds of greenstone, blocks and fragments of this rock being observable on the strand near Saunders Court, and smaller pieces in the fields above and towards the entrance of Edenvale. The general components of the south-eastern quarter of this county are also quartz rock and clay-slate interstratified, disposed in the manner above described, and containing occasionally beds of greenstone. Towards Carnsore Point the land gradually rises, forming a low swell of ground, composed apparently of granite, as great blocks of that rock, with some few scattered masses of mica slate, occupy its entire surface. The approach to a granite soil is indicated even at Broadway village, a little north of the lake, where blocks of that rock and of mica slate begin to appear. The granite base breaks forth again in Carrigburn and Camorus hills, to the north-west of Forth; and blocks of granite are strewed over a part of the county extending towards Bannow on the south. At Caim, near the eastern foot of the granitic chain, the clay-slate appears to contain several beds of greenstone; and the bridge over the Urrin stream is mostly built of it. Traces of the same rock occur also near Enniscorthy, on both sides of the Slaney: the clay-slate and quartz rock in the vicinity of this town are sometimes much intermingled. Vinegar hill and the craggy rocks stretching towards Solsborough are principally composed of the latter; so also is Carrigrua-more, to the north-east. But the principal ranges of elevated land, such as Slieve-buy, Bree hill, Slieve kelter, &c., are clay-slate; and quarries are opened in several parts of the line adjacent to the granitic chain, some of the best slates being raised in the neighbourhood of Newtown-Barry and towards Kilkevin to the north-east. A black, slightly carbonated clay occurs near Enniscorthy, where it is mistaken for coal, and some trials were made in consequence: this rock generally contains finely disseminated iron pyrites, and exhibits also thinly interspersed galena. The eastern side of Waterford harbour, in this county, consists principally of clay-slate in strata nearly vertical, but it is surmounted by a cap of sandstone in Broomhill: a similar cap occurs more to the south, in Templetown hill, which gradually declines till it underlines the tongue of floetz limestone which extends to the extremity of Hook Point. This limestone is arranged in strata of only a few inches in thickness, dipping at an angle of from 4° to 8° towards the south, and contains numerous bivalves and corallites: its connection with the sandstone is most conspicuous on the eastern, coast, proceeding along which to the north the limestone becomes interstratified with slate clay, and this latter rock at length predominates, alternating with very thin beds of limestone and acquiring a much higher elevation. At the point of junction with the red sandstone beneath it, at Houseland castle, the latter is of a fine grain and red cast. More to the north it acquires a coarser structure, thick beds of conglomerate being interstratified with fine-grained, red, perishable sandstone. These rocks form a bold coast of abrupt precipices, extending to Carnyven headland, eastward of Templetown hill and south of Bagenbon Head. Detached portions of the sandstone shew themselves in other places. The inner haven of Wexford is partly lined with four isolated patches of this rock lying unconformably on the clay-slate: it is of a deep red colour, and is principally composed of fragments of quartz, with a few of clay-slate, cemented by iron-shot quartz. Park Point, on the south side of the haven, consists chiefly of this sandstone arranged in strata from one to two feet thick, which are sometimes separated by a thin seam of red soapy clay. On the western side of the northern extremity of the inner basin is another smaller patch of red conglomerate, situated to the west of the Castle bridge. In a dell westward of Artramont castle is a similar small patch, and a fourth of larger extent occurs in Saunders Court demesne. At Duncormuck is another patch of sandstone, which comes in contact with floetz limestone; and it is found in the Saltee islands, where it is based on the clay-slate. At Ballyback, where Waterford harbour narrows to the north, are caps of sandstone conglomerate, reposing unconformably on clay-slate, and containing many pebbles of granite, but fragments of clay-slate are the predominating constituents. The great body of the rugged and isolated hill of Taragh, east of Gorey, consists of porphyry, with a compact felspar base, that sometimes passes into horn-stone, containing inlaid crystals of glassy felspar; but greenstone also appears occasionally. Besides the limestone of Hook Point, there is a narrow slip at Drinagh, a mile south of Wexford, which follows the coast for four or five miles southward, consisting of a blueish grey kind, containing corallites and bivalves, and associated with a brownish grey, fine, granular magnesian limestone. A third small limestone district occurs at Duncormuck, and extends from the coast into the interior three or four miles; it is generally of a reddish brown cast, apparently derived from the sandstone conglomerate in its vicinity. A lead mine was discovered at Caim and wrought for several years: the works are now about to be resumed. At Clonmines the remains of an ancient mine are still to be traced; and galena has been found here, partly adhering to quartz and rhomboidal ironstone, and partly thrown on shore after storms, by which portions of the cliff had been torn away. The old heaps in the neighbourhood are supposed to be the remains of the silver mines said to have been worked by the ancient Ostmen. At Kerlogue, near Wexford, is a small vein of copper ore, of the malachite or carbonated green copper ore species. Specimens of plumbago were found, about three years since, at Greenfield, near Enniscorthy; and in quarrying for stone at Bloomfield, in the same neighbourhood, about a year ago, some fine specimens of asbestos were discovered, the only ones known to exist within the county. The horns and bones of the moose deer have been found in the alluvial districts both on the east and south, where there is marl. About a year since, a perfect fossil skeleton of the Cervus Megaceros, or gigantic horned deer of Ireland, was found at Ballyhuskard, near the bog of Itty, exceeding in its dimensions the fossil deer in the Dublin museum.

Much coarse woollen cloth was formerly manufactured throughout the county, but almost wholly for domestic use. Cotton-works were erected at St. John's, near Enniscorthy, upwards of twenty years since, but were only carried on for two or three years: at the latter place were also some iron-works. Linens, diapers, checks, and woollens were formerly wrought at Tintern, where the weaving and spinning business was carried on to such an extent that a yarn market and a market-house were built for the accommodation of the buyers and sellers, but both these buildings have fallen into decay, though there are still many weavers in the neighbourhood. The vicinity of the county to the great Nymph Bank renders its fisheries an important object of consideration. In addition to the supply of deep-water sea fish derivable from this source, the inhabitants along the whole coast are mainly employed in fishing: there are also numerous residents at every creek that affords shelter for a few boats, who derive their subsistence partly from their little farms on shore, but mostly from the sea. A valuable fishing ground lies near the shore, adjacent to the Saltee islands, but the want of a harbour adequate to the reception and shelter of a better description of craft prevents the fishery from being followed, except in open boats. There are two small harbours, one at Fethard and the other at Cross-Farnogue, at the eastern extremity of Ballyteigue bay, which, inadequate as they are, enable the fishermen to go out in the summer season; but the want of a good harbour prevents them from partaking much in the profits of the cod and herring fishery, which is chiefly carried on in the winter. Shell fish are caught in great abundance along the shore. The oysters are much esteemed by some for their size and flavour, but they do not maintain that character in the Dublin market: the lobsters are also reckoned to be of a superior kind. Salmon, white trout, eels, and the pearl muscle are taken in the Slaney. The chief commerce of the county is in the export of agricultural produce, especially barley, to various ports on the British coast. The chief markets for grain are Wexford, Enniscorthy, and Castlebridge; the first is the port for the two others. New Ross has also a considerable trade in the same produce. The surplus butter is either taken to Gorey, and there sold for the Dublin market, or exported from Wexford and Waterford to Bristol, Liverpool, &c. There is also a considerable export of cattle, pigs, and poultry, which are shipped at Wexford and Waterford to be exported to England by steam.

The only large river is the Slaney, which enters the county at Newtown-Barry, and flows in a south-eastern course through Enniscorthy to Wexford; the tide flows to Enniscorthy, and the river is navigable so far by large boats: it receives the Bann near Fern, and the Boro south of Enniscorthy. The Bannow is a small stream falling into the harbour of the same name, and chiefly remarkable for the historical reminiscences connected with it. The Corug, another small stream, falls into the same harbour. The Owenvarra empties itself into St. George's Channel at the fishing port of Courtown, in the bay of Kilbride. The Barrow forms a small part of the western boundary from Blackstairs mountain to its confluence with the Nore, whence, assuming the name of the Ross river, it continues to skirt the county, passing by New Ross, and having depth of water sufficient for vessels of large burden; at Great Island it exchanges its new name for that of the Suir, with which it here unites, and the whole body of waters flows southwards, still skirting the county, and disembogues itself in the capacious and safe estuary of Waterford harbour.

The relics of antiquity anterior to the arrival of the English are very few, with the exception of monastic buildings. A fine tumulus or rath stands at Salville or Moatabeg, and another at Donamore, both in the neighbourhood of Enniscorthy. Near Old Ross there is also a rath or tumulus, and two of considerable extent near Dunbrody. Smaller raths are scattered in numbers through the southern baronies: one of the most perfect is at Ballytrent, near Broadway, which has a double mound, and has been lately laid out as a pleasure garden. There are remains of monasteries at Wexford town, Enniscorthy, St. John's to the south of it, Ferns, Dunbrody, Ross, and Clonmines. Tintern abbey has been converted into a residence of the Colclough family. The houses of Ballyhack, Carnsore, and Clonmore, are now parish churches; the remains of Glascarrig are still visible, part being used as a barn. The sites of

the other monastic buildings are either uncertain or wholly unknown: their names are Achadhabla, Airdnecoemhain, Arbensis, Ardladhrann, Camross, Disert-Cheandubhoin, Down, Drum-chaoin-chellaigh, Fionmagh, Horetown, Inverdaoile, Innisbeg, Innisfeal, Kilcloghan or Killogan, Maghere-nuidhe, Seanbhotha, and Taghmon. There were religious houses on each of the little islands of Beg Erin and Derinis. Near Carnsore are the ruins of a very ancient chapel, called St. Vaugh's.

The remains of castellated buildings are still more numerous. At Wexford is White castle, over against the entrance to the harbour, also a castle within the town, since taken down and a barrack erected on its site. Two miles north-west of the town is Carrigg castle, seated on the pinnacle of a rock over the Slaney. Two miles from Wexford is also the castle of Barntown; and that of Ferns is worthy of note both in an historical and architectural point of view. One of the noblest and earliest military structures of the English settlers is Enniscorthy castle. Another of these feudal structures is at Mackmine: Brown's castle, on a projecting point over the river Slaney, about two miles from Enniscorthy, is in ruins. At a short distance from Dunbrody abbey is a curious old fortress, called Cuislan-na-Blahie, or "Buttermilk Castle"; and in the same neighbourhood are the ruins of Killesk, Knockagh, and Kilhile castles. Of Ballykeroge or Button's castle, so called from its founder, Roger de Sutton, considerable ruins still exist; and in the same neighbourhood are a castle at Stokestown, another at Aldertown, a third at Priest's Haggard, and two in the Great Island. On the summit of Mountgarrett, a lofty hill that overlooks the town of New Ross, are the ruins of an ancient castle, from which a branch of the Butler family derives the title of Viscount. On the peninsula of Hook are the remains of Slade castle and Houseland castle; and on its extreme point is the old fort Hook tower, which has recently been converted into a lighthouse. Duncormuck or Croscormuck castle, on the inlet of Bannow, also owes its erection to the English settlers under de Montmorency. There are the remains, more or less perfect, of nearly sixty of these ancient castles, or towers, most of which are situated in the baronies of Forth and Bargy: the principal, not already enumerated, are Johnstown castle, near Wexford, now incorporated with the modern castellated mansion of H. R. G. Morgan, Esq.; Rathmacknee, in the same neighbourhood, which was inhabited by the Knox family within the last seventy years; Bargy, which gave name to the barony, also incorporated with some comparatively modern additions; Butlerstown, Lingstown, Ballycogley, and Cloest, in the barony of Forth; and Ballyhealy, Ballyteigue, Baldwinstown, Coolhull, and Dane's castle, in that of Bargy. Not far from Duncormuck castle is Strongbow's fort, on the head of Bagenbon, where are yet visible the remains of strong intrenchments, attributed to that leader, though it is more probable that they were thrown up by the party under Fitz-Stephen, who landed there two years before, as Strongbow's debarkation took place in the county of Waterford. Duncannon fort, on the eastern bank of Waterford harbour, is modern in comparison with those hitherto noticed. The modern mansions of the nobility and gentry are described in their respective parishes.

