an inland county, in the province of Ulster, in Ireland, situate between Lat. 54. 3. and 54. 31. N., and Long. 6. 14. and 6. 45. W.; comprising, according to the ordnance survey, an area of 512½ square miles, or 328,076 acres, of which 265,243 are arable, 35,117 uncultivated, 8,996 in plantations, 778 in towns, and 17,942, including a portion of Lough Neagh, under water. It is bounded on the north by Lough Neagh, on the east by the county of Down, on the south by Louth, and on the west by Monaghan and Tyrone.

The county was made shire ground in 1586, and called Armagh after the city of the same name, by the Lord Deputy, Sir John Perrot, who projected the division of the greater part of the province of Ulster into seven counties. When James I proceeded to plant with English and Scotch colonists, the vast tracts of land escheated to the crown in Ulster, the whole of the arable and pasture land in Armagh, estimated at 77,500 acres, was to have been allotted in 61 portions, 19 of which, comprising 22,180 acres were to have been allotted to the church, and 42, amounting to 55,620 acres, to English and Scotch colonists, servitors, native Irish, and four corporate towns,—the swordsmen to be dispersed throughout Connaught and Munster. This project was not strictly adhered to in the county of Armagh, neither were the Irish swordsmen or soldiers transplanted into Connaught and Munster from this or some other counties.

Armagh is now divided into eight baronies, viz., Armagh, Fews Lower and Upper, Oneiland East and West, Orior Lower and Upper, and Tureeny. It contains 28 parishes and parts of parishes, the greater number of which are in the archdiocese of Armagh, and a few in the diocese of Dromore. The county is in the Belfast military district, having barracks at Armagh, Charlemont, and Newry, and the headquarters of the county militia are at Markethill. The constabulary force consists of 278 men and officers, with headquarters at Armagh, and five districts, comprising 36 stations, at Armagh, Ballybot, Crossmaglen, Newtown-Hamilton, and Portadown. Assizes are held at Armagh, where the county prison, the county infirmary, and the district lunatic asylum are situated. The only savings bank in the county is at Armagh. There are two poor-law unions, Armagh (partly in Tyrone) and Lurgan (partly in Antrim and Down). The amount of property in the county, valued under the act 6th and 7th Will. IV., cap. 84 (Griffith's Valuation), is £2,366,860, and the net annual value of property rated to the poor is £310,061. The chief towns are the city and borough of Armagh, population in 1851, 9306; Lurgan, 4211; Portadown, 3091; the smaller market-towns of Tanderagee, Markethill, and Newtown-Hamilton, part of Newry also, with 3875 inhabitants, is in this county, the remainder, with 9616 inhabitants, being in the county of Down. The county returns three members to the Imperial Parliament, two for the county at large,—constituency in 1851, under 13th and 14th Vict., cap. 69, 4321; and one for Armagh city,—constituency 318.

Armagh is supposed to have formed part of the district described by Ptolemy as the possessions of the Vinderii and Voluntii; and afterwards, together with Louth, Monaghan, and some smaller districts, formed part of a territory called Orgial or Urial. For about two centuries it was subject to the occasional incursions of the Danes. The antiquities of the county consist of cairns and tumuli, the remains of the fortress of Eamania near Armagh, once the residence of the kings of Ulster; the Dane's Castle, an extensive fortification in the south-eastern portion of the county, extending into the county of Down; spears, battle-axes, collars, rings, amulets, medals of gold, ornaments of silver, jet, and amber, &c., have also been found in various places. The religious houses were at Armagh, Clonfiscacle, Killevy, Kilmore, Stradhallloyse, and Talhenny. Of military antiquities the most remarkable are Tyrone's ditches, near Poyntz-Pass, Castle Roe, the fort of Navan, the castles of Criff-Keirm and Argonell, and that in the pass of Moyrath.

The general surface of the county is gently undulating and pleasingly diversified; but in the northern extremity, on the borders of Lough Neagh, is a considerable tract of low marshy land, and the southern border of the county is occupied by a barren range of hills, the highest of which, named Slieve Gullion, attains an elevation of 1893 feet, being the highest mountain in Ulster excepting Slieve Donard in the county of Down. The summit of Slieve Gullion, commanding one of the finest prospects in the province, is crowned by a large cairn or pile of stones which forms the roof of a singular cavern of artificial construction. In the western portion of the county are the Few Mountains, a chain of abrupt hills mostly incapable of cultivation.

