a county in Ireland, situated in the province of Connaught, within the archbishoprick of Tuam, is bounded on the north by Mayo, on the east by the river Shannon, which separates it from King's County and Tipperary, on the south by Clare, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. In extent it is next to Cork, the most considerable in Ireland, and contains 2593 English square miles, or 1,659,520 acres, divided into seventeen baronies, and, including the South Arran Isles, three in number, at the entrance of Galway bay, into one hundred and sixteen parishes.

The surface of this extensive district presents great variety and contrast. More than a third of it consists of bogs, mountains, and lakes, and is very thinly inhabited and unproductive. The greater part of this tract is contained in three baronies, on the west side of the county. On the east and south the country is generally flat, though not without a few hills of no great height, and the soil is warm and fertile, incumbent on limestone; yet much of it is better adapted for grazing than tillage; and the dry stone walls, with which the fields are inclosed, and the want of trees, give it a rather dreary aspect. This part of Galway contains more gentlemen's seats than any other district of the same extent in Ireland, though few of them are remarkable for their magnificence. Lough Corrib, which, in some measure, marks the boundary between these two divisions, extends about twenty miles in length, its greatest breadth being eleven miles; but in the middle it is contracted to a narrow channel, which is crossed by a ferry at Knock. The country which reaches from the sea to the Shannon, is well watered by rivers, and contains also several beautiful lakes. Next to the Shannon, the principal rivers are the Suck, the Black River, Clare, Galway, and Dunmore. Some of these are subterranean in a part of their course; the Black River, on the bounds of Mayo, dips for about three miles, and the Clare and the Moyne unite their waters under ground, alternately appearing and retiring from view. Lough Reagh and Lough Coutra are fine pieces of water; the latter, in particular, which is situated near the borders of Clare county, is said to possess all the beauties that hills, woods, and islands can impart to water.

Among the landed proprietors of Galway, there are several who hold large estates, affording an income of from L. 5000 to L. 10,000 a year, and upwards. One of these estates, the most extensive in the British Isles, stretches along the sea coast for 70 miles. Only a small portion is held by absentee owners. In 1809 the rent of the green land averaged from a guinea and a half to two guineas per acre, or about 22s. 9d. the English acre. A full third of the land is let on partnership leases, to an indefinite number of persons, very often twenty, who by law are joint tenants, and entitled to the benefit of survivorship. The leases are commonly for three lives or thirty-one years. "These people," says Mr Wakefield, "divide the land and give portions to their children, which consist of a fourth or a fifth of what they call 'a man's share,' that is, of the land which originally belonged to one name in the lease. A certain portion of the whole farm, or take, as it is styled, is appropriated for tillage, and this portion is then divided into lots, perhaps twenty or thirty. These lots are again subdivided into fields, which are partitioned into small lots, each partner obtaining one or two ridges; but these ridges do not continue in the hands of the same occupier longer than the time they are in tillage. The pasture is held in common; and the elders of the village are the legislators, who establish such regulations as may be judged proper for their community, and settle all disputes that arise among them. Their houses stand close to each other, and form what is here termed a village."

The cattle of Galway are long-horned, and of an excellent description, fully equal, in the opinion of Mr Wakefield, to any in England. But sheep form the most valuable part of their live stock; "some of the finest flocks in the world," says the same writer, "are to be found in this county." The crops are the same as in other parts of Ireland, but potatoes are not cultivated to so great an extent. They plant potatoes on an oat stubble, or on lea that has been burned or manured, and follow with wheat, bear or barley, or oats; the latter kind of grain is not unfrequently taken after wheat and barley. Paring and burning the soil is very common. The greater part of the rent of some of the estates on the shore is paid from kelp, which is prepared in large quantities.

In common with the greater part of Ireland, Galway employs some of its people in the linen manufacture, and it seems to be the only kind of manufacture in it worth notice. At the town of Galway there is a considerable salmon fishery, and in the bay of that name herrings and other fish are caught in quantities more than sufficient for the supply of the inhabitants. Lobsters and crabs abound on the shores of the bay; such as in Dublin would bring 7s. or 8s. may be often bought there for 6d., and sometimes for even less. The oysters found at Pouldoody have long had a high reputation, and are much sought after in Dublin. In Lough Corrib there is a fresh water muscle that produces pearls, "of which," says Beaufort, "I have seen some very fine specimens." The number of men enrolled as sea fencibles, which comprehended all the fishermen of Ireland, was for this county 452, nearly the medium of all the maritime counties of Ireland.

Among the towns, the principal is Galway, which, though situated on a bay, sheltered by the Isles of Arran, and having a safe harbour, with a sufficient depth of water, has, nevertheless, very little foreign trade. Its population has been stated conjecturally at about 15,000. It is the only Parliamentary borough. Tuam is a place of some note, containing the Archbishop's palace and the remains of several religious houses, said to be of great antiquity. Ballinasloe is a well-built, thriving town, pleasantly situated on the western bank of the river Suck. Here the greatest fairs in Ireland, for sheep, cattle, and wool, are held in July and October. In the lower districts, there is a number of villages, but none of them considerable.

According to Mr Wakefield, the wages of common labour, in 1811, were 9d. a-day; and, in hay prices and corn harvest, 1s. 1d. The price of potatoes was 3 1/3d. per stone; beef 5 1/2d., and pork 3 1/2d. per lb.; oatmeal 14s. per cwt.; milk 2d. and butter-milk 2d. per quart; and herrings 5s. 3d. the hundred.

The county sends two members to Parliament, and the borough of Galway one. The landed property of the Roman Catholics returns the members for the county; but there is no commanding territorial influence. The freeholders amount to 4000. The borough is said to be under the influence of two gentlemen of the name of Daly, who return the member alternately.

The Arran isles, which form a part of this county, are of considerable extent, having a rocky surface, and a precipitous coast, which, in many places, shoots up into stupendous cliffs. They are inhabited by a hardy race, who, like the people of the western islands of Scotland, are at one season of the year fishermen, and at another husbandmen. The cavities and fissures on their coast are the resort of great numbers of sea fowl, which are caught for their feathers, by men suspended by a rope from the summit of the precipice. The flesh of the small sheep of these islands is highly esteemed for its taste and flavour. On a high cliff projecting into the sea, in the island of Arranmore, there is a circle composed of very large stones, piled up without cement, called Dun Angus; and, in the same island, there is said to have been an abbey, which was burnt early in the eleventh century. These islands are called South Arran, to distinguish them from an island of the same name on the coast of Donegal. They gave the title of Earl to the Butler family, lately extinct; it is now in the family of Gore. In 1313, they were pillaged and burnt by Sir John D'Arcy, Lord Justice of Ireland. Of the other islands on this and some other parts of the Irish coast, little is known to strangers, as they are only noticed incidentally, when noticed at all, by the latest writers on Ireland.

According to Beaufort, the population of Galway, in 1792, was 142,000; and the number of houses, by the returns of Mr Wray, Inspector-General of Hearth-Money, was, in that year, 24,268, of which more than a fourth were exempted from the tax. In 1809, the Catholics were, to the Protestants, as 40 or 50 to one. In the western parts, there are districts of 50 miles, perhaps, in extent, where there is neither a church nor a single Protestant inhabitant. The Militia are nearly all Catholics: and ten Catholics are called on the Grand Jury. The Protestant population seems to be stationary; but, in several parishes, the increase of the Catholic, in 15 years before 1811, is stated to have been as 5 1/2 to 7. In the town of Galway, the services of the Catholic Church are performed by the priests in the Irish language.—See the works formerly referred to under the Irish counties.