WEXFORD, a sea-port, borough, market, post, and assize town, in the barony of FORTH, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 74 miles (S.) from Dublin and 30 1/4 (E. N. E.) from Waterford; containing 10,673 inhabitants. This town, which, as far as can be inferred from the earliest historical notices respecting it, was a maritime settlement of the Danes, is thought to have derived its name, which was anciently written Weisford, from the term Waesfiord (Washford), which implies a bay overflowed by the tide, but left nearly dry at low water, like the washes of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. Nothing further is known respecting it till the time of the English invasion, when it was besieged by Fitz-Stephen and Harvey de Montemarisco, immediately after their landing at Bannow, aided by the Irish army of Dermod Mac Murrough. The townsmen at first marched out to give the invaders battle, but awed by their numbers and discipline they retired within their walls, after having set fire to the suburbs to check the enemy's pursuit: an assault of the besiegers was gallantly repulsed, but at the end of three days they surrendered on condition of recognising the sovereignty of Dermod. The town, with two adjoining cantreds, was then assigned to the two English leaders, conformably with a previous agreement; and Fitz-Stephen, to secure himself in his new possession, immediately commenced the erection of a castle in a position commanding the pass of the Slaney at Carrigg. After the main body of the English had proceeded to Dublin, the Wexford men invested the castle, and having in vain endeavoured to force an entrance, prevailed upon Fitz-Stephen and his garrison to surrender, by means of a fabricated account of the destruction of Strongbow and all his companions in arms. On the arrival of Strongbow, who, after the dispersion of the Irish army before Dublin, had hastened to the relief of Fitz-Stephen, the townsmen quitted Wexford and took refuge in Beg Erin, an island in the harbour, carrying their prisoners with them as hostages for their own good treatment. The plan succeeded: on the arrival of King Henry, they gave up their prisoners and were allowed to return peaceably to Wexford, which they now promised to hold under his authority. Henry, on his hurried departure from Ireland to suppress an insurrection in Normandy, gave the town in charge to William Fitz-Aldelm, Philip de Braosa, and Philip of Hastings, with a body of 50 knights. In 1174 he granted the town to Strongbow, who, during his residence in it, celebrated the marriage of his sister Basilea with Raymond le Gros and appointed him governor. In 1177, Raymond received Fitz-Aldelm here on his arrival as Custos or Governor of Ireland, who placed his kinsman, Walter Almain, in command of the place; but Raymond having been restored, soon after proceeded by sea with part of the garrison to the relief of the city of Cork, which was besieged by an Irish army. After the death of Strongbow, and of all the male issue of his only daughter, who had married William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and the subsequent partition of his immense property among his five granddaughters, Wexford was assigned to Joan, the second sister, who had married Warren de Mountchensey. In 1318 the town received its earliest charter extant from Adomar de Valence, into whose possession it and the lordship came by marriage with Warren's only daughter. In 1327, an Irish army under O'Brien was repulsed from the town with great slaughter. During the struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York it was seized in 1462, by Sir John Butler, whose brother, the Earl of Ormonde, had been just before beheaded by the Yorkists; but having rashly accepted a challenge from the Earl of Desmond, who had advanced to dispossess him, to decide the contest in the open field, he suffered a total defeat: the victorious earl held a parliament in the town in the next year. The lordship, which had been conveyed, through the female line, to Richard Talbot, who married the only daughter of Adomar de Valence, continued in the possession of his descendants, until forfeited in the 28th of Hen. VIII., under the act against absentees. By the charter of Jas. I., in 1608, the castle and borough were granted to the corporation at an annual rent. On the breaking out of the war of 1641, Wexford was one of the first places that fell into the hands of the insurgents, and was their chief port for receiving military supplies from other countries. On the approach of Cromwell, in 1649, the inhabitants at first refused to admit any troops on the part of the king, but afterwards consented to receive 2000 Catholics sent by the Marquess of Ormonde: but the aid was useless, for Cromwell's troops gained admission either by force or through the treachery of Stafford, the governor, and the town was given up to military execution, as had been the case with Drogheda. The castle and much of the corporation property was confiscated at this period. After the battle of the Boyne, the town declared for Wm. III., and was garrisoned by his troops. In 1793, a large body of the peasantry proceeded thither to rescue some Whiteboy prisoners: on their approach a detachment of the garrison was sent out to disperse them, the commander of which, Capt. Valloton, having ridden in advance of his men, for the humane purpose of expostulating with the insurgents on their conduct, was cut down by a scythe: a monumental obelisk erected on the Windmill hill commemorates this deplorable event. During the disturbances of 1798, Wexford was the chief position of the insurgents in the south of Ireland. After the defeat of a detachment of the King's troops, at the Three Rocks, on the 30th of May, on their march to the town, it was evacuated in a panic by the garrison, and immediately taken possession of by the insurgents, who made it their principal station, and kept it till the 21st of the following month, during which time they put to death 91 of their prisoners on the bridge. On the advance of the royal army, after the total defeat of the main body of the insurgents at Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy, it was evacuated with such precipitation that a troop of yeoman-cavalry, which had galloped in advance of the main body, in the hope of preventing the apprehended ill-treatment of their wives and families from the paroxysms of despair of their opponents, entered without the smallest check or opposition. Medals of gold and silver were struck by order of the corporation, to commemorate this event, and given to the officers and privates of the corps. In 1804, the walls underwent a thorough repair, at the expense of the corporation, on which occasion a piece of plate was presented to the mayor.

The town is situated on the lower part of a hill, close to the shore of the estuary of the Slaney, where it opens into the broad but shallow expansion of Wexford haven. Its extent from north to south within the walls is nearly a statute mile, or a mile and a quarter, including the suburb of Faithe at its southern extremity, the name of which is a corruption of Feagh, from the parish of St. Michael of Feagh, in which it is situated. The streets are narrow, partially and indifferently paved, and not lighted; two attempts, made in 1830 and 1833, to bring the town within the provisions of the act of the 9th of Geo. IV., for paving, lighting, and cleansing towns, failed; the proposal being each time rejected by a majority of a public meeting convened for its consideration. An arrangement recently made with a Scotch contractor to light the quay with gas will probably remove this inconvenience, by having the contract extended to the rest of the town. It contains 1820 houses, in general well built and of respectable appearance; the supply of water is partly by pipes laid down by the corporation for improving the quays, and partly from wells, or from the public conduit in the corn-market, erected at the expense of the Marquess of Ely.

The town is connected at its northern end with the grounds on the opposite bank of the Slaney by a bridge commenced in 1794, and opened in 1795; it was constructed wholly of American oak, at an expense of £17,000, by the late Emanuel Cox, an engineer from the United States, and the builder of the wooden bridge at Londonderry: its length was 1571 feet. The collection of the tolls and care of the bridge was committed to a corporation, consisting of the shareholders who contributed towards its erection and some ex-officio members. In consequence of its decayed state the corporation had it repaired, or rather re-constructed, at an expense of £6000, of which £4000 was raised by a mortgage of the tolls, which let, in 1832, for £700 per annum. The structure now consists of two causeways projecting from the opposite banks of the river, and of the respective lengths of 650 and 188 feet; the roadway of the bridge over the intervening space of 733 feet is of timber, supported on 23 sets of piers of the same material, with a drawbridge, to permit the passage of vessels with masts. A quay extends for nearly half a mile from the bridge, having a general breadth of 60 feet, except near its middle, called the Crescent, where it widens to 80 feet. On the opposite shore has been raised the ballast quay, so called from being formed by the ballast deposited there by the shipping: it serves as a breakwater for the protection of the vessels moored on the side towards the town. The former of these quays has received a considerable extension to the south-west by an embankment raised by J. E. Redmond, Esq., which carries it on in a direct line to the end of Fishers'-row, whence a communication with that part of the country will be opened by a road in the same direction to the rock of Maudlintown, where it will form a junction with the Killinick road. A branch of the Bank of Ireland occupies a very neat structure faced with granite, forming the northwestern angle of the Crescent. The Provincial Bank has also an establishment on the quay. A building, with an exterior corresponding with that of the Bank, is about to be erected on the Crescent-quay, for reading-rooms and a library; on the same quay a building is also in progress for the accommodation of the Chamber of Commerce, established in 1831; two reading-rooms have been already opened. The Wexford Union Club, formed in 1833, is held in a building erected for it on the quay. A small and neat theatre was built in the Back-street about four years since, as a private speculation, which not having succeeded, it is used as an auction and commission sale-room, without any alteration in its internal arrangements: a circulating library is kept in its lobby. Balls for public charities and on other occasions are given in the Assembly-rooms, a handsome suite of apartments belonging to the corporation. The castle and its surrounding grounds, granted by Cromwell to a person named Borr, were sold about a century since to the Government by that individual's representative, who contracted to convert it into a spacious barrack; but the transaction having been made the subject of parliamentary inquiry, the contractor, who was a member of the House of Commons, was obliged to vacate his seat and the treaty was put an end to. The present barracks, situated at the commencement of the Faithe, form a considerable range, capable of affording accommodation to 7 officers and 172 men, with an hospital for 12 patients. Several new streets have been opened within the last few years.

The inhabitants, in the time of the Danes, maintained themselves by commerce and piracy: afterwards the fisheries, and chiefly that of herrings, were their main source of subsistence: at present the staple trade of the town is the agricultural produce of the surrounding country, the herring and oyster fisheries, though still of some magnitude in the winter months, having declined considerably, from the withdrawing of the bounties, the poverty of those engaged in it, and the want of safety harbours. The principal manufacture is that of malt, for which there were 38 establishments in 1831, in which from 70,000 to 80,000 barrels of malt were annually made, by much the greater part of which was exported, chiefly to Dublin: the quantity has since decreased. A distillery, lately built on a large scale in the suburbs, consumed 25,000 barrels of grain in the same year: there are breweries, tan-yards and rope-walks in the town and suburbs. The magnitude of the export trade maybe estimated by the fact that, in 1831, upwards of 300,000 barrels of grain were purchased by the merchants, chiefly for export either in the raw state or malted: that of cattle during the same period was very considerable, and 28,000 firkins of butter were exported: since the place has been made a bonding port the coasting trade has diminished, but that to Great Britain has increased proportionally; a store for bonded tea has been erected. The amount of customs' duties for 1835 was £4920. 13. 10.; and for 1836, £6306. 10. 9. The amount of the excise duties collected in the Wexford revenue district, for the former year, was £76,453. 19. 8 1/4.

The port or haven is formed by two low sandy peninsulas approaching each other from the north and south, and separated by a narrow entrance half a mile broad between Rosslare and Raven points. On the outside is a bank of shifting sand, which has been for some years gradually increasing, so that in the part where it is lowest, and which therefore is the principal passage to the haven's mouth, there is only six feet of water at the ebb of spring tides; and as the rise of springs is but six feet, and at neaps from three to four, vessels of every size larger than fishing boats must ride outside exposed to the danger of shipwreck before there is a sufficient depth of water to float them in: the navigation of the interior of the harbour, a distance of five miles, is both intricate and shallow. Several expedients have been suggested by Sir John Rennie in a report on the subject, for the diminution of those obstacles to the safe navigation of the haven, but none of them have been yet acted upon. Notwithstanding these formidable obstacles the commerce is considerable; there are 110 registered vessels, of the aggregate burden of 6500 tons, and navigated by 600 seamen, belonging to the port; these are chiefly engaged in the British and coasting trade. The port is considered to be a great nursery for seamen, as there is always a considerable proportion of apprentices in the merchants' service there. There are two steamers on the Wexford and Liverpool station, one of which sails every week in winter and twice a week in summer, carrying live cattle, provisions, merchandise, and passengers. The shipping interests have been materially promoted by the construction of a patent slip and ship-building yard, by Mr. Redmond, at the southern extremity of his new embankment, from which a vessel of 70 tons has been already launched; the vessels belonging to the port had been previously built at Milford and Liverpool. The trade with the interior of the country is carried on chiefly by the Slaney, which is navigable to Enniscorthy; it is proposed to establish a line of steamers between the two towns. The principal market is on Saturday; there is one for poultry, butter, eggs, and small wares on Wednesday: meat, fish, and vegetables are exposed for sale daily. The shambles occupy one side of a street leading from the quay; the butter market is held underneath the Court of Conscience, the corn and potato market in a square named the corn-market; poultry is vended in the public street. Fairs are held on Whit Monday and the 29th of June, on the Windmill Hill; on the 24th of Aug. in the Faithe; and on the Saturday before Shrovetide, March 17th, May 1st, Sept. 29th, and Nov. 1st. in the town.

The first charter to Wexford on record is that of Adomar de Valence in 1318, already noticed, which was confirmed and extended by that of the 12th of Hen. IV., in 1411, and again confirmed by Elizabeth in 1558. The act of the 28th of Hen. VIII. for vesting the estates of absentees in the crown, under which that of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was confiscated, was followed by another specially confirming the liberties and privileges of the corporation of Wexford. A third charter was granted by Jas. I., in 1608, which is the latest now in force; that subsequently granted by Jas. II., in 1688, having been annulled after the revolution. The corporation is one of those subjected to the new rules of the 25th of Chas. II. By the charter of Jas. I. the ground within the ancient limits of the town and its suburbs was made a free borough corporate, by the name of "the Town or Free Borough of Wexford," to consist of a mayor, two bailiffs, free burgesses and commonalty, and the body so incorporated was called "the Mayor, Bailiffs, Free Burgesses, and Commonalty of the Town or Borough of Wexford;" the mayor to be a justice of the peace within the borough and county, also to be escheator, coroner, clerk of the market and master of the say; and a court to be held every second Monday before the mayor and bailiffs, with civil jurisdiction to any amount. It also grants a guild of the merchants of the staple, of which the retiring mayor and bailiffs are to be mayor and constables for the ensuing year. At present the mayor appoints a deputy; there are 23 other burgesses; no recorder has been appointed for many years and the mayor's court has fallen into disuse; but that functionary still exercises occasionally a right to attach the property of persons about to go beyond the limits of his jurisdiction. The corporation still possesses large portions of its original lands; but as many of them are let on long leases or in perpetuity, at very low rates, the income from this source does not exceed £270 per ann.; tolls were levied to the average amount of £900 per ann., but the demand for them has been discontinued for some years, in consequence of the right being disputed. A court of conscience is held by the mayor every week for debts under 40s. Irish; imprisonment for two months by this court cancels a debt under 20s. and for four months one under 40s. The mayor regulates the assize of bread. The assizes for the county are held in the town, and also the Epiphany and Midsummer general sessions for this district of the county, at which the mayor takes precedence of all the other county magistrates on the plea of his commission bearing date from the granting of the governing charter: petty sessions are held weekly and special road sessions twice in the year. Two minor corporations have been formed under an act of the 34th of Geo. III.; these are the Quay Corporation and the Bridge Corporation. The Quay Corporation, composed of the mayor, bailiffs, burgesses, town-clerk, port collector, and the members for the county and town, with 36 others elected by a majority of the persons attending (seven to be a quorum), is a corporation with power to levy rates on the vessels entering the port, to be applied towards making, maintaining, and improving the harbour, quays, and passages to them; it has also the regulation of the pilotage and of the supply of pipe water, and is invested with certain powers towards the cleansing and economy of the town. Under this authority the avenues to the quay are kept in repair by this body, and a pilot establishment has been formed, consisting of two smacks with a sail boat and row boat attached to each; the pilot station is near Rosslare fort. The receipts of the corporation, in 1834, were £2686; the expenditure £2677. The borough corporation repaired the streets up to the period of the interruption of the collection of tolls, since which the streets have been neither cleaned nor repaired; all the thoroughfares up to the town are kept in order by the county grand jury. The Bridge Corporation consists of the subscribers to the fund for building the bridge across the Slaney at Wexford, who are empowered to levy tolls thereon for defraying the expenses of its erection and repairs, and to divide the surplus revenue among the subscribers rateably. The courthouse, situated on the quay, opposite to the end of the bridge, is a neat structure, erected at the expense of the county, and consists of a centre and two wings, with its entrance under a pediment supported by two columns. The county gaol and house of correction stands at the entrance of the town from New Ross, enclosed by a wall from 16 to 20 feet high, with an entrance between two turnkeys' lodges. It consists of a centre and two wings: the interior contains 58 sleeping-cells, 12 day-rooms, and 16 airing-yards, with a detached hospital: the male prisoners are employed at breaking stones or at the treadmill; the females in washing, spinning and knitting. The borough returned two members to the Irish parliament by a prescriptive right exercised without interruption from 1374 till the Union, at which period the number of its representatives was reduced to one, whom it continues to return under the act of the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88: the mayor is the returning officer. The present number of electors is about 330: the limits of the electoral boundary are fully detailed in the Appendix. The environs contain a number of handsome houses and neat villas, the residences of the gentry connected with the town. Within the last few years new roads have been opened between Wexford, Duncannon Fort, New Ross, and Enniscorthy, the last-named of which is now the mail coach road: a new approach to the town from the Carrigg bridge road is contemplated, as is the formation of a short canal of four miles to the bathing village of Curracloe.

