a county in Ireland, situated in the province of Ulster, having the counties of Donegal and Tyrone on the north, Tyrone and Monaghan on the east, and Cavan and Leitrim on the south and west. Its extent is about 694 square miles, or nearly 450,000 English acres, of which a considerable proportion is covered by water, and much of the rest of the surface is rugged and mountainous, particularly on the west, where it is bounded by Leitrim. But it is in general better wooded than other parts of Ireland. The ash grows in the hedge rows; beeches come to a large size, and also the yew, near Lough Erne; and fir, oak, and yew are found in the bogs.
The grand feature in the natural scenery of this county is Lough Erne, which occupies about one-eighth of the surface, and stretches through its whole length, forming two large lakes, connected by a channel, like a river, six miles long. The upper lake is nine miles in length, and, at a medium, about three broad, and the lower, which is ten miles long, varies in width from two to eight miles. It discharges itself at the north-west by a rapid current of about seven miles, forming a grand cataract, where the water is precipitated into the sea at Bal- lyshannon, besides a beautiful fall at Beeleck, a little higher up. This noble piece of water is for the most part closely surrounded by high grounds that run their woody promontories into the lough, and retire from it in every direction, and contains more than three hundred islands, in some instances half a mile apart. They are of various sizes, some of them having an area of several square miles. A few are adorned with gentlemen's seats and pleasure-grounds, and most of them well-wooded, the whole presenting a great variety of delightful scenery.
On one of these islands, called Devnish, are the ruins of several ancient buildings; a church dedicated to St Molush, and near it the saint's house, entirely roofed, and finished with cut stone, and his bed, a stone trough, which is still held in great veneration; and an abbey at a little distance, having a belfry arch of black marble, with a stair of 83 steps, near which is St Nicholas's well, to which many yet resort for relief. There is also a beautiful round tower, in a high state of preservation, 82 feet high, and 49 in circumference, said to have been built about the middle of the sixth century.
Lough Erne contains most of the fish that are found in other fresh water lakes, and is noted for its salmon and eels, particularly the latter. Four of the eel weirs near the falls of Beeleck afford a rent of L.100 each. There are several other lakes in the county, and a few streams that fall into Lough Erne, but none of them considerable.
Estates. Estates, in this county, are large. Three proprietors, mentioned by Wakefield, have L.13,000 a year each, and other three from L.6000 to L.7000. According to the same writer, the rent, taken at twenty-five shillings the green acre, must be equal to about 14s. the English acre; but what proportion this description of land bears to the whole does not appear. The leases are now most commonly for 21 years and a life. In the northern part of the county, the farms are larger and more productive than in most other parts of Ulster. Oats, barley, potatoes, and flax, are the principal crops; very little wheat, clover, or turnips being cultivated, except in small patches near the towns. The high grounds are chiefly occupied in rearing cattle, and much of the better pastures with dairy stock. There are no large flocks of sheep, and their breed of this animal is of a very inferior description.
Farms. The price of common labour in 1809 was 1s. a-day; but labourers for hire being scarce in those parts where the farms are small, 1s. 6d. and 2s. was sometimes paid. "The poor," says Wakefield, eat wheaten bread and drink tea;" yet he elsewhere observes, that "the inhabitants are poor, and their cabins are wretched huts, with a wattled door, lined with a straw mat in the inside." Turf is the only fuel.
Labourers. Linen 7-8ths wide is manufactured to some extent, and there are several bleachfields which finish for sale the linens sent to England. Illicit distillation is said to be very general, much of the oats and barley grown in the county being consumed in this way.
Fermanagh is in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh, and is divided into eighteen parishes, of which fifteen belong to the diocese of Clogher, and three to that of Kilmore. It is computed that the Catholics exceed the Protestants in number in the proportion of three to one. None of the former have property enough to entitle them to be on the grand jury.
The other subdivisions are baronies, of which there are five to the east of Lough Erne, and three on the west. Two members are sent to Parliament from the county, and one from the borough of Enniskillen, the only town in it of any extent. The number of freeholders, a few years ago, according to Mr Wakefield, was 5000; but the three greatest proprietors, when unanimous, can always return what members they please. One of them, the Earl of Enniskillen, is also patron of the borough, which has twelve self-elected burgesses.
There is little or no gradation of rank here; the only intermediate classes between the few great proprietors and the labourers, being the small squire and the large farmer, neither of them a numerous body. A military turn has long prevailed among the inhabitants. The protestants are a fine race of people, much superior in appearance to those of any of the northern districts.
In 1790, Fermanagh was computed to contain 11,969 houses, and 71,800 inhabitants; but by the last census, the population is found to be 111,250, or at the rate of one person for about four acres.—See Young's Tour in Ireland,—Beaufort's Memoir of a Map of Ireland.—Newenham's View of the Natural, Political, and Commercial Circumstances of Ireland.—Wakefield's Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political; and the Farochial Survey of Ireland, Vols. I. and II.