CAVAN, the capital of the above county, has little to recommend it to special notice. It is situated near the centre of the county, in the parish of Urney, and barony of Upper Loughtee, on one of the tributary streams of the Erne. Its situation is pleasant and healthful, being a large valley, surrounded on every side by elevated grounds. A hill immediately above the town, on the Dublin side, commands a very extended prospect. The town was burnt down in 1791. The consequence has been that it has risen from its ashes in an improved form, excepting some of the suburbs, which consist of a succession of mud-built hovels, the seats of squalor and destitution too often to be seen in similar situations in other country towns of Ireland. The court-house is elegant in its proportions, and convenient in its internal arrangements. The church, built on an elevated site, at one extremity of the town, is also an elegant erection. Not far from the church is a large Roman Catholic chapel, which, together with a dissenting house, was erected at the expense of Lord Farnham, the proprietor of the town. In another quarter is the county infirmary, to the support of which the surrounding gentry contribute liberally. Six alms-houses for destitute widows have been founded by a bequest of a member of the Lanesborough family. The most conspicuous building is the grammar-school, one of the royal foundations of Charles I. It was rebuilt about thirty years ago, at an expense of £7500, on an eminence overlooking one of the main entrances into the town. It is large and handsome, though by no means highly ornamented, and is capable of accommodating upwards of one hundred resident pupils. The master enjoys a salary of £300 per annum, besides the fees from pupils, with an additional allowance of £100 for an assistant; he has also the produce of ten acres of land adjoining the house. Notwithstanding these advantages, the residents of the town and neighbourhood have for some years reaped little benefit from this noble
endowment, in consequence of the very advanced age of Cavanilles, the head master; nor have their remonstrances to the board of education under whose superintendence it is, and which consists of the four archbishops, and several of the bishops, nor their application to the lord lieutenant, in whose gift is the disposal of the mastership, as yet been effectual in procuring for them the benefits of liberal education for their children contemplated by its royal founder. The sons of the neighbouring gentry, and of the respectable resident inhabitants, are therefore sent, at much expense and inconvenience, to distant places for their literary improvement. The county jail is a substantial building, but rather small for the average number of its inmates. A monastery of Dominican friars, founded by O'Reilly, chief-tain of the Brennie, existed here; and it was the place of burial of the celebrated Irish general Owen Roe O'Neal, who died by poison at Cloghoughter in 1649. The town was incorporated by a royal charter of James I., dated 15th November, in the eighth year of that monarch's reign. The population in 1821 amounted to 2320, and in 1831 to 2322. (Coote's Statistical Survey of Cavan; Shaw Mason's Parochial Survey of Ireland; Rutty's Mineral Waters; Lynch's Geography of Ireland; Reports of Commissioners of Education.)