The union of Wexford, in the diocese of Ferns, and in the patronage of the Bishop, consists of the rectories of St. Patrick's, Maudlintown, Killilogue or Kerlogue, Drinagh, Rathaspick, Kildavin, and Ardcandrisk; the rectory and vicarage of St. Mary's, and the impropriate cures of St. Iberius (Wexford), St. Bridget's or Bride's, St. Selsker's or Sanctum Sepulcrum, St. Tullogue's or St. Euleck's, St. Peter's, St. Michael's of Feagh, and Carrigg: of these, the parishes of St. Patrick, St. Mary, St. Iberius, St. Bridget, St. Selsker and St. Tullogue are within the walls, and being entirely built upon, pay no tithes or dues of any kind; the rest, which are without the walls, are described under their respective heads. The glebe of St. Patrick's, now the site of the parochial school, contains 20 perches; that of St. Mary's, now a dwelling-house and offices, 2 roods; of St. Selsker's, now a garden, 20 perches; and of St. Tullogue's, now the site of five small houses, 1 rood; making a total of 1 acre of glebe land within the walls. By a return to a regal visitation made in 1615, it appears that there were then 20 churches in the town; at present there are but two, those of St. Iberius and St. Selsker. The former, erected in the latter part of the last century, is now the principal, though not the mother church of the union, that of Rathaspick being so considered, and the new incumbent being therefore inducted first into it and afterwards into each of the other churches. It is a plain structure with stone quoins and surmounted with a cupola; the interior has a gallery round three sides, and the fourth, containing the altar, forms a semicircular recess separated from the body of the building by an open screen of two pilasters and two columns: the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have granted £252 for its repair. The church of St. Selsker is a small edifice, erected in 1818 at an expense of £1400, in the early style of English architecture, with pannelled buttresses at the angles, terminating in pinnacles, and plain buttresses between the lancet-shaped windows on each side and a combination of three similarly shaped windows at the east end; the body of the church is connected by a small vestibule with the massive ancient tower of the old church: the interior is fitted up with open seats instead of pews: there are several monuments of great antiquity in the church-yard. In St. John's churchyard is a handsome mausoleum erected by J. H. Talbot, of Talbot Hall, Esq., to the memory of his wife. In the R. C. divisions the union or district of Wexford extends over the whole of the town and suburbs, and includes 11 of the 16 parishes constituting the Protestant union: of the remaining five, Drinagh, Rathaspick, and Kildavin are included in the union or district of Piercestown; Carrigg and Ardcandrisk in that of Glynn. The chapel of the Franciscans has been long used as the principal chapel of the Wexford union. The conventual Franciscans settled here in the reign of Henry III.: about the year 1380 they obtained possession of the convent and church of St. Bridget and St. John, which had previously belonged to the Knights Hospitallers: at the dissolution the buildings and lands were granted in perpetuity to two laymen. The community at present consists of a guardian elected triennially at a general meeting of the Franciscan order in Dublin, and six friars. The building is a plain edifice, with the exception of a modern addition erected for a library, which contains a valuable collection of theological works, chiefly of the early Christian fathers, and also books in other departments of literature. The building, which is surmounted by a turret with a cupola and cross, and furnished with a clock, was erected under the superintendence of the Rev. R. Walsh, late guardian of the convent, who, with the aid of a subscription for the purpose, also collected the library, chiefly from the continent. The chapel, dedicated to St. John and St. Bridget, and supposed to occupy the site of that of the ancient monastery of the Franciscans, is a large unornamented pile: the burial-ground attached to it has been lately enlarged, and a commodious house for the clergyman has been built adjoining the chapel, at an expense of about £1000. The nunnery was established in 1818 for nuns of the order of the Presentation: their house, adjoining the Franciscan convent and erected principally at the expense of the late Mr. Carrol, of the Faithe, contains a small chapel elegantly fitted up at the expense of the Countess of Shrewsbury, who presented £200 for that purpose: it is open on Sundays as a public place of worship: beneath the chapel is a commodious schoolroom, in which the girls originally attached to the Lancasterian school, and those belonging to the Redmond female orphan-house, are gratuitously educated by the ladies of the order, and also instructed in useful and ornamental needle-work. The Wesleyan Methodists have two places of worship: a congregation in connection with the Irish Evangelical Society, and another, called the separatists, meet in private houses.

The diocesan school for the see of Ferns, situated to the north of the town, on the road from Ferry-Carrigg, was built in 1800, at the expense of the county, on a piece of ground leased by the late R. Neville rent-free for 30 years, with a right reserved of charging it with a rent not exceeding £50 per annum at the end of that period, which has not since been demanded by the present proprietor, Sir W. R. P. Geary, Bart. The school has accommodation for 40 boarders and 6 daily pupils, and has a large play-ground attached: the master receives a salary of £70, paid by the bishop and the beneficed clergy of the diocese: an additional salary of £100 was paid by the corporation until the discontinuance of the payment of tolls. The parochial school, founded in 1824, and situated on the glebe of the parish of St. Patrick, is a neat building, consisting of a centre and two wings, and containing two school-rooms, in which 77 boys and 62 girls are instructed; it is supported by the trustees of Erasmus Smith's charity and by voluntary contributions. St. Peter's college originated in a bequest by the Rev. Peter Devereux, P. P. of Kilmore, made during the existence of the penal code, which prohibited students for the priesthood from being educated at home. It consisted of a farm, the proceeds of which were to provide for the education of two ecclesiastical students in a foreign college: the continental war prevented the bequest being applied to its intended purpose, and a large sum accumulated, which, in 1818 was expended in the purchase of land and the erection of the buildings, which are vested in the R. C. bishop of the diocese and two clergymen as trustees. The college stands on Summer Hill, an elevated situation to the west of the town, and presents the appearance of a large mansion-house, containing accommodation for a president, six professors, and 30 resident pupils, with classrooms for 150 daily pupils: a large addition is now in progress of erection in the Gothic style, to contain a chapel, library, and accommodations for an additional number of professors and pupils; it is to form a quadrangle, the eastern front of which is completed and exhibits a square tower in its centre with octangular turrets at each angle, which will be surmounted with a spire 140 feet high; the interior will be surrounded by a colonnade in the cloister style, enclosing an open area of about 130 feet square. The course of studies comprises all the gradations of instruction from the rudiments to the highest departments in the ancient and modern languages, mathematics, physics, logic, metaphysics and ethics; and, should the wants of the diocese require it, a course of theology to supersede the necessity of students finishing their education at Maynooth. The fees, the maximum of which is limited to £28 per annum, are at present £25 for resident and £6 for daily pupils. Protestant children are admitted without any interference with their religious principles: the profits of the institution are applied exclusively to charitable purposes. The Wexford poor school, founded in 1809 by Mr. W. Doran, is attended by upwards of 300 boys. An infants' school, founded in 1830, affords instruction to upwards of 70 children in a building erected for the purpose. The county infirmary, in the north-western part of the town, contains 10 wards and 35 beds; attached to it is a dispensary, with a house for the surgeon. The county fever hospital, erected in 1818 in the south-western suburb, has six wards, containing 60 beds: during the prevalence of cholera it was used for the reception of patients labouring under that disease. The Earl of Shrewsbury has for the last seven years given £50 per annum to this institution. The house of industry and lunatic asylum was established in 1816 in the old gaol: the former contains two departments, one for the aged and infirm, the other for vagrants and prostitutes: all the inmates able to work are employed; the poor are allowed half of their earnings; vagrants, none. The department for lunatics is now very small, as most of the patients have been removed to the district asylum at Carlow. The Redmond female orphan house was erected in 1829, at an expense of £1900, being the accumulated proceeds of a bequest of £500 by the late Walter Redmond, of Bettyville, Esq., together with a donation of £200 by John H. Talbot, of Talbot Hall, Esq.; the institution, originally intended for 12 orphans, without religious distinction, but containing accommodations for 34, is maintained by a bequest of £120 per annum from the founder, and is under the superintendence of the R. C. bishop and five other trustees; the children are received at an early age and apprenticed at 16: the house stands on part of St. Peter's College lands. A savings' bank and a loan fund have also been opened. Some charitable bequests to the poor of Wexford and the adjoining parishes are distributed by the rector, under the names of Tottenham's fund, Browne's fund, and Tait's charity.

The ruins of the ancient monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul of Selsker, consisting of a tower, now forming part of the present church, and some of the arches, are still in existence. It is said that Cromwell, when he destroyed the church at the sacking of Wexford, carried away the ring of bells, and that they are now in one of the churches in Liverpool: according to tradition, the freedom of the town and exemption from the port dues of Liverpool were granted to the freemen of Wexford in lieu of these bells. There are no remains of the priory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or of the Magdalene leper house. Some portions of the town walls, with five of the towers, three square and two round, are still in a sufficient state of preservation to show that the walls were 22 feet high, and were supported on the inside by a rampart of earth 21 feet thick: ruins of most of the old churches are still visible. Near the west gate was a strong chalybeate spring, now closed up. Many coins have been found at different times, but none of great antiquity: among them are some of copper of the dates 1605 and 1615, evidently struck off for tokens by merchants or dealers to supply the deficiency of legal coin. Near the Windmill hill a rudely carved urn of unbaked clay, containing calcined human bones, was found in 1831. Nicholas French, author of "The Bleeding Iphigenia," and of several other political publications during the reign of Chas. II., was a native of this town. Wexford gives one of his titles of Earl, in the Irish peerage, to the Earl of Shrewsbury.

WHERRY, a parish, in the barony of GARRYCASTLE, KING'S county, and province of LEINSTER; containing, with part of the post-town of Farbane, 3555 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated on the river Brosna, comprises 16,732 statute acres, of which 80 are woodland and more than 7000 are bog; the remainder is divided in nearly equal portions between pasture and tillage. The arable land is of very good quality and favourable to the growth of corn ; but the pasture, except the lowlands near the river, is indifferent, and the meadow land poor. The system of agriculture is slowly improving; there is abundance of limestone, which is quarried for agricultural purposes and for building. The principal seats are Ballylen, the residence of the Rev. H. King, situated in a fine demesne; Killygally, of the Rev. H. Mahon; and Moyclare, of R. Lawder, Esq. Fairs are held at Farbane on Aug. 2nd and Oct. 20th: the Grand Canal passes within a quarter of a mile of the parish. It is a rectory, vicarage, and perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Meath; the rectory is impropriate in the Rev. J. Armstrong and the Rev. H. King; the vicarage forms part of the union of Tessauran; and the perpetual curacy, which is also called Farbane, is in the patronage of the incumbent. The tithes amount to £276. 18. 5 1/2., of which one-half is payable to the impropriator and the other to the vicar. The glebe-house, annexed to the curacy, was built in 1818 at an expense of £500, of which £450 was a gift and £50 a loan from the late Board of First Fruits; the glebe comprises 20 acres, valued at £21 per ann.; and the income of the curacy is £99. 7. 8 1/2, arising from the glebe, a stipend of £55. 7. 8 1/2. payable by the incumbent, and an augmentation of £14 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The church of the perpetual curacy was built in 1804, at an expense of £461 British, of which £327 was raised by parochial assessment and the remainder by subscription; a belfry turret was added to it in 1819 by the same means. In the R. C. divisions the parish is in the diocese of Ardagh, and is the head of a union, called Farbane, comprising also the parish of Tessauran; in each parish is a chapel; that of Farbane is a handsome edifice lately erected. There are five private schools, in which are about 200 children; and a dispensary. There are remains of old castles at Cool and Kilcolgan.

WHIDDY ISLAND, in the parish of KILMACOMOGUE, barony of BANTRY, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 1 3/4 mile (W.) from Bantry; containing 714 inhabitants. It is situated near the inner extremity of the bay of Bantry, and extends from N. E. to S. W. nearly three miles, having an average breadth of about one mile, and comprising 1218 statute acres of excellent land, chiefly under an improved system of cultivation. It is remarkable for the variety of its soil, which in some places consists of a rich loam, and in others of rock, sand, and stiff clay: on the north side are extensive rocks of a black shaly substance, soft and unctuous, and much resembling black lead: it is called Lapis Hibernicus, and was formerly given medicinally in cases of inward bruises, but is now chiefly used by carpenters as black chalk. There are both a fresh and a salt water lake on the island. Three batteries, each consisting of a circular tower surrounded by a deep fosse, and together mounting 18 guns, were built subsequently to the descent of the French fleet here in 1796: there were barracks for seven officers and 188 non-commissioned officers and men of the engineer and artillery departments, but the whole are now entrusted to the care of one man. Along the eastern shore of the island are five small islets, between which and the mainland on the east is the best anchorage in the bay, in five or six fathoms, quite landlocked, and secure from all winds. On an eminence near the eastern point of the island are the ruins of a castle, built by O'Sullivan Bear in the reign of Hen. VI. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was in the possession of Sir George Carew, Lord-President of Munster, and it was ultimately destroyed by Ireton during the civil war of the 17th century. There are also some vestiges of an ancient church, with a cemetery attached. The island forms part of the estate of the Earl of Bantry.

WHITEABBEY, a village, in the parish of CARMONEY, barony of LOWER BELFAST, county of ANTRIM, and province of ULSTER, 4 miles (N.) from Belfast, on the shore of Belfast Lough; containing 71 houses and 391 inhabitants. It takes its name from an old abbey, whose picturesque ruins consist of a chapel, the remains of which denote the early English style of architecture, but at what time or by whom founded is not known.

