a county in Ireland, bounded by the Irish sea on the east and south, by the counties of Armagh and Louth on the west, from which it is separated by the rivers Bann and Newry, and by Carrickfergus bay and the county of Antrim on the north. From Point Cranefield in the south, to Grey Point its northern extremity, the distance is nearly 40 Irish, or 51 English miles; but from Lisburn bridge, in the north-west, to Dundrum in the south-east, it is not more than 20 English miles. It contains by estimation 344,658 Irish, or 558,289 English acres, of which 44,658 Irish acres are mountainous and waste. The fifty-fourth degree of north latitude passes close to Cranefield, and the sixth degree of west longitude, a little to the west of Hillsborough. It is divided into eight baronies, viz., Ardes, Castle-Divis, reagh, Dufferin, Upper Ivecagh, Lower Ivecagh, Kinalratty, Lecale, and Mourne, with the Lordship of Newry. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh, and is divided between the dioceses of Dromore and Down; the first occupies the western part of the county, and contains 21 parishes; the second, to the east, forty-two. This is the number of parishes according to Dubourdieu's survey (1802). Beaufort, in 1792, gives only 60; but the latest accounts increase them to 74.

This county presents a great variety of surface; Surface and the plain, the detached hill, ranges of hills, and mountains. The plains are mostly confined to the banks of the rivers; the hills occupy a larger portion; and the lofty mountains are thrown together in the southern quarter, whence they afford a striking feature, and enter into almost every extensive prospect. Here the Mourne mountains, the second in point of height in Ireland, rear their lofty summits. To the north of these, and on the western side, the land is in a high state of cultivation, inhabited by a middle class of manufacturers, and embellished with plantations, bleaching grounds on the rivers Bann and Laggan, and neat whitewashed habitations. The lough of Belfast on the north, with the numerous vessels that resort to it, and the town itself at the bottom, form a most interesting prospect.

The climate is variable, but not subject to extremes. It is seldom long dry in summer, or frosty Soil in winter, and Christmas often finds the fields clothed in green. In spring, the prevailing winds are from the east, nor do they entirely give way to the genial breezes from the south and west till May is far advanced. The highest winds and heaviest rains are from the west. Though the climate is generally salubrious, yet it has been observed that a long course of dry weather in summer, or of frost in winter, is frequently productive of disorders. The soil is of every quality, from sand to strong clay, but the predominant soil is a loam, not of very great depth, but good in quality; and, in most places, intermixed with stones: in the neighbourhood of Moira and Magheralin, on the north-west, it is incumbent on limestone.

Copper and lead have been found in several parts, Minerals, but no iron or coal. There are several quarries of &c. fine freestone, of different colours, particularly at Scraba near Newtown, and Kilwarlin near the road from Hillsborough to Moira. Slates are wrought near Bangor, on the north, and also at Hillsborough, Annahilt, and Ballynahinch. Limestone is not very general; it abounds most near Moira. Granite is chiefly confined to the barony of Mourne, and the Lordship of Newry. Clays of different degrees of fineness, marl, limestone, gravel, and other fossils, are found in many places. Mineral waters, chalybeate, and sulphureous, are numerous, and some of the former strongly impregnated. A chalybeate at Granshaw, in the barony of Ardes, is said to be more than twice the strength of that of Tunbridge.

The principal rivers of this county are the Bann, Laggan, Newry, and Ballynahinch. The Bann has its source in the mountains of Mourne, and after a course of nearly thirty miles, falls into Lough Neagh, near the Bannfoot ferry, in the county of Armagh. Near Portadown it is joined by the Newry canal, which unites the bay of Carlingford with Lough Neagh. The Laggan, which rises from two springs, in the mountains of Slieve-Croob and Slieve-na-holy, to the north of the Mourne range, first flows northwest till it nearly reaches the confines of the county, and then winds along its northern boundary, till it is lost in the Lough of Belfast. Pearls were formerly found in both these rivers. Newry rises near Rathfryland towards the west; and, after a short and irregular course, falls into Carlingford bay. The canal which connects this river with the Bann has opened a communication with Lough Neagh, by which vessels of 50 or 60 tons pass through the heart of Ulster. The Ballynahinch has its source in four different streams, each of which issues from a separate lake, and joins Strangford Lough on the southwest.