The soil of the northern portion of the county is a rich brown loam, on a substratum of clay or gravel, with an abundance of limestone near Armagh and other places. Towards Charlemont there is much reclaimable bog resting on a limestone substratum. The eastern portion of the county is generally of a light friable soil; the southern portion rocky and barren, with but little bog except in the neighbourhood of Newtown-Hamilton. The climate of Armagh is considered to be one of the most genial in Ireland, and less rain is supposed to fall in this than in any other county.

The county is well watered by numerous streams; the principal are the Callan, the Tyran, and the Tallwater, flowing into the Blackwater, which after forming part of the boundary between this county and Tyrone, empties itself into the southwestern angle of Lough Neagh. The Tara, the Newtown-Hamilton, the Creggan, and the Fleary, flow into the Bay of Dundalk. The Cam or Camlin joins the Bann, which, rising in the Mourne Mountains, in the southern extremity of the county of Down, forms part of the western boundary of Armagh county, and falls into Leech Neagh to the east of the Blackwater. The Newry canal, communicating with Carlingford Lough at Warrenspoint, six miles below Newry, proceeds northwards through the county of Armagh for about 21 miles, joining the Bann at Whitecoat, in the bed of which river it is continued to Lough Neagh. The tolls, arising from tonnage dues of one shilling per ton inwards and one penny per ton outwards, amount to about £5000 per annum. The Ulster Canal commences at Charlemont on the River Blackwater, near its junction with Lough Neagh, proceeding through the western border of the county and passing thence to the south-west by Monaghan and Clones into Upper Lough Erne, after a course of 48 miles.

The geological features of the county are various and interesting. The granite of Slieve Gullion, an offset of the granite district of Down, is often used for millstones, being very hard and fine grained. The Newry Mountains and the Fathom Hills are also composed of granite. Around Canalough large beds of mica-slate exist. Slate quarries have been worked partially at Dorey, Newtown-Hamilton, Creggan Daffi, and in the neighbourhood of Crossmaglen. Lead mines have been worked, but hitherto without much success, near Keady and at Derryneen near Middleton; there are also indications of lead at Drumahoney near Markethill, and at Ballymore near Poyntz-Pass; of copper at Killevy near Newry, and of manganese and antimony in the neighbourhood of Keady. The other mineral substances found are potters' clay and a variety of ochres. A very peculiar deposit of fuel more recent than coal, viz., the lignite or wood-coal of Lough Neagh is found in the district included between Washing Bay in Tyrone and Sandy Bay in Antrim; it is so abundant in some places that pits have been sunk to raise it when other fuel was scarce. Sir Robert Kane states in his work on the *Industrial Resources of Ireland*, that the economic value of the lignite appears by analysis to be about two-thirds that of average coal, and in all respects as to application to industrial uses the position of lignite is between that of coal and wood. The heat produced from it is more diffused but less intense than that from coal. There are many mineral springs scattered throughout the county, generally deriving their virtues from carbonate of iron, but none have hitherto been employed medicinally.

The total population in 1821 amounted to 197,427 souls, being at the rate of one individual to every acre and a-half, or one family to every eight acres. Of this population, 28,905 were described as being employed in agriculture, 67,182 in trade, manufactures, and commerce, and 14,521 in other occupations, leaving 86,819 of both sexes and of every age unoccupied. In 1831 and 1841 the population was 220,134 and 232,393 respectively, but in 1851 the numbers had declined to 196,085, inhabiting 35,073 houses. Armagh, however, still remains, in proportion to its area, the most densely peopled county in Ireland, excepting that of Dublin, which includes the metropolis.

The land is in general but indifferently cultivated, yet owing to the occupation of the peasantry in various branches of the linen manufacture they are better lodged, clothed, and fed than in most other parts of Ireland. The cultivation of grain is somewhat on the decrease; that of green crops, on the contrary, increases, and the number of acres under flax had increased from 5181 in 1849 to 13,052 in 1851. The total amount of land under crops amounted in 1851 to 175,662, viz., wheat, 16,320; oats, 77,347; barley, bere, and rye, 3314; beans and pease, 1168; potatoes, 31,887; turnips 7870; other green crops, 3071; flax, 13,032; meadow and clover, 21,682.

In consequence of the dense population the farms are in general very small, and show less tendency to decrease in number than those of most other parts of Ireland. Notwithstanding the very diminutive size of the farms, their owners are generally in circumstances of comparative comfort, owing to their employment in the linen manufacture. There are few who do not keep at least one cow, or a few sheep; none but the poorest cottar is without a pig. Their usual diet is oatmeal, potatoes, and milk porridge, varied sometimes by salt herrings. The better description of farmers use animal food, chiefly bacon and poultry.