WHITECHURCH, or TEMPLEGALL, a parish, partly in the baronies of FERMOY and EAST MUSKERRY, county of CORK, but chiefly in the county of the city of CORK, province of MUNSTER, 5 miles (N. W.) from Cork, on the road to Limerick; containing 2856 inhabitants. This parish comprises 10,687 statute acres, of which 2512 are in the barony of Fermoy, 723 in that of East Muskerry, and 7143 in the north liberties of the city. The land is generally cold and the soil light, resting on a substratum of clay-slate: it is chiefly under tillage, but there are some large dairy farms; its proximity to the city affords the facility of procuring an abundant supply of manure, and from the spirited exertions of the Rev. Mr. Morgan and others the system of agriculture is rapidly advancing. A new line of road lately opened from Cork by the perseverance of A. Beale, Esq., proprietor of the Monard iron-works, has stimulated the farmers to clear their rocky grounds; and having established a trade with the city for flags and building-stone, they are deriving an immediate profit in preparing their waste land for future cultivation. This road was constructed at an expense of about £400, of which the Grand Jury gave £190, three gentlemen of the neighbourhood gave £25 each, and the remainder was defrayed by Mr. Beale. In a romantic glen on the western boundary of the parish are the Monard iron-works, an extensive manufactory for spades and shovels, to which is attached a dye - wood mill. A copous and powerful stream, which, after running for two or three miles in a line with the Mallow road, enters the glen, gives motion to the six water wheels of these works, which occupy three fine sites supplied by spacious ponds rising one above the other, the ironworks being attached to the first and second, and the dye-wood mill to the third fall; the glen is handsomely planted, and with the ponds, weirs; and buildings, presents a very picturesque and animated appearance. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Cloyne, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the tithes amount to £784. 12. 3 3/4. The church, rebuilt in 1800, is a spacious structure in the early English style, with a square tower surmounted by a low spire. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Garrycloyne, or Blarney: the chapel is a large and very neat edifice, and near it is a tower, erected in 1834 by the Rev. Mr. Horgan, in imitation of the ancient round towers peculiar to Ireland. The male and female parochial schools are wholly supported by the rector; and about a mile from the village is a large and handsome school-house, built in 1835, under the superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Horgan, P. P., and in connection with the new Board of Education. There are also some private schools and a Sunday school.

WHITECHURCH, a parish, in the barony of HALF-RATHDO\VN, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER, 5 miles (S.) from the General Post-Office; containing, with the villages of Whitechurch, Ballyboden, and Rockbrook, 1710 inhabitants. The parish comprises 2833 statute acres of very varied surface; the northern portion, though lying high with respect to the sea level of Dublin hay, is generally flat and of good quality, highly improved by continued cultivation; the southern rises into heights of considerable elevation, forming the base of the northern range of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, whence the Cruagh river and another of smaller size, both carrying down a considerable volume of water during the rainy season, though nearly dry in summer, irrigate the whole district from south to north, and after uniting their streams join the Dodder at Rathfarnham. Each of these has several mill sites, on which are paper-mills at present little used, though capable of executing much work, and cotton-factories that employ about 120 hands in the aggregate: attached to the works of Mr. Bewley are bleaching grounds and an extensive laundry. The mountain land produces only pasturage, and about 550 acres of it are a barren waste, but they supply inexhaustible stores of granite, which is in great demand for the public buildings and the more ornamented dwelling-houses in Dublin and the surrounding country. The military road through the county of Wicklow passes by the villages of Ballyboden and Rockbrook. The greater portion of the cultivated part of the parish is enclosed in the demesnes and grounds of the gentry who reside here, all of which, from the situation of the land that forms a gentle declivity from the mountainous parts to the shores of Dublin bay, command fine views of the beautiful and highly cultivated valley of the Liffey and the basin of the bay itself, with its back-grounds of Howth, Lambay, and the Carlingford and Mourne mountains in the distance. Marlay, the residence of John David La Touche, Esq., took its name from Bishop Marlay, whose daughter was married to the Rt. Hon. David La Touche, by whom the place was built: the demesne contains about 400 acres, and enjoys all the advantages which fertility, high cultivation, variety of surface, copious supply of water, rich and varied planting and extent of prospect can bestow: the gardens, containing about four acres, are stocked with a large selection of native and exotic plants and have extensive ranges of glass. In a sequestered spot is a mausoleum with a monument to the memory of Elizabeth, Countess of Lanesborough, sister to the present proprietor. Among the other seats are Hollypark, the beautiful residence of the late Jeffrey Foote, Esq., situated at the base of Stagstown Hill, and tastefully laid out, with a well-planted deer-park attached to it; Glen-Southwall, better known by the name of the Little Dargle, as being a miniature resemblance of the celebrated valley of that name at Powerscourt, the seat of C. B. Ponsonby, Esq., by whom the grounds are thrown open for the inspection of visiters; Larch Hill, the residence of J. O'Neil, Esq.; Hermitage, of R. Moore, Esq.; the Priory, now of G. Hatchell, Esq., and previously that of the celebrated Rt. Hon. John Philpot Curran, who resided here during the latter part of his life; The Park, of John Davis, Esq.; Eden Park, of M. Harris, Esq.; Highfield, of John Whitcroft, Esq.; Sommerville, of Eras. Sommers, Esq.; Grange Cottage, of J. Whaley, Esq.; Elm Grove, of P. Morgan, Esq.; St. Thomas, of Mrs. Unthank; Kingston, of Mrs. Jones; Cloragh, of Chas. Davis, Esq.; Tibradden, of J. Jones, Esq.; and Harold's Grange, of C. Fottrell, Esq.

The living is a rectory and perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Dublin: the rectory is appropriate partly to the deanery of Christ-Church, Dublin, and partly to the incumbent of Tallaght: it was erected into a perpetual curacy in 1823, when it was separated from the union of Tallaght, and is in the alternate patronage of the Archbishop and W. Bryan, Esq. The tithes amount to £217. 11. 1., of which £52. 3. 10. is payable to the Dean of Christ-Church, and £165. 7. 3. to the incumbent of Tallaght, who allows the curate a stipend of £69. 7. 3.: 1089 acres of the parish are tithe-free. The new church was erected in 1826, at an expense of £2000, on a site in the grounds of Marlay, given by John David La Touche, Esq.; it is in the pointed style, with a tower and spire: the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £283 towards its repairs. The old church, which has a burial-ground attached to it, and stands on an eminence about half a mile distant, forms a picturesque ruin. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Rathfarnham. There is a Moravian cemetery on the grounds of Marlay, not far from the church. Near it also is a school-house, with apartments for the master and mistress, erected in 1824: about 30 of the pupils are annually clothed. At the Little Dargle are the ruins of a cromlech, the three upright stones of which are still standing, but the table stone has been displaced and lies on the ground near them. At Larch Hill is a druidical circle, with an altar or cromlech in its centre; and on Kilmashogue mountain is a strong chalybeate spa.

WHITECHURCH, a parish, in the barony of NORTH NAAS, county of KILDARE, and province of LEINSTER, 3 miles (N.) from Naas, on the road to Celbridge; containing 279 inhabitants, and comprising 1875 statute acres. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Kildare, forming part of the union of Kill; the rectory is entirely impropriate in the Earl of Mayo. The tithes amount to £105, of which £45 is payable to the impropriator and £60 to the vicar. A priory of Carmelites is said to have stood here.

WHITECHURCH, or CASTLANE, a parish, in the barony of IVERK, county of KILKENNY, and province of LEINSTER, 2 miles (N. E.) from Carrick-on-Suir, on the road to Kilkenny; containing 778 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the river Lingan, near its junction with the Suir, and comprises 1312 acres, as applotted under the tithe act, all arable and pasture land; there is abundance of limestone, and the system of agriculture has much improved. The seats are Castletown, the fine mansion of Michael Cox, Esq., situated in a well-wooded demesne and built by Archbishop Cox, grandfather of the present proprietor; Ballycaushlawne Lodge, the residence of R. B. Osborne, Esq.; and Anneborough, of the late R. Sauce, Esq. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Ossory, and in the patronage of the Crown and the Bishop; the tithes amount to £221. The church is a neat building with a spire, erected by Archbishop Cox, and to which, in 1766, the late Board of First Fruits gave £200, and in 1820 £300. The glebe-house was built in 1813, by aid of a gift of £400 and a loan of £316 from the same Board; the glebe comprises 16 acres. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Templeorum. The parochial school is supported by the Earl of Besborough and the rector, and two other public schools are maintained by Mrs. Cox; in these schools about 140 children are instructed: there are also a private school and a dispensary.

WHITECHURCH, a parish, in the barony of IFFA and OFFA WEST, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, 3 miles (S. W.) from Cahir, on the road to Clonmel; containing 1218 inhabitants. This parish is situated upon a branch of the river Suir, and comprises 1378 acres, the greater part of which is arable and pasture land. A woollen manufactory was carried on here some years since, but from want of proper encouragement was given up. It is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Lismore, and forms part of the union of Tubrid. In the R. C. divisions it is the head of a union or district, called, from the village, Ballylooby, and comprising the parishes of Whitechurch, Tubrid, and Tullaghorton, in which union are two chapels; that in Whitechurch is a modern building. There are two private schools, in which about 150 children are instructed.

WHITECHURCH,a parish, in the barony of DECIES-WITHOUT-DRUM, county of WATERFORD, and province of MUNSTER, 5 miles (W.) from Dungarvan, on the mail coach road from Waterford, through Youghal, to Cork; containing 3176 inhabitants. This place was the scene of repeated hostilities during the parliamentary war: in 1645, Sir Richard Osborne, then proprietor of Knockmoan castle, notwithstanding his scrupulous observance of the cessation of hostilities which had been previously concluded, was closely besieged by the Earl of Castle-haven, to whom he was compelled to surrender. The castle was delivered up to Lord Lisle in 1646, and in 1649, while Cromwell was besieging Dungarvan, it was besieged and taken by a detachment of his army, by whom it was afterwards demolished. The parish comprises 9149 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act: the land is of good quality, and the system of agriculture very much improved. Limestone abounds on the lowlands, and marl of rich quality is obtained in several places; on the high grounds brown freestone and green flag-stone are found in abundance; manganese is also found at Cappagh, but has not been worked to any extent, and at Carriglea is a stratum of pure black marble. Ballyntaylor, the property of J. Musgrave, Esq., formerly a seat of the Osborne family, is pleasantly situated in the southern part of the parish, within half a mile of the picturesque ruins of Knockmoan Castle. The other seats are Mount Odell, the property of J. Odell, Esq., of Carriglea, also in this parish, the latter a handsome mansion in the later English style, pleasantly situated in a highly improved demesne, commanding some fine mountain scenery; Cappagh, of R. Usher, Esq., a handsome residence embracing some picturesque and romantic scenery; and Whitechurch, of R. Power, Esq., pleasantly situated in grounds tastefully laid out. The farm-houses are of very superior character. At Cappagh is a lake from which a stream issues, and after turning a mill pursues a subterranean course for nearly two miles, emerging at Canty, where it falls into the river Brickey. A fair is held on the 5th of August, and at Cappagh is a constabulary police station.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Lismore, episcopally united to that of Lickoran, and in the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire, in whom the rectory is impropriate: the tithes amount to £525, of which £350 is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar; the gross value of the benefice is £202. 12. 6. The church, towards the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits granted a loan of £600, is a neat edifice, built in 1831. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union of Aglish: the chapel is a spacious edifice. About 90 children are taught in the parochial school at Ballyntaylor, supported by J. Musgrave, Esq.; and there are two private schools, in which are about 130 children. There are some remains of the ancient castle of Kilmoan, said to have been originally built by a lady, whose tombstone was long shown here; they occupy the summit of a lofty limestone rock, surrounded by a deep morass, the only passage across which was a narrow causeway. Near Cappagh is an ancient building, said to have belonged to the Knights Templars; and near Ballylemon, when searching for marl, the skeletons of several moose deer were found. In the limestone rocks are two extensive caverns, situated near each other; one, called Ooni-na-glour, or "the pigeon hole," is divided into two chambers, through the innermost of which runs a small stream that disappears at Ballymacourty, and after passing through this cavern emerges from its subterraneous course at Knockane; the largest chamber is of elliptical form, and about 150 feet in length, very beautifully ornamented with stalactites and crystallizations of various forms. The other cavern, which is called Oon-na-mort, contains numerous chambers, and has been repeatedly occupied as a place of religious retirement. Near the river Phinisk is another cavern called Oon-na-glour, about 100 feet square, of which the roof is very lofty in some parts; there is also a small cavern at Bewley, within a very short distance.

WHITECHURCH, a parish, partly in the barony of BANTRY, but chiefly in that of SHELBURNE, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 4 3/4 miles (S. S. W.) from New Ross, on the road to Fethard; containing 1328 inhabitants. After the battle of New Ross in 1798, the insurgents under the command of the Rev. Philip Roche encamped on Slieve Kieltre, a lofty eminence partly in this parish, and during their continuance here a detachment from the main body destroyed a gun brig lying off Pilltown. The parish is situated on the Ross river, by which it is bounded on the west; it comprises 5017 statute acres, chiefly under tillage; the soil is in some parts good, and the system of agriculture has in particular instances been brought to a high state of perfection; green crops, and an extensive system of drainage, introduced by the late Mr. Glascott, have been continued with great success on the estate of Pilltown, and are gradually being adopted on other estates; but in the central and inland parts of the parish, the soil of which is chiefly of a poor quality, the old system of agriculture is still practised. Lime, and a testaceous sediment found on the banks of the river, are in general use for manure. There are some patches of bog on the sides of Slieve Kieltre, and on the summit of that eminence is an extended plain, forming a good sheepwalk, and serving as a common for the adjoining estates. A black mould resembling tin ore appears in veins in many parts of the parish, and there are quarries of roofing slate of an indifferent quality. The river, which abounds with the finest salmon, is here navigable for vessels of several hundred tons, and the inlets to Pilltown and Camlin are navigable for small vessels. At the village of Whitechurch is a station of the constabulary police. Pilltown, the seat of W. M. Glascott, Esq., is pleasantly situated on the Ross river, and surrounded by an extensive demesne embellished with thriving plantations. Landscape, now the residence of John Ussher, Esq., derives its name from the beautiful view it embraces of the river and the ornamental grounds of Castle Annaghs on the opposite bank; it is surrounded with a fine plantation of fir, sycamore, beech, and oak trees. Stokestown, now the residence of Jos. Deane, Esq., is similarly embellished; and Killowen is the pleasing seat of Capt. Glascott.