Though there are some very large estates in this county, property is yet much subdivided, and has all the different gradations, from the most opulent nobleman to the tenant in perpetuity, who farms his own land. Most of it is freehold. The rental was estimated by Dubourdieu, in 1802, at 20s. an Irish acre, for 300,000 acres, allowing for the mountains and bogs, computed at 44,658 acres. Mr Wakefield is of opinion that the rent of these 300,000 acres was double this in 1809, which, being about 25s. the English acre, seems very high over so extensive a territory. It is above the average rental of the best counties in Scotland, as returned to the Commissioners of the Property-tax, in 1811.

The farms of this county may be divided into two kinds,—the first, such as are possessed by farmers who have recourse to no other branch of industry,—the second, such as are held by weavers and other tradesmen. The former run from twenty to fifty, and, in some instances, so far as one hundred acres; the latter are of every size from one to twenty acres. The rent is always paid in money; personal services are never exacted. Some leases are for lives and years, others for lives alone. Fences consist chiefly of a ditch and bank, without quicks of any kind, or sometimes with a few plants of furze stuck into the face of the bank; but dry-stone walls are frequent in the stony mountainous parts. Great improvement has been made in its agriculture within these twenty years. Thrashing-mills, and the two horse ploughs of this country have been introduced. But it cannot be said that a good system prevails generally, which the small size of the farms, indeed, renders impracticable. A regular rotation is rarely followed in the crops; fallows, clovers, and turnips, are upon a very small scale; and from the greater part of the arable land, it is still the practice to take crops of grain in succession, only partially interrupted by potatoes, flax, and peas. Oats, the principal grain, are grown on all soils; barley is usually sown after potatoes, and also wheat to some extent on the coast. Of flax they sow four bushels an Irish acre, and the medium produce is fifty stones. Rye and peas occupy but a small space. Lime, marl, shelly-sand, and seaweed, are used as manures. Paring and burning are confined to the mountains.

There are extensive meadows on the banks of the Live Stock Bann and the Laggan; but this is not a grazing county. The soil, except in the mountains, is thought to be better adapted to tillage than pasture. A good many beasts are fattened, but cows are the prevailing stock, kept in small numbers on every farm. They are long-horned, thin in the sides, and deep in the belly, but yield much milk when well fed, and each of them from 60 to as much as 120 lbs. of butter in the year, or about two-thirds of the medium produce of the butter dairies of England. Sheep in flocks of any size are confined to the mountain districts. They are very small, many of them when fat not weighing more than seven or eight pounds a quarter. On the low ground there are a few, seldom exceeding half a score, on almost every farm. A great number of hogs are fattened; many of them bred in the county, but not a few brought from the west of Ireland. The dry hills of this county, covered with heath and odoriferous herbs, are well adapted to bees, but the number of hives has greatly decreased within these twenty years.

The principal manufacture is linen, which is carried on in all its branches. The number of acres sown with flax in 1809 was 2700, from which it was estimated 3200 bushels of seed would be saved, and the bounty of 5s. a bushel claimed on 3000. According to Mr Wakefield, the twenty bleach-greens on the Bann bleach, on an average, 8000 pieces each, or 160,000 in all, valued at upwards of half a million Sterling; but some of the pieces come from other counties. Such is the perfection to which the art of spinning has been carried by one individual, by name Anne McQuillin, that she has made 105 hanks out of a pound of flax, the thread thus extending to the astonishing length of 214 miles. In 1802, a weaver earned, for fine linen, from 1s. 4d. to 1s. 6d. per day; and, for coarse, from 1s. to 1s. 3d.; but, in 1816, a journeyman weaver got from 1s. 6d. to 2s. and those who bought their own yarn, as much as 3s.

The cotton manufacture is next in importance, though it is but of recent introduction. A great number of workmen from the linen trade soon turned to this new branch, and a great many others, finding it much more easy to learn the weaving of cotton than of linen, and that the wages were better, gave themselves up to cotton entirely. Those who could work in either, however, had the advantage of returning to the linen when there occurred a stagnation in the cotton trade, as happened a few years ago. Besides muslins, calicoes, blankets, corduroys, and velveteens, are made in various parts. The wages of a good cotton weaver were sometimes more than double the wages of a linen weaver; in 1816, a careful workman earned from 15s. to 21s. a week.

Blankets have been made for more than a century in the vicinity of the village of Lambeg, and here there is an extensive manufactory of papers, of different kinds. A considerable quantity of kelp is made along the coasts, but particularly on the Lough of Strangford, sometimes to the amount of four or five hundred tons, whilst that made on the eastern coast does not exceed one hundred tons. The other manufactures are either for home consumption only, or merely subsidiary to the principal branches. Of the latter description is a manufacture of vitriol at Moyallan, and another on the Down side of Belfast bridge; yet vitriol is still imported from Scotland.