The principal manufacture, and that which has given a peculiar tone to the character of the population is the linen. It is noways necessary to the promotion of this manufacture that the spinners and weavers should be congregated in large towns, or united in crowded and unwholesome factories. On the contrary, most of its branches can be carried on in the cottages of the peasantry. The men devote to the loom those hours which are not required for the cultivation of their little farms; the women spin and reel the yarn during the intervals of their other domestic occupations. Smooth lawns, perennial streams, pure springs, and the open face of heaven, are necessary for perfecting the bleaching process. Hence the extensive bleachers, with all their assistants and machinery, dwell in the country. Such is the effect of this combination of agricultural occupations with domestic manufactures, that the farmers are more than competent to supply the resident population of the county with vegetable, though not with animal, food; and some of the less crowded and less productive parts of Ulster receive from it a considerable supply of oats, barley, and flour. Apples are grown in such quantities as to entitle the county to the epithet bestowed on it, of the orchard of Ireland.

In the towns and level parts of the county the Protestant religion, in its two principal forms of the Established Episcopal and Presbyterian church, predominates; but the Roman Catholic is prevalent in the mountainous and less cultivated parts. As far as may be conjectured from the returns of the commissioners of education, the Roman Catholics constitute nearly one half of the gross population.

According to those returns, the number of children at school in 1824 amounted to 13,800. If the total number of children between five and fifteen years of age, which may be called the period of education, were 49,000, as stated in the population returns of 1821, upwards of two-thirds of the whole remained uninstructed. In 1851, there were 111 national schools in operation, attended by 9458 children; 5500 males and 3958 females.

The union of manufacturing and agricultural industry in contributing to their prosperity, has also had a strikingly favourable effect on the manners and appearance of the people.

(II.S.—R.)

**Armagh**, a city and parliamentary borough, in the county of the same name, 82 miles north of Dublin, in Lat. 54° 20'.55. N. and in Long. 6° 37'.57. W. It is delightfully situated on the side of a steep hill, almost in the centre of a fertile valley. With the exception of Kilkenny and Clonmel, Armagh is the most populous inland town in Ireland. It is the seat of the archiepiscopal see of the primate of all Ireland, whose ecclesiastical province comprises six consolidated dioceses. 1. Armagh and Clogher; 2. Tuam, Ardagh, Killala, and Achonry; 3. Derry and Raphoe; 4. Down, Connor, and Dromore; 5. Kilmore and Elphin; 6. Meath. The corporation which was styled "the Sovereign, Free Burgesses, and Commonalty of the Borough of Armagh," was abolished by the provisions of the Municipal Reform Bill. Markets are held on Tuesdays for general purposes, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays for grain. The city is connected with Belfast by the Ulster Railway, and will on the completion of the Newry and Enniskillen railway, possess direct communication with those towns. The borough of Armagh (constituency in 1851, 318) returns one member to the Imperial parliament. Pop. in 1851, 9306.

Armagh, though now much reduced in population, was once considered as the metropolis of the island, and second only to Dublin in the number of its inhabitants. The honour of being its founder is attributed to St Patrick. It was built on an eminence named Draimaislech, or the Hill of Willows; its present name is supposed to be a slight corruption of Ardnacha, the High Place or Field. In 448 a synod was held here, the canons of which are still in existence. During the period anterior to the arrival of the English in Ireland, it suffered extremely from the assaults of the Danes, by whom it was repeatedly plundered and burnt. Nor was its condition much bettered by the change of masters. De Courcy, FitzAdelm, and De Laey, pillaged it in turn in their attempts to subdue Ulster; and it was exposed to similar calamities during the war by which the north of Ireland was desolated in the reign of Elizabeth. Her successor, James I., granted it a charter, according to which it has since been governed. Its decline was accelerated by the non-residence of the archbishops, who, in consequence of the unsettled state of the northern province, fixed their residence for many years at Drogheda. From this deplorable state it was raised by Lord Rokeby, better known by the name of Primate Robinson. When he determined to make it the seat of his permanent residence, this venerable city was little more than a collection of cabins. He erected in it an archiepiscopal palace, a college or grammar school for classical education, a public library, now containing about 14,000 volumes, and an observatory well furnished with astronomical instruments. Besides these, the city now contains a Roman Catholic...