The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Ferns, united by act of council, in 1723, to the rectory Of Kilmokea, together constituting the union and corps of the prebend of Whitechurch in the cathedral of Ferns, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £348. 18. 5 1/2., and the entire tithes of the benefice to £646. 3. There is a glebe of 2 acres in this parish, and one of 12 acres in that of Kilmokea, on which is the glebe-house. The church is a plain building without either tower or spire; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £190 for its repair and improvement. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Horeswood; there is a neat chapel near the village of Old Court. At Stokestown is an excellent school-house with apartments for the master and mistress, built at an expense of £500 by the late Mrs. Erith Paul, who by her will, in 1810, endowed the school with £800, and with 2 1/2 acres of ground for the use of the teachers; she also bequeathed a further sum, of which the interest was to be applied to the relief of such poor aged and infirm persons as her trustees should appoint. These legacies were paid over to the Commissioners for Charitable Bequests, but delays, occasioned by official difficulties, having occurred in their appropriation, the funds accumulated to about £6000, and are now vested in the 3 1/2 per cents., and the interest regularly applied as follows: £50 per ann. to the master and mistress of the school, £50 for apprenticing the children, and the remainder, £107. 18., in annuities of £8. 6. per ann. to 13 aged and infirm persons. A parochial school-house was built in 1831 near the village of Whitechurch, on an acre of ground given by W. W. Glascott, Esq.; it was erected and is partly supported by subscription; and there is a national school attached to the R. C. chapel: in these schools about 140 children are educated.

WHITECHURCH-GLYN, a parish, in the barony of BANTRY, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 3 miles (N.) from Taghmon, near the road to Enniscorthy: containing 1738 inhabitants. It comprises 6730 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, partly in pasture, but chiefly in tillage: the new road from Wexford to New Ross passes through the southern part of the parish. It is an impropriate cure, in the diocese of Ferns; the rectory is partly impropriate in the Earl of Portsmouth, and the remainder, which was formerly impropriate in the Colclough family, was, about the year 1740, purchased by the late Board of First Fruits for the endowment of the impropriate cure, which now forms part of the union of Killurin. The tithes amount to £260. 1. 1 1/2., of which £45. 7. 4 1/2. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the incumbent. In the R. C. divisions the parish is partly in the union or district of Taghmon, but chiefly in that of Glyn.

WHITEGATE, a village, partly in the parish of AGHADA, and partly in that of CORKBEG, barony of IMOKILLY, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 5 miles (S. W.) from Cloyne; containing 496 inhabitants. It is situated upon the south-western side of the harbour of Cork, and on the road from Cloyne to Carlisle fort, containing 46 houses, which are all small, but neat and well built, and being white-washed have a pretty and cheerful appearance. A considerable fishery is carried on, in which 6 boats of from 15 to 20 tons' burden are regularly employed during the season in taking hake, mackerel, and herrings; and about 20 boats of from 5 to 10 tons are engaged in conveying sand to Cork, Midleton, and other places. Two boats occasionally ply from the village to the Cork and Cove markets during the summer season. A steam-boat from Cork comes every Tuesday to a small pier situated about one mile north-east from the village. Here are three schools under the superintendence of the Rev. John Gore, one for boys, founded and endowed by the late Col. Fitzgerald, of Corkbeg, in 1831; the others are a female and an infants' school, maintained by Mrs. Blakeney Fitzgerald, by whom the school-houses were erected. The country around is exceedingly fertile, and is embellished with several elegant mansions, the principal of which are Corkbeg House, the residence of R. M. Penrose Fitzgerald, Esq.; Whitegate House, of Mrs. Blakeney Fitzgerald; Trabolgan, of E. Roche, Esq.; Hadwel Lodge, of J. Penrose, Esq.; and Aghada House, of J. Roche, Esq. Close to the village are the ruins of the castle and church of Corkbeg, and near the ruins of the old church a new one is about to be erected.

WHITEHALL, a village, partly in the parish of SHANKILL, but chiefly in that of KILMOCAHILL, barony of GOWRAN, county of KILKENNY, and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (S. W.) from Leighlin-bridge, on the road to Kilkenny; containing 33 houses and 212 inhabitants.

WHITEHOUSE, a village, in the parish of CARNMONEY, barony of LOWER BELFAST, county of ANTRIM, and province of ULSTER, 3 miles (N.) from Belfast, on the road to Carrickfergus; containing 132 inhabitants. It is situated on the shore of Belfast lough, and is principally occupied by the proprietors and workpeople of the cotton factories, to which it owes its origin: the first cotton-mill established in Ireland was erected here, in 1784, by Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw, whose sons still carry on the manufacture in all its branches; the buildings are very extensive, and the spinning of yarn and weaving of cotton and muslin afford employment to above 1000 persons. Here are also some very large print-works, erected by another of Mr. Grimshaw's sons, in which more than 200 persons are employed. The village is neatly built, and its inhabitants are in comfortable circumstances. It has a penny post to Belfast and Carrickfergus; petty sessions are held every three weeks, and there is a coast-guard station, being one of eight in the district of Carrickfergus. Fairs are held on the first Tuesday in May and Nov., principally for cattle.

WHITESTOWN, a village, in the parish of CARLINGFORD, barony of LOWER DUNDALK, county of LOUTH, and province of LEINSTER, 3 1/2 miles (S. E.) from Carlingford; containing 370 inhabitants. It is situated near the eastern coast and entrance to the bay of Carlingford, and comprises 58 houses, mostly inhabited by farmers and agricultural labourers.

WICKLOW (County of), a maritime county of the province of LEINSTER, bounded on the east by St. George's Channel; on the north, by the county of Dublin; on the west, by those of Kildare and Carlow, with detached portions of that of Dublin; and on the south, by that of Wexford. It extends from 52° 35' to 53° 16' (N. Lat.), and from 5° 58' to 6° 55' (W. Lon.); comprising, according to the Ordnance survey, 494,704 statute acres, of which 400,704 consist of improved lands, and 94,000 of unprofitable mountain and bog, &c. The population, in 1821, was 110,767; and in 1831, 121,557.

According to Ptolemy, the inhabitants of this part of the island, and also of the present county of Kildare, were the Cauci, supposed to have been of Belgic-Gaulish extraction. But it is chiefly celebrated as the country of the Byrnes and the O'Tooles, the former of whom occupied the northern and eastern parts, and the latter the south-western. The country of the Byrnes on the western side of the mountains was called the Ranelagh, or Kilconnell, and in Queen Elizabeth's time, Pheagh Mac Hugh's country, from the name of the chief of the Byrnes. Another sept of the Byrnes inhabited the eastern side, bordering on the sea; while the country of the O'Tooles was called Imale, and comprised the mountain regions surrounding the great glen of Imale. The O'Cullans possessed a tract along the northern confines, but they are scarcely mentioned after the Anglo-Norman invasion; and the Danes appear to have had some settlements on the coast. After the arrival of the English, the maritime portions of the county most easy of access were partitioned among the adventurers, and the Byrnes were compelled to retire to the mountains, as also were the O'Tooles, who had previously occupied part of the county of Kildare. On the division into counties by King John, this extensive region was included in that of Dublin; but the septs of the mountains did not acknowledge the English jurisdiction until many centuries after. Secured from successful pursuit by their mountain fastnesses, they waged an incursive warfare against the surrounding English settlements, and more particularly against the citizens of Dublin, of whom, on one occasion, they slaughtered three hundred at Cullen's-wood, where the latter had assembled for recreation at Easter. Besides several fortresses built for private protection, royal castles to keep the natives in check were erected at Newcastle and at Castle Kevin near Annamoe, but with little effect. Piers Gaveston, in the reign of Edw. II., drove back the septs with considerable slaughter into their mountain fastnesses, after which they became so powerful that they were accustomed to make formal treaties with the English authorities. They were, however, so overawed by the first military expedition of Rich. II., that they agreed, with the rest of the native tribes, to evacuate Leinster; but in 1398, after this monarch's return to England with his army, the fulfilment of the agreement was refused; upon which Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, the king's lieutenant, attended by the Earl of Ormond, marched against the septs of Byrne, and drove them from their lands in Wicklow; but at the very moment of their triumph, while feasts were held and knights created in honour of this success, they were disturbed by the intelligence of a victory gained by the neighbouring sept of O'Toole, who slaughtered a considerable number of the king's forces. The Byrnes retired into Ossory, and there maintained the war with obstinacy; and Mortimer, pursuing them with more courage than circumspection, was surprised, defeated, and slain. About 1402, the septs of Wicklow were severely chastised by the arms of the magistrates of Dublin; and in later times they sued to become English subjects. In the 34th of Hen. VIII., the Byrnes of the mountains, who had lately sworn allegiance, earnestly desired that their country might be converted into a distinct county, and called the county of Wicklow; but this request was either neglected or refused. When the opponents of the English government had acquired increased strength by fomenting religious dissensions, the celebrated Pheagh Mac Hugh Byrne, in the years 1577, 1578, and 1580, in alliance with several disaffected lords, harassed the English pale; and in the last-named year obtained a sanguinary victory over the lord-deputy's forces at Glendalough, whither they had penetrated with great difficulty. In 1595, on a reverse of fortune, he made his submission at Dublin. In 1596, his sept was defeated by the British troops, after a sharp action; and in the following year, Pheagh Mac Hugh fell in an engagement with the lord-deputy, Sir William Russell. His son Phelim Mac Pheagh was chosen in his place as chief of the Byrnes, and in 1600 made a humble submission to Queen Elizabeth, together with several other Irish toparchs. An expedition was undertaken against him, however, in the same year; but the country was reduced to comparative tranquillity in 1605, in the reign of James I., and during the lieutenancy of Sir Arthur Chichester, by being erected into a county distinct from that of Dublin, under its present name. The Byrnes, in the wars of 1641, united with their neighbours of the same party in the counties of Wexford and Carlow, and extended their ravages to the very walls of Dublin. Notwithstanding the cruelties exercised by Sir Charles Coote in his expedition against them, they maintained their cause until Cromwell, after the siege of Drogheda, marched triumphantly through the county, and reduced every town and fort in it; thus terminating the war in this quarter. In the disturbances of 1798 the county was the scene of many acts of violence, and in the southern part of it several severe conflicts took place. Even after their general suppression, bands of insurgents found a refuge in its mountain recesses, and hence committed extensive depredations, which a large military force was unable to repress. Government at length entered into composition with the principal leaders, in order to restore tranquillity to the country, and cut roads through the wildest districts, and erected barracks at different places in them, which have effected the object proposed, and also tended much to improve the country by facilitating the means of communication through a district previously almost impassable.

The county is partly in the diocese of Ferns, but chiefly in that of Dublin. For purposes of civil jurisdiction it is divided into the baronies of Arklow, Ballinacor, Newcastle, Half-Rathdown, Shillelagh, Lower Talbotstown, and Upper Talbotstown. It contains the incorporated sea-port, market and assize town of Wicklow; the incorporated market-town of Baltinglass; the sea-ports and market-towns of Arklow and Bray; the disfranchised borough, market and post-town of Blessington; the market and post-towns of Rathdrum, Carnew, Dunlavan, Tinahely, and Stratford-upon-Slaney; the post-towns of Newtown-Mount-Kennedy, Enniskerry, Ashford, Annamoe, Delgany, Glanealy, and Newbridge; and the disfranchised borough of Carysfort: the principal villages are Bolinolea, Rathnew, Donard, Kilcoole, Roundwood, and Redcross. It sent ten members to the Irish parliament; two for the county, and two for each of the boroughs of Wicklow, Baltinglass, Blessington, and Carysfort: since the union the two returned for the county at large to the Imperial Parliament have been its sole representatives. The constituency, as registered up to Hilary term, 1837, consists of 330 £50, 168 £20, and 1154 £10 freeholders; and 41 £20 and 156 £10 leaseholders; making a total of 1849 registered electors: the election takes place at Wicklow. The county is included in the Home circuit: the assizes are held at Wicklow, and there are general sessions held there and at Baltinglass. The county court-house and county gaol are at Wicklow, and there is a district bridewell at Baltinglass. The local government is vested in a lieutenant, 12 deputy-lieutenants, and 71 other magistrates; besides whom there are the usual county officers, including 5 coroners. There are 24 constabulary police stations, having in the whole a force of 4 chief and 23 subordinate constables, and 116 men, with 5 horses. The District Lunatic Asylum is in the city of Dublin: there are infirmaries, with dispensaries attached, at Wicklow and Baltinglass; fever hospitals with dispensaries at Arklow, Newtown-Mount-Kennedy, Stratford-on-Slaney, and Enniskerry; and dispensaries at Bray, Kiltegan, Rathdrum, Blessington, Carnew, Coollattin, Tinahely, Dunlavan, Delgany, Dunganstown, and Redcross. The Grand Jury presentments for 1835 amounted to £21,706. 16. 7 3/4., of which £744. 10. 4. was for roads, bridges, &c., being the county charge; £10,920. 0. 5 1/4. for roads, bridges, &c., being the baronial charge; £5401. 2. 3 1/2. for public buildings, charities, officers' salaries, and incidents; £3743. 13. 11. for the police; and £897. 9. 8. for repayment of advances made by Government. In the military arrangements the county is included in the eastern district; it contained several barrack stations for infantry, which have been converted to the use of the constabulary force and other purposes, except that at Baltinglass, which is still occupied as a military barrack, and contains accommodation for one officer and 25 men.