The export trade of this county consists of cambrics and linens, butter, pork, grain, and hides. The principal ports are Belfast, a small part of which is in this county, Newry, and Donaghadee; from the last of which great numbers of cattle are transported to Scotland. Its internal trade is greatly facilitated by means of good roads. Sixty years ago, when all journeys were made on horseback, Belfast was considered a week's journey from Dublin; the mailcoaches now carry passengers and heavy luggage over that space in eighteen hours. For the protection of the shipping on the coast there is a lighthouse at Cross Island, in the barony of Ardes, which is seen distinctly at Portpatrick and the Mull of Galloway, the last of which places is nearly ten leagues distant.

The fisheries on this coast are not so considerable as they might probably become, were more attention bestowed on them. Great quantities of turbot, sole, plaice, cod, and haddock, are caught in Dundrum Bay; and sole, plaice, bret, a few turbot, and, in winter, cod, and excellent oysters, at Bangor. Herrings have been taken in large quantities in Strangford Lough, but they are inferior in fatness and flavour to those caught on the coast.

The towns in this county are none of them of great extent. Newry is the most considerable for trade, and also of great antiquity, an abbey having been founded there in 1175. In 1689, it was burnt by the Duke of Berwick, to secure his retreat to Dundalk from the English forces, commanded by Duke Schomberg. There is a canal from this town to Lough Neagh. Newry sends a member to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Hillsborough is a neat modern town, which returned two members to the Irish Parliament. The magnificent residence of the Marquis of Downshire is in its vicinity, and it gives the title of Earl to his family. Bangor also returned two members to the Irish Parliament. Its harbour is deemed safe and commodious. Newton Ardes was another returning borough before the Union. An extensive diaper manufactory has been established in it, and there are two places of worship for dissenters. A monastery was founded here in 1244. Donaghadee consists of two main streets, intersected by cross lanes, and has a quay, constructed in the form of a crescent, 128 yards long. This town is well known to be one of the great thoroughfares between Britain and Ireland, the distance between it and Portpatrick in Scotland being only about ten leagues; and here the packets ply between the two countries. Downpatrick is the county town, consisting of four main streets, and having a barrack, a jail, a court-house, a diocesan school, &c. all spacious and commodious. St Patrick's well, near this town, is highly venerated by the peasantry for its supposed virtues. Downpatrick returns a member to the Imperial Parliament.

This county contained 19,270 houses in 1751, and Population, 38,351 in 1791. In 1813 there were 38,656 houses &c. and 204,500 inhabitants, which, according to the previous estimate of its contents, allows 2,735 acres to each. About half the population are Catholics, and a great proportion of the other moiety Presbyterians, with Quakers, Methodists, &c. There are 30,000 freeholders who send two members to Parliament, under the influence of the Marquis of Downshire, and, as already mentioned, two more are returned by the boroughs of Downpatrick and Newry. Almost all the people can speak English, but Irish is still much used in the mountains. In the latter district, the condition of the people is not very different from that which has been already noticed under Donegal; but a considerable improvement is observable throughout the rest of the county in their houses, clothes, food, and general character. For common labour, wages are at an average of the year about 1s. per day. Turf for fuel is, in many places, very scarce, and coal is, therefore, used in a pretty large proportion, especially in the coast districts.

Among the antiquities of this county, of which Antiquities there are many, such as cairns, circles of stones, pillars, cromlechs or altar stones, raths with their outworks, and monastic and military ruins, there are, perhaps, none so interesting as the large horns and bones, apparently of the deer kind, found in marl pits, in this and other parts of Ireland. Some of these, dug up in a marl pit near Dromore, in August 1783, are now in the Bishop's possession. The dimensions of the head and horns, measured from tip to tip in a right line, are 10 feet 3 inches, and, following the curve, 14 feet 6 inches. One entire horn is 7 feet 3 inches; the other, of which the point is broken, is 6 feet 9 inches; round the root of the horn 16 inches. The bones of this stately animal were of a suitable magnitude; the head, beginning at the vertebrae, being in length 23 inches, and in breadth at the eyes 11 inches.

See the works referred to under Donegal, and Dubourdieu's Statistical Survey of Down, 1802. (A.)