The county is somewhat of a rectangular form, about 40 English miles in length from north to south, and 33 in breadth. A vast tract of mountains, composing almost the whole of the baronies of Ballinacor and Upper Talbotstown, with parts of Lower Talbotstown, occupies its entire central portion from the confines of Dublin to those of Carlow, and nearly cuts off all communication between its opposite sides, where there are more fertile districts, thickly inhabited, as the barony of Newcastle on the east, bordering on the sea, and the vales of Blessington and Baltinglass, on the confines of Kildare and Carlow. Its natural divisions are four, the central mountain region, the fertile districts on the east and on the west, and the barony of Shillelagh to the south. The general direction of the mountain ranges is from north-east to south-west: the declivities towards the north and west are mostly abrupt; while on the south and east, where their ascent is commonly more gradual, basins and hollows are scooped out, forming the most romantic glens. These mountains constitute a splendid background to most of the extensive prospects in this and the adjacent counties, and some of their summits command views of superior magnificence. The mountains do not form extended chains, but are assembled in lofty groups separated by precipitous ravines, usually narrow and straight. The groups are eight, that of Kippure on the north; those of Djouce, Thonelagee, Comaderry, and Lugnaquilla in the centre; those of Slieve Gadoe and Cadeen on the west; and that of Croghan Kinshela to the south. The summit of Lugnaquilla, the highest in the county and in the south-east of Ireland, is 3070 feet above the level of the sea; that of Djouce is 2392; of Kippure, 2527; of Thonelagee, 2696; of Slieve Gadoe, 2200; of Cadeen, 2158; and of Croghan Kinshela, 2064. The interior of this large tract, though almost uninhabited, has been rendered accessible by the military road; and on its eastern side are the celebrated scenes of Lough Bray, Luggelaw, Lough Dan, Glendalough, and Glenmalur, all embosomed in mountainous recesses of vast depth, and characterised by wildness and sublimity. To the east of the mountain range, and at the northern extremity of the county, rise two conical mountains called the Great and Little Sugar-loaf, the former 2004 feet high; and Bray Head, a vast mass with a remarkable broken outline, 870 feet high, which projects into the sea to the south of the town of Bray. From the Little Sugar-loaf commences a mountain range of secondary elevation, cultivated in some parts to the very summit, and extending in a direction south by west to the rugged heights of Carrickmacreilly, near Glanealy; and thence sweeping eastward, it joins the range that, to the south of Wicklow, forms the elevated promontory of Wicklow Head. Between this range and the more elevated mountain chain is a cheerless table land, watered by the Vartrey river, and formerly entirely overspread with bogs and rocks, which yet occupy great portions of it, though cultivation has made considerable advances near the lines of road by which it is now intersected. The most conspicuous of the secondary range are the Downs mountain, Dunran, and the mountains above Glanealy. Encircled by these mountains from Bray Head to Wicklow Head, and extending to the coast between those promontories, lies a tract distinguished for its fertility and beauty, which justly entitle it to be called the garden of the county. At an elevation greatly below that of the sheltering range, it is diversified by extensive swells and fertile vales enriched in every direction with fine seats, neat villages, and thriving plantations, opening to the sea on the east, towards which the surface gradually declines, until it reaches a flat tract of boggy marsh, extending along the shore from Wicklow to near Greystones, and protected from the sea only by a broad bank of sand and gravel called the Murrough, presenting at the back a beautiful smooth sward. The streams of the vale find their way through it to the sea at Wicklow and at a place called the Breaches, where the sea is making considerable encroachments. From this shore the view of the encircling amphitheatre of mountains is extremely grand, particularly to those sailing along the coast through the channel between the land and the range of dangerous banks running parallel with it at some miles distance. The encircling range last described displays some of the most splendid of the picturesque scenes of the county, in the Glen of the Downs, Hermitage, Dunran, and the Devil's Glen. Very extensive panoramic views are obtained from the summits of Lugnaquilla and Djouce. The celebrated valley of the Dargle intersects the elevated grounds between the Sugar-loaf mountain and the confines of Dublin county. The peaked cone of the Great Sugar-loaf appears prominent in every prospect on this side of the county, and commands views of great scope and grandeur, extending northwards to the mountains of Mourne in the county of Down, and eastward to those of North Wales. In the country east of the great mountain chain, and south of Wicklow, the only scenes of peculiar beauty are the celebrated vales of the Ovoca and the Avonmore. The general aspect of this part of the county is marked by extensive swells and ranges of elevated ground descending to vales of little picturesque beauty, though the road along the coast, from Wicklow to Arklow, presents many fine sea views. One of the southern extremities of the great central mountain tract is Askeaky, close to Aughrim, from which hill a range of mountainous heights stretches south-westward, by Tinahely and the western side of the Aughrim or Derry river, through Shillelagh, to the confines of Carlow and Wexford counties. The barony of Shillelagh, though much improved of late years through the exertions of the late Earl Fitzwilliam, still wears a rugged and forbidding aspect. The alluvial district to the west of the great mountain range consists for the most part of low, long, and flat hills, with intervening valleys, sometimes spread out into broad meadows of great fertility; the only hills of considerable elevation being those of Baltinglass, 1371 feet high: Brisselstown, 1330; and Spynan's, 1351. This district is enriched with numerous gentlemen's seats, though some parts exhibit a neglect of improvement, such as the great glen or valley of Imale, between five and six miles long and three to four broad, extending from Stratford-upon-Slaney to the foot of Lugnaquilla mountain, and presenting an appearance of desolate wildness, though containing every inducement to cultivation.

The climate of the mountains, though remarkably mild for their elevation, is necessarily moist, and rain frequently falls among them when the low lands on the east side are free from it; the vapours, carried by the prevailing westerly winds, following the summits of the mountains to the sea at Bray Head and Wicklow Head. Although these low lands are exposed to the chilling effect of the east winds in spring, yet, being completely sheltered on every other side, the climate is more genial than that of any other part of the county; and the vigour with which the arbutus, laurestinus, and other delicate shrubs flourish even in elevated situations is very remarkable. The soils of the county are various. A great part of the mountain tract is covered with heath and peat to a considerable depth, underneath which is found a coarse gravel, consisting of decayed granite; and where not encumbered with rocks, it is commonly a deep bog. The table land of the Vartrey has for the most part a thin mould interspersed with bogs, and encumbered with vast masses of granite. The soil of the marsh along the coast is a black peat, but that of the firm land bordering on it is commonly a deep loam of the greatest fertility. Beyond Wicklow to the south, the soil changes into a variety of thin loams and poor gravels on slate rock, extending to the southern confines of the county; marl, however, has been found in one or two places near the Ovoca. Along the banks of the Liffey and the Slaney, on the western side of the mountains, are alluvial strata of limestone gravel, pebble limestone, and loose marl; and in the glen of Imale these are found as high as the base of Lugnaquilla. These strata give a character of fertility to the entire district, except on the border of the county of Dublin, where there is a considerable extent of low hills covered with heath and dwarf furze on a wet and boggy soil, producing very poor herbage in summer, and in winter wholly unprofitable. These soils acquire their unproductive character from a stratum called "the curb" or "griddle," occurring within a few inches of the surface, totally impervious to water, and, though but from four to six inches thick, so hard as to resist the plough and spade: when broken with the pick-axe, however, and intermixed with the substrata of argillaceous earth and limestone gravel, it forms a productive soil: these hills extend from those of Tallaght to Dunlavan. The barony of Shillelagh, like the south-eastern part of the county, is covered with various thin soils, based on clay-slate, and much interspersed with rocks and stones, often of granite. The soils in these lower districts are generally of an argillaceous nature, becoming gradually gravelly and heathy in the vicinity of the mountains.

Cultivation has for many years been rapidly extending up the more improvable mountains, and in the richer districts has undergone considerable amelioration, to which the liberal measures of Earl Fitzwilliam, one of the largest proprietors, have greatly contributed. Tillage is the chief object of husbandry. The only crops in the more elevated situations are potatoes and oats in exhausting succession; wheat and barley, and occasionally green crops, are also cultivated in the lower districts, but the land is commonly left to recover itself under pasture. Turnips are cultivated in the south; and rape is grown by a few agriculturists. Artificial grasses are seldom sown. The enclosed pastures are chiefly fields on which grasses have been left to grow naturally after having been worn out with corn crops; in the eastern part of the county these pastures are luxuriant, particularly near the sea, where cattle are fattened on them. On the banks of the Liffey and Slaney are also many excellent pastures. The upland and mountain pastures, devoted entirely to rearing and feeding store cattle and sheep, are also remarkably good of their kind, and even where bogs most abound there are spots covered with soft grasses. Lugnaquilla, to the very summit, which is nearly flat and clothed with a dry green sward of velvet softness, is a good sheep pasture. The cattle reared in the northern part of the county are chiefly for the Dublin market; in the southern, for those of Ross and Waterford. The milk in the former is chiefly applied to the feeding of lambs for the Dublin market; and in the vicinity of Rathdrum some butter is made that is in high esteem in that city. But the common application of grass lands is to the feeding of store cattle and the produce of hay. Both cattle and sheep are commonly small; and the sheep of the mountains are usually very wild and active. Lime is one of the principal manures ; the cultivation of the land in Shillelagh entirely depends on the use of lime brought from Carlow county. It is also imported to Bray, Wicklow, and Arklow from Sutton, on the south side of Howth, as no limestone is found in the county, except in the alluvial beds, the pebbles of which have sometimes been burned. Marl and limestone gravel are used very extensively. Oxen are employed by many in the labours of husbandry, sometimes in teams by themselves, but more frequently yoked with horses. The agricultural implements are of the ordinary improved construction, and the carriages one-horse cars. In the great vale of Newcastle the country is enriched and enlivened with hedgerows of various growth, interspersed with timber trees, but badly plashed; most other parts exhibit an appearance of nakedness from the fences being commonly composed of rough mounds of earth, covered here and there with furze. Walls are sometimes formed by piling the stones on the mountain lands, but so loosely that breaches are constantly occurring. Frequently the land is so encumbered with rocks as to be utterly valueless until these have been blasted or undermined, and buried. The gardens in the barony of Newcastle are generally very productive. There are a few orchards. Owing to the nature of the country, there is more natural wood than perhaps in any district in Ireland of the same extent: it consists chiefly of coppices, usually cut at 30 years' growth, which enrich some of the most romantic glens. But the finest timber is that in gentlemen's demesnes, with which this county is so much embellished; that in Powerscourt Park and Rosanna is perhaps unequalled in grandeur by any in the island. Large tracts adapted to the growth of timber remain neglected, although Dr. Frizell, of Castlekevin, Hen. Grattan, Esq., M.P., and some other proprietors, by their extensive and flourishing plantations on mountains of considerable elevation, have proved the capabilities of such situations. The natural growth of the country is chiefly oak, birch, and hazel. Of the vast extent of bog and mountain, the greater portion forms the wild region in its centre. The mountainous and uncultivated lands of the entire range were estimated by the surveying engineer, who examined the district with the view of developing its capabilities, at 329,967 acres, of which 97,190 are black bog, and the remainder a moory soil, commonly producing coarse sedgy grass or heath, interspersed in many parts with tracts of pasture land, on some of which large numbers of sheep and young cattle are fed, while others, now unproductive, might be brought into a state of profitable cultivation by draining and manuring. The bogs on the outskirts of the mountains are in some places becoming exhausted by the constant digging for turf; the barony of Newcastle is now beginning to apprehend a deficiency of that valuable article in the marsh extending along the coast northward from Wicklow. The peat of this tract, from its maritime situation, is found to be impregnated with salt, which gives its slight flame a blue colour. To make it fit for use, it is necessary to reduce it to a soft mud and spread it upon the surface to dry, in which state it is divided into lumps of convenient size, and when dry is carried home at the approach of winter; its superior durability compensates for the greater trouble in preparing it than in digging for that of the mountains. In the barony of Shillelagh is a tract several miles in length, called the Derry bog, the principal of the kind south of Lugnaquilla. The ordinary fuel is everywhere peat, though much coal is imported to Bray, Wicklow, and Arklow from Whitehaven, for the gentry and farmers of the surrounding districts.

Wicklow is not less remarkable for the variety and importance of its minerals than for the wild and picturesque beauties of its scenery; it comprises the greater portion of the south-eastern mountain chain of Ireland, composed of formations of granite, mica slate, quartz rock, clay-slate, grauwacke, trap, and porphyry. Nearly the whole of the most elevated and wildest part of the mountain range, in a line from north-east to south-west, is composed of granite, which supports, in geological position, all the other beds, and occupies a tract which, to the north of Lugnaquilla, is about seven miles in breadth; but to the south-west of it, where it descends towards the plains of Carlow, it is greatly expanded. The granite is in general remarkably pure. The size of the grain varies much; some of the largest and most beautifully grained is found at the Scalp and in Glencree; the finest-grained, at the northern foot of Cadeen, in the glen of Imale. It is sometimes porphyritic, as in Glenismaule, Glencree, and the head of the waterfall is Glenmacanass. Numerous other minerals are found imbedded in the granite, and in the veins of quartz that sometimes traverse it, but so small in quantity as to be considered merely adventitious. The mica slate occurs in direct contact with the granite range on each side, and is found in an uninterrupted range along its eastern border from Shillelagh, by Glenmalur, Glendalough, and Luggelaw, to the Scalp, where it is seen distinctly resting on the granite, as in many other places. It is usually fantastically contorted, on a small scale, and of a dark grey hue; and consists of alternate layers of quartz and mica of various thickness: in some places strata of quartz and of granite, and irregular masses of the latter are imbedded in it. In the lower part of Glenmacanass it contains a bed of talc slate, easily worked with the chisel, and hardening in the fire; which qualities fit it for chimney-pieces, hearth-stones, gravestones, and troughs. Lugnaquilla, though composed chiefly of granite, is capped with mica slate, with some alternating strata of granite. On the western side of the granite range is a similarly incumbent series of mica slate strata, extending no farther south than Bal-tinglass; nor is it so regular and continuous in its range from the point where it enters from the county of Dublin, north-east of Blessington. Although the glen of Imale is entirely based on granite, this slate is seen forming the summits of many of the high surrounding mountains on the north, east, and south. Brisselstown hill, and its lateral extension to the west, called Spynan's hill, consist of mica slate, fine and minute granular greenstone, and greenstone porphyry: the mica slate in the western part is porphyritic, containing numerous crystals of felspar; and similar translations, as also into greenstone porphyry by an intimate intermixture of hornblende, are observed in various surrounding localities. Garnet, in general so constant a companion of mica slate, is seldom seen in the strata of this county, but hollow spar occurs in some places. The low range of hills west of Blessington, and the rest of the northwestern border of the county, are based on clay-slate.

On the eastern side of the county, between the mica slate range and the sea, the prevailing rock is clay-slate, but in detached situations are found granite rising from beneath it, and quartz and trap rocks associated with it. The granite of this tract is very remarkable, as seldom comprising quartz; the chief ingredients being simply felspar and mica, forming in one part pure felspar porphyry. The central and southeastern parts of Dunganstown hill are composed of greenstone; but the prevailing rocks to the south are clay-slate and quartz, extending down the Avonmore and Ovoca, and the varieties which they display are Very numerous. The varieties of clay-slate, which are here all quartzose, abound in contemporaneous veins of pure quartz, which are more or less metalliferous: the western extremity and the brow of Croghan Kinshela mountain consist of granite, with broad veins of quartz towards the east, succeeded by alternations of granite and clay-slate, terminating in interstratifications of clay-slate and greenstone, beyond which is found only the clay-slate, traversed by veins of quartz, sometimes metalliferous. Beds of granular felspar in the prevailing clay-slate are worked for building on the right bank of the Avonmore, north-west of Rathdrum. Bordering on the Derry or Aughrim river, and likewise near the Ovoca, in its course from Newbridge, are numerous beds of greenstone. Arklow rocks, on the coast, south of the mouth of the Ovoca, present ill-defined columns of greenstone, with four, five, or six sides: the northern part of the hill consists in general of greenstone: on the north-western side is a variety of the character of basalt. Quartz rock forms a prominent naked ridge on Coollattin hill, in Shillelagh, and constitutes also a very extensive mountain range from the banks of the Avonmore above Rathdrum to those of the Vartrey, comprising the high naked ridge of Carrickmacreilly and the picturesque rock of Cronroe. In the northern extremity of the county it forms the Great and Little Sugar-loaf, Bray Head, and a great part of the neighbouring hills. In no part of the county have organic remains been found in its rocks. It is also remarkable that there is a total absence of metallic ores on the western side of the great granitic mass, while on the eastern they are found in abundance. A vein of lead has been worked and apparently exhausted in the granite brow of Carrigeenduff, on the banks of Lough Dan; another, called the Luganure vein, wholly in granite, intersects the mountain of Comaderry, and is now very productive. Another great vein which has been worked crosses the upper part of Glendalough; and in the alternating beds of granite and mica slate on the northern side of Glenmalur is the great vein on which are the lead mines of Ballinafinchogue, and which comprises, besides, galena, white lead ore, blende, and copper pyrites. The above minerals are found at all these places, in true veins; but in the only other metalliferous tract, situated in the clay-slate district, they are found only in beds, in contemporaneous veins, or in alluvial deposits. This tract is about ten miles in length, from Croghan Kinshela, across the northern end of the vale of Ovoca, towards Rathdrum. Its most celebrated produce has been the alluvial gold, found in the gravelly deposits of the streams descending from the eastern side of Croghan Kinshela, and discovered in 1796: of this a further notice will be found under the head of Arklow, in the union of which place it is included. As no trace of auriferous veins could be found in the mountain by the most persevering efforts, the works necessarily ceased when the stream ore was exhausted. Trials were also made in Croghan Moira mountain, but without effect. Metallic substances, however, are diffused through the whole district in disseminated particles, in slight layers, in contemporaneous veins and strings, and in massy beds, which latter are principally composed of copper pyrites and iron pyrites. The rocks have been perforated in various directions by the works of the associated Irish Mine Company, the line of which, extending into Connery and Tigrony hills, occupies more than one thousand fathoms. These are on the north side of the Ovoca, and there are other productive works on the opposite side, especially in Ballymurtagh. In Kilcashel some trials have been made, and copper-ore has been met with; and indications of copper in Avondale, and of lead in Knockanode, have also been found in the form of slight strings. The abundance of building stone in every part of the county appears from the previous detail: the granite used in the building of the Bank of Ireland, the library of Trinity College, Nelson's Pillar, and several other of the public buildings of Dublin, was raised from the Golden quarry near Blessington, but the clay-slate is seldom found in layers sufficiently thin for roofing; there are, however, good slate quarries in the parishes of Carnew and Dunganstown.

The flannel and frieze manufactures were formerly of considerable extent, the chief market for their produce being Rathdrum, where a handsome flannel-hall was erected by the late Earl Fitzwilliam, but they have entirely declined, and their only vestige is the manufacture of a little frieze for domestic use. The principal fishery is that of herrings at Arklow, which, however, has much declined. They are also taken by a few fishermen at different places along the coast, but the extension of this branch of industry is checked by the want of safe harbours for the boats. Oysters are also taken at Arklow, and carried to Liverpool and Dublin. The trade of the county consists chiefly in the exportation of its agricultural and mineral produce, and in the importation of the various supplies of foreign articles and manufactured goods necessary for its inhabitants. Although Dublin is a principal market for the northern part of the county, Wicklow is a very improving port, where there are several stores; and grain and cattle are sent from the southern part of the county to New Ross. This branch of the trade is entirely carried on by ordinary land carriage, as the county is devoid of river or canal navigation, or rail-road communication.

The rivers are numerous, but their courses rapid and short, except some of those which flow westward: the principal are the Liffey, the Slaney, the Ovoca, the Vartrey, and the Derry, Daragh, or Aughrim. The principal lines of road are of first-rate excellence: the new mail-coach road to Wexford, through the Glen of the Downs and the Vale of Ovoca, constructed by Grand Jury presentments, is a noble line. A new line of turnpike road on the western side of the county to Carlow, Wexford, Waterford, and Kilkenny, by Blessington and Baltinglass, has also been opened. The cross roads, too, are generally good and in sufficient number: so much has of late years been done in the cutting of new lines of road as to be a popular subject of complaint; but the result is the formation of excellent toll-free lines in every direction. The Military Road, which commences near Rathfarnham, a few miles south of Dublin, and extends southward through the midst of the mountain region, in a line selected with great skill, was planned in 1799, by order of Government, with the view of opening a direct and easy line of communication between the city of Dublin and the barracks of Glencree, Laragh, Drumgoff, and Aughavanagh, which were built after the insurrection in the preceding year: it obtained its name from having been made by some Scotch fencible regiments then quartered in the county.

The vestiges of remote antiquity are comparatively few. Near Enniskerry is a small cromlech, and another on the summit of Lugnaquilla. Raths are numerous: there are a druidical circle and a cromlech in Donoughmore; a cromlech at Baltinglass, and a curiously sculptured stone at Old Court, near Bray. Besides Glendalough, a collection of monastic ruins of peculiar antiquarian interest, there were 11 religious establishments; those of which any remains exist are at Rathdrum, Baltinglass, and Wicklow. Ruins of ancient churches are to be seen on Slieve Gadoe near Donard, at Kilcoole, Killeskey, Kilmacanogue, Aghold, Kilbride near Arklow, Killadreeny, Kilpipe, and Templemichael: besides slight vestiges of several others, all situated in ancient burial-places. The native septs do not appear to have erected any strong fortresses; those of which any remains exist were built by the English, and serve now to mark the districts in which they had secured any permanent footing. The most remarkable are, the Black Castle at Wicklow, Newcastle, Castlekevin, Dunganstown, Bray, Old Court near Fassaroe, Kindlestown and Rathdown near Delgany, Carnew, Arklow, Kiltimon, Ballivolan in the parish of Killeskey, Kilcommon and Knockrath near Rathdrum, Grange near Baltinglass, and Castlekevin near Annamoe. The present residences of the nobility and gentry are very numerous, and render the county the most richly adorned and the most peaceable in the island: they are all noticed in the parishes or places in which they are respectively situated. The farm-houses of the principal tenants in the northern and eastern parts are built in a style of superior accommodation, with roomy and convenient offices: those in the southern and western parts were mostly destroyed in the year 179S, but have been rebuilt in an improved mode, with slated roofs. In the vicinity of gentlemen's demesnes are many pretty cottages, and those of the north-eastern part of the county generally have an appearance of superior comfort; but the habitations of the lower tenants and cottiers are for the most part extremely wretched, being roughly formed of sods or stones supporting a thatched roof not impervious to the weather. The squalid misery of these in some of the mountain districts is extreme; in some places even the roof is formed of sods taken from the mountain side. The character of the peasantry is the same as in the country generally; with regard to their language, it is remarkable that while the Irish is often spoken in the contiguous counties, it is never heard here, and scarcely a peasant even of the wildest districts understands it. Natural curiosities of a minor character, such as mineral springs, are very few; but those of the highest order, exhibited in its mountains and glens, their fantastic rocks and picturesque waterfalls, present a greater variety of sublime features than any tract of equal extent in the island. The most celebrated spots are, the waterfall of Poul-a-Phuca, near Blessington; Luggelaw, included in the modern parish of Calary; the Vale of the Avonmore and the Meeting of the Waters below Rathdrum; the Vale of Ovoca, with its contiguous seats and demesnes, extending by Castle-Mac-Adam towards Arklow; the Glen of the Downs, near Delgany; the Scalp near Enniskerry; the recesses of Glendalough; the Devil's Glen, that of Dunran, and those of Kiltimon and Ballyvolan, in the parish of Killeskey; the Dargle, the Waterfall, and Lough Bray, near Powerscourt; Glenmalur, with its waterfalls, in the parish of Rathdrum; Lough Dan, near Roundwood; and Hermitage and Altadore near Newtown-Mount-Kennedy. The abrupt rocks of vast size at Kilcoole and Cronroe are worthy of especial notice. Wicklow gives the titles of Viscount and Earl to the family of Howard.

WICKLOW, a sea-port, assize, borough, market, and post-town, partly in the parish of RATHNEW, barony of NEWCASTLE, but chiefly in that of KILPOOLE, barony of ARKLOW, county of WICKLOW, and province of LEINSTER, 24 miles (S. S. E.) from Dublin, on the coast road to Arklow; containing 2963 inhabitants. Its ancient name Wykinglo, or Wykinglogh, is derived from its situation at the southern extremity of a narrow creek shut out from the sea by a long narrow peninsula called the Murragh. It is supposed to have been one of the maritime stations occupied by the Danes previously to the landing of the English in 1169, and to have been called by them Wigginge Lough, "the Lake of Ships." Afterwards it formed part of the extensive possessions granted by Strongbow to Maurice Fitzgerald, who commenced the building of a castle here for the protection of his property, the execution of which was discontinued in consequence of his death in 1176. His sons were subsequently dispossessed of their inheritance by William Fitz-Aldelm, and compelled to accept in exchange for it, the decayed and defenceless city of Ferns. In 1301 the town was burned by the Irish, but the castle was subsequently put into a state of defence, in 1375, by William Fitzwilliam, a descendant of one of the early English settlers, in whose family the constableship continued for several generations. From its vicinity to theIrish mountain septs it was a frequent subject of contention. In the early part of the 16th century it fell into the hands of the Byrnes, the chieftains of the northern part of the county, by whom the castle and town were surrendered to Hen. VIII. in 1543. In 1641, Luke O'Toole invested the castle, but was forced to raise the siege on the approach of Sir Chas. Coote, who sullied his victory by an unauthorised and indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants of the town.

Wicklow is situated on a piece of elevated rugged ground backed by hills of considerable height, over the point at which the river Vartrey, or Leitrim, after flowing through the narrow creek already noticed, discharges itself into St. George's Channel; this river is crossed by a bridge of eight arches. The houses are irregularly built and of very inferior appearance: the streets are narrow and neither paved nor lighted, but there is an ample supply of water from springs: the town is a place of resort for sea-bathing during the summer months, and would be much more frequented for this purpose were suitable accommodations provided for visiters. Races occasionally take place on the Murragh, a portion of which is kept as a race-course, on which a small stand has been erected. This border of low land, which extends nearly six miles northwards, slopes down gradually to the strand, which, at low water mark, sometimes consists merely of fine sand, but at other times of layers of small pebbles, three or four feet in height and of considerable breadth, varying according to the changes of the weather; many of these pebbles are so much esteemed for their beauty as to be bought up by the jewellers in Dublin to be wrought into necklaces and other ornaments. Several neat houses have been lately built on the Murragh, and hot and cold baths are in progress of erection. The market is held on Saturday, for butchers' meat, poultry and vegetables, which are exposed for sale in the market-house and the shambles. There are no regular markets for corn, that article being delivered at the merchants' stores on any day of the week. The fairs are held on March 28th, May 24th, Aug. 12th, and Nov. 25th. The trade is confined to the exportation of grain and of copper and lead ore, of which 400 tons from the neighbouring mines are shipped weekly, and to the importation of coal, culm, limestone, timber and iron. The narrow estuary of the Vartrey, which forms the harbour, is accessible only to vessels of small burden, in consequence of a bar at its entrance, on which there is only eight feet of water at spring and not more than four or five at neap tides, but vessels may ride in the bay in three or four fathoms of water during the prevalence of western winds. Some attempts were made, about the year 1760, to diminish this obstruction, when sums to the amount of £800 were granted by parliament, but did not produce any beneficial result. In 1835 an application was made to the Irish government from the merchants and traders of the port, pointing out the advantages of having a large and secure artificial harbour formed here, which has not been acceded to, in consequence of the expense that must be incurred, as, according to the reports of scientific men, the construction of such a harbour would require an outlay of £80,000. In the same year the number of vessels belonging to the port was 20, varying in burden from 35 to 100 tons, and about 30 small craft. Two lighthouses have been erected on Wicklow Head, a promontory of considerable height boldly projecting into the sea, about a mile to the south of the town. The lantern of one of these lighthouses is 250 feet above high water mark, and is visible in clear weather at a distance of 21 nautical miles; the other, 540 feet distant, is but 121 feet above the same level, and spreads its light only to 16 miles distance: both are fixed lights. Under the Head are several caverns, scooped out by the incessant working of the waves, in which seals frequently take shelter. A coast-guard is fixed here, being one of the eight stations which constitute the district of Glynn.

The limits of the borough, which are fixed by prescription, include the town of Wicklow and a space of a mile from it in every direction on the land side. The corporation was constituted by a charter granted in the 11th of Jas. I., according to which it consists of a portreeve chosen annually from among the burgesses, 12 burgesses elected for life from among the freemen, and an unlimited number of freemen, who are admissible by birth, apprenticeship, marriage, or special favour, and enjoy an exemption from tolls and harbour dues and a right of commonage on the Murragh: there has been no recorder for several years. The charter also granted the portreeve and burgesses the power of returning two members to the Irish parliament, which was exercised by them until the Union, when the borough was disfranchised. The landed property of the corporation consists of 200 or 300 acres, all let on terminable leases: the rental is on the increase. Market tolls have been relinquished for some time; a barrel of coal is taken from each vessel discharging in the port; harbour dues are levied on all vessels above 20 tons' burden. The corporation exerts the power of regulating the pilotage. The portreeve holds a court every Tuesday, in which debts to the amount of five marks, or £3. 6. 8. Irish, can be recovered; he is not, however, a justice of the peace for the borough, which is, in this respect, under the control of the county magistracy: the town is a station for the county constabulary police. The castle, called in public documents "The King's Castle of Wicklow," is specially exempted from the jurisdiction of the borough: from an inquisition held in 1620 it appears that every person selling beer in the town should pay to the use of the castle four sextaries (pints) of ale for every bushel of malt brewed; and that several parcels of land, amounting to 45 acres, belonged to it. The assizes for the county and the general sessions for its eastern district are held here: petty sessions are held at Rathnew, as being more central for the surrounding district. The representatives for the county are elected here. The county court-house, erected in 1824, is a plain but commodious edifice, with sufficient accommodation for all requisite purposes. The gaol, which adjoins it, contains 6 wards, having in all 36 cells, of which 30 are for males, and 6 for females, besides a debtors' ward; it has also an infirmary and a treadmill: the building stands on 1 1/2 acre, enclosed with a high wall.

The benefice of Wicklow extended over a district comprehending several chapelries and parochial churches, and on the annexation of the church of Newcastle-Lyons to the archdeaconry of Glendalough, in 1467, it was separated from that dignity and erected into a distinct prebend. In a terrier, dated 1781, the vicarage of Wicklow comprised what are called, in the ecclesiastical return, the chapelries, and in the civil return, the constablewicks of Rathnew, Killeskey, Glanely and Kilcommon. It is a prebend in the cathedral church of St. Patrick, Dublin, and a vicarage, in the archdiocese of Dublin and Glendalough, episcopally united in 1795, the whole comprising the rectory and vicarage of Drumkey, the vicarage of Kilpoole, and the chapelries of Glanealy, Kilcommon, Rathnew, Killeskey, and Killoughter, and in the patronage of the Archbishop. The tithes of the four chapelries amount to £1150, and those of Drumkey and Kilpoole to £185, £60 of which is payable to Earl Fitzwilliam; the tithes of the whole union are £1335. There is a glebe-house in the chapelry of Glanealy, and in the union there are three glebes, containing in all 40a. 2r. 19p. The church, which is locally in Drumkey, is a neat edifice with a tower and a copper cupola, which were added to it in 1777, by a bequest of a member of the Eaton family, formerly resident in the town: over the south door is a fine Saxon arch which belonged to a more ancient church; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £670 for its repair. There are also churches in the chapelries of Glanealy and Killeskey, the latter of which was built partly at the expense of the late Francis Synge, of Glenmore, Esq. The R. C. district is nearly coextensive with the Protestant Union: the chapel, which is a plain cruciform edifice with a tower, forms, with the schools; annexed to it, an extensive pile near the entrance to the town; there are also chapels at Ballynahinch, near Ashford, and at Glanealy. There are in the town places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists and the Society of Friends. The diocesan school for the archdiocese of Dublin was established here under an act of the 12th of Elizabeth; a grant of ten acres of land near the town to encourage a Protestant clergyman to keep a classical school remained inoperative for some years, until the land was recovered by the Rev. Mr. Corcoran, head-master of the diocesan school, who now enjoys it. The Wicklow parochial schools were built in 1827, at an expense of £656 late currency, of which £200 was granted from the Lord-Lieutenants' fund; and an infants' school was established in 1830, by the Hon. Martha Stratford: in these schools are about 60 boys, 60 girls, and 60 infants. Sunday schools have also been established. Among the sources from which these schools are maintained are a bequest of £37. 6. 8. per ann. from a member of the Eaton family, £8 from the Association for Discountenancing Vice, and an allowance varying from £40 to £50 from the Governors of the Foundling Hospital, Dublin, for instructing and clothing some of its children: there is also a school of industry, chiefly supported by a bequest of £25. 5. per ann. by the late Miss Catherine Eaton. The county infirmary and fever hospital was erected in 1834, at a cost of £2000, defrayed by subscription and Grand Jury presentments: each of the two departments is divided into four wards: it is a neat building, situated in an airy part of the town: the infirmary is supported by county presentments, the petty sessions' fines of the whole county, and subscriptions; the fever hospital by subscriptions only. A parochial almshouse for 15 aged men and widows is supported by subscription and by the weekly collections at the church. There are also a coal and sick-clothing fund, a fund for supplying the poor with blankets, and a loan fund. A sum of about £500 per ann. is thus expended on the poor, of which £82. 18. 8. proceeds from a bequest of the late Miss Eaton, £11. 1. 4. from a bequest of Mr. Boswell, and £21, a bequest from Mr. Morrison. On a rocky projection overhanging the sea may still be seen a small fragment of the walls of the ancient castle, the masonry of which is so excellent that it appears to be a portion of the natural rock: it is called the Black Castle. There are also some remains of a Franciscan convent, founded by the Byrnes and O'Tooles in the reign of Hen. III., near the entrance of the town from the Dublin and Wexford road; they are inclosed in the grounds of the parish priest, for which a nominal rent is charged. In the grounds are a number of fine old yew trees.

WILLESTOWN.—See CARRIGPARSON.

WILLIAMSTOWN, a village, in the parish of BOOTERSTOWN, barony of HALF-RATHDOWN, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER, 3 1/2 miles (S. E.) from Dublin, on the road to Kingstown and Bray: the population is returned with the parish. This village is situated upon the southern shore of the bay of Dublin, close to the Dublin and Kingstown railway, with which it communicates for the purpose of taking up or setting down passengers. It is much frequented in the summer months as a bathing-place, from its fine, smooth, sandy beach and its baths. Here is a station of the metropolitan police. The twopenny post has three deliveries daily from the city, and a constant communication is kept up with Kingstown. In the immediate vicinity are several neat villas, which embrace a fine prospect of the bay: the principal are Ruby Lodge, the residence of T. Bradley, Esq.; Belleview, of Hickman Kearney, Esq.; Seafort Lodge, of E. Tring, Esq.; Caroline Lodge, of R. Doyle, Esq.; Westfield, of M. Dunphy, Esq.; and Williarnstown Castle, of J. Boyd, Esq. Here are two eminent boarding schools; Castledawson, conducted by the Rev. A. Leney; and Seafort, by the Rev. D. W. Cahill.

WITTER, or GRANGE-OUTER, a parish, in the barony of ARDES, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 2 miles (S. E.) from Portaferry; containing 1116 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the eastern coast, forming a peninsula round which is the entrance to Strangford Lough, and comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 2529 3/4 statute acres, of which the greater portion is good land in an improved state of cultivation. On the north side of the entrance of Lough Strangford is Ballyquintin Point, in lat. 54° 19' 30" (N.), and lon. 5° 28' 20" (W.), from which the coast extends (N. E.) 4 miles to Carney Point, and within this distance of coast are two creeks, which afford occasional shelter to fishing craft. About half a mile to the east of Tara Hill, on which is a moat or earthen fort, is Tara bay, which is spacious and sheltered from all winds except the north-east, but it is dry at low water; and about half a mile farther is Quintin bay, affording good anchorage in four fathoms in off-shore winds, and having a tolerably well-sheltered cove. At Tara there is a coast-guard station belonging to the Donaghadee district. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Down, forming part of the union of Inch; the rectory is impropriate in John Echlin, Esq. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the unions of Upper and Lower Ardes. At Ballygilgat is a R. C. chapel for the parishes of Slane, Ardkeen, and Ballytrustin, and the liberty of Castlebuoy, called the parish of Lower Ardes. On the shore of Quintin bay are the ruins of a very strong castle, built by De Courcy in 1184.

WOODFORD, a town, in the parish of BALLYNAKILL, barony of LEITRIM, county of GALWAY, and province of CONNAUGHT, 6 miles (W. S. W.) from Portumna, on the road from Loughrea to Killaloe: the population is returned with the parish. It is situated on the Rossmore river, which flows into Lough Derg on the Shannon, and is here crossed by a bridge, and about two miles below the town by Rossmore bridge, to which latter the river is navigable at present for boats of about 20 tons' burden. It has been proposed by the Government engineers to improve the navigation of the river, to form a good road from Woodford to Rossmore bridge, and at the latter place to construct a quay and other accommodations for the shipment of agricultural produce. About 60 years since an extensive iron-foundry was carried on here, and, 20 years subsequently, the manufacture of salt; iron ore is supposed to exist extensively in the neighbouring mountains, and evidence of the old iron-works may still be seen adjoining the town, where there is a stratum of cinders from three to four feet deep. Here is a mill for grinding corn. Fairs are held on March 18th, May 12th, June 25th, and Dec. 26th. There is a good barrack, at present occupied by one company of infantry; and a constabulary police force is stationed in the town. A seneschal's court for the recovery of small debts is occasionally held. Here are the parochial church, a neat building; and the R. C. chapel of the district of Woodford. Marble Hill, the seat of Sir John Burke, Bart.; and Eagle Hill, of Capt. Pigott, are in the vicinity. On Benmore mountain, about l 1/2 mile north of the town, is a quarry of fine freestone, capable of furnishing blocks of large dimensions, adapted both for useful and ornamental purposes; and should the proposed improvements be carried into effect, it is likely to be worked to a considerable extent. Near the town is a chalybeate spa, formerly used with success for medicinal purposes.

WOODS-CHAPEL, or CHAPEL-IN-THE-WOODS, a district parish, in the barony of LOUGHINSHOLIN, county of LONDONDERRY, and province of ULSTER, 2 1/2 miles (E.) from Magherafelt, on the road from Belfast to Londonderry, by Toome bridge; containing 7471 inhabitants. Prior to the Reformation this district was a parish, called in ecclesiastical records the parish of Ross-Aglish, with a church, glebe, and glebe-house, as appears by the return made to Hen. VIII. in 1540. It was granted by Queen Elizabeth, together with Ardtrea and Kiltinny, now called Upper Aglish, to the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, when the three were united into a single parish under the name of Ardtrea, and so continued until 1823, when this district was severed from it, and constituted a perpetual curacy, according to the ecclesiastical, and a distinct parish according to the civil, arrangements. The district, which consists of 15 townlands taken from the parish of Ardtrea, extends from near Moneymore, along the shore of Lough Neagh, by Ballyronan, Castledawson, and Toome, to the neighbourhood of Bellaghy, on the shore of Lough Beg; comprising an extent of 10,440 1/2 statute acres. The soil in general is light, with an occasional intermixture of rich land; that in the neighbourhood of Ballyronan is very fertile and highly cultivated, well fenced and planted. The crops most usually raised are wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, turnips, and flax; mangel-wurzel, clover, and vetches sometimes form part of the rotation. In the neighbourhood of Toome, between the lakes and towards Bellaghy, it consists altogether of low marshy meadow, mostly covered with water during winter, but in summer yielding excellent and abundant pasturage. The Lough Neagh Improvement Company proposes to draw off the surplus waters of that lake through this tract, and thus not only to effect the thorough drainage of this extensive tract of rich land, but, by reducing the waters of Lough Neagh to their summer level, to reclaim many thousand acres now under water, and consequently unprofitable during a great portion of the year. The soil rests mostly on a substratum of basalt, which shews itself frequently above the surface in knolls of rock, much broken and decomposed; some veins of the coal formation from Castledawson appear near Warwick Lodge, and a few scattered fragments of the limestone formation from Springhill: but in neither case does the appearance of the seams hold out encouragement for an expenditure of capital to work them. The proposed line of railway from Armagh to Coleraine is intended to pass through the parish, but no progress has yet been made towards its accomplishment beyond the marking out of the line. Close to the shore of Lough Neagh is the village of Ballyronan, which see. The houses of the farmers, though generally small, are well built, comfortably furnished, and for the most part surrounded with small orchards and gardens. The plantations about Lakeview, the seat of D. Gaussen, Esq., being arranged partly in hedgerows and partly in clumps or groves, give the neighbourhood a lively and prosperous appearance. Warwick Lodge is the residence of W. Bell, Esq.; Lisnamorrow, of T. Dawson, Esq.; and Ballyneil House, of the Rev. L. Dowdall, a lineal descendant of the celebrated Geo. Dowdall, Archbishop of Armagh, whose opposition to the orders of Hen. VIII. respecting the changes of the liturgy gave rise to the long-continued controversy between the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, as to the right of each to the primacy of the Church of Ireland.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Armagh, and in the patronage of the Rector of Ardtrea: the income of the perpetual curate amounts to £89. 4. 7 1/2., of which £69. 4. 7 1/2. is payable by the rector of Ardtrea, and £20 from the augmentation fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners: the glebes appear to have been comprised in the grant by Jas. I. to the London Society, or they have since merged into the estate of the Salters' Company, which has an extensive and valuable property there. The church, at Lisnamorrow, ten miles distant from the mother church, and between two and three east of Magherafelt, was built in 1730, and enlarged in 1825, at an expense of £415 British, by a loan from the late Board of First Fruits: the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £183 for its repair. The ruins of the old church still remain; and its yard is used as a burial-ground. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Moneymore, and has a chapel, a small plain edifice, at Derrygarve. At Ballymaguigan, or Gracefield, there is a small Moravian settlement, with a chapel, burial-ground, and school attached to it. The male and female parochial schools, at Lisnamorrow, close to the churchyard, are chiefly supported by the rector; one at Ballyronan is supported by the Marquess of Londonderry, Sir R. Bateson, Bart., and D. Gaussen, Esq.; and there are others at Aughrim, Anahorish, Ballymuldey, Ballymuldeymore, Creagh Moyola, and Derrygarve, in connection with different societies: these schools afford instruction to 320 boys and 250 girls, and there are also five Sunday schools.

WOOLLEN-GRANGE, or MOLLGRANGE, a parish, in the barony of GOWRAN, county of KILKENNY, and province of LEINSTER, 5 miles (W. S. W.) from Gowran, on the river Nore; containing, with Blackrath grange, 373 inhabitants. This parish anciently formed part of the possessions of the abbey of Jerpoint: it is a rectory, in the diocese of Ossory, being one of the several denominations that form the union of Burnchurch; the tithes amount to £188. In the R. C. divisions it is part of the union or district of Danesfort.

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Some books on Irish names and genealogy

BAXTER, Angus. In search of your British and Irish Roots

BEGLEY, Donal F. Handbook on Irish Genealogy

DUFFY, Godfrey F. Tracing your Donegal Ancestors

FRANKLIN, Margaret. Tracing your Limerick Ancestors

GREHAN, Ida. Irish Family Names

GRENHAM, John. Clans and Families of Ireland

GRENHAM, John. Irish Ancestors: A Pocket Guide

GRENHAM, John. Tracing your Irish Ancestors

KINEALY, Christine. Tracing your Irish Roots

LEAHY, David. County Longford and its People

MacLYSAGHT, Edward. Irish Families: Their Names, Arms, and Origins

MacLYSAGHT, Edward. More Irish Families

MacLYSAGHT, Edward. Surnames of Ireland

MAXWELL, Ian. Researching Armagh Ancestors

MAXWELL, Ian. Researching Down Ancestors

McCARTHY & CADOGAN. Tracing your Cork Ancestors

O HOGAIN, Daithi. Irish Family Names

O MURCHADHA, D. Family Names of County Cork

O'FARRELL, Padraic. Irish Surnames

O'CONNOR, Michael. Tracing your Kerry Ancestors

OKANE, William. Irish Gravestone Inscriptions

RYAN & SMITH. Tracing your Dublin Ancestors

RYAN, James G. Irish Church Records

RYAN, James G. Sources for Irish Family History

SMITH, Brian. Tracing your Mayo Ancestors
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