a maritime county in the province of Leinster in Ireland, is bounded on the N. by the counties of Cavan, Monaghan, and Louth; on the E. by the Irish Sea and Dublin county; on the S. by the counties of Kildare, Dublin, and King's County; and on the W. by Westmeath. Its superficial area is 906 square miles, or 579,599 acres, of which 547,424 are arable, 16,000 uncultivated, 12,767 in plantations, 464 in towns, and 3244 under water. Meath contains a much smaller proportion of uncultivated land than any other county in Ireland; and of the 16,000 acres of bog and coarse pasture land comprised within its boundaries, it is probable that 6000 acres are capable of improvement for cultivation, 8000 may be improved by draining, and not more than 2000 acres are uninposable.
In the time of Ptolemy it formed part of the territory of the Eblani, whose settlement extended from the Boyne to the Liffey. According to the accounts of native writers, the district known by the name of Meath was of much greater extent than at present. It comprehended the modern counties of Meath, Westmeath, Longford, with parts of Cavan, Kildare, and the King's County, and constituted the least, but the best and most fertile, of the five subordinate kingdoms into which the island was divided. At the time of the landing of the English the O'Melaghlins ruled in Meath, and from them it was wrested by Henry II., who bestowed it on Hugh de Lacy, to be held by the service of fifty knights. This nobleman subdivided it into twelve parts called baronies, because the persons to whom he granted those parts were afterwards created barons. In this state it continued till the reign of Henry VIII., when it was divided by act of parliament into the two counties of Eastmeath and Westmeath. The modern division of the county is into eighteen baronies. Deece, Lower and Upper; Du-
leek, Lower and Upper; Dumbayne; Fore; Kells, Lower and Upper; Lune; Morgallion; Moyferrath, Lower and Upper; Navan, Lower and Upper; Ratoath; Skreen; and Slane, Lower and Upper. These baronial divisions are again subdivided into 146 parishes.
According to the ecclesiastical division of Ireland this county constitutes the greater portion of the diocese of the same name; but a few of its parishes are in the dioceses of Armagh and Kilmore. There were formerly many episcopal sees in Meath, all of which, except Kells and Duleek, which, however, subsequently shared the same fate as the others, were consolidated previously to the year 1152, when Cardinal Paparo settled the diocesan divisions of Ireland, by authority from Pope Eugenius III. The seat of the see was then fixed at Clonard. The bishopric of Clonmacnois was united to it by act of parliament in 1568. The bishop of Meath has no cathedral church; his residence has for a long period been at Ardbraccan, about 3 miles from Navan, which in the wars of 1641 was a castle of considerable strength, but is now a tasteful modern mansion, and one of the finest of the episcopal palaces in Ireland. The constitution of the diocese possesses many singularities. There is neither dean nor chapter. The only dignitaries are the dean of Clonmacnois, and the archdeacon of Meath. The want of a chapter is supplied by a synod, of which every beneficed clergyman within the diocese is a member. This synod has a common seal, which is lodged in the hands of members annually selected for its custody. The Bishop of Meath takes precedence of all the other suffragan bishops in Ireland, and is a member of the privy council in right of his see.
The surface of this county, though generally level, is yet not without its characteristic beauties. The banks of the Boyne, especially, present a succession of prospects in which the undulating surface is richly ornamented with the natural beauties of wood and water, studded by numerous buildings, both ancient and modern. Few of the elevations are of sufficient height to be termed hills, except Slieve Naclagh (904 feet), and Lloyd (422 feet), in Kells barony; and even these, where cultivated, are productive to their summits. The latter is surmounted by a pillar 100 feet in height, erected by the first Earl of Bective, from which a fine view of the rich level plain of Meath may be obtained.
The River Boyne enters the county at its south-western extremity, and intersects it diagonally in a north-eastern direction, pursuing a quiet gentle course, through a rich and fertile country, till it discharges itself into the sea below Drogheda, where it forms the boundary between the counties of Meath and Louth. It receives the Blackwater at Navan. The Moynalty or Borora is a branch of the Blackwater. The Naanymwater discharges itself into the Irish Sea. The Ryewater forms part of the boundary between Dublin and Meath. The Boyne is navigable for barges as far as Navan, whence a canal has been carried to Trim. The Royal Canal touches the southern border of the county between Kilcock and Cloncurry. The sea-coast is confined to the short space between the mouth of the Boyne and the stream of the Delvin, which is part of the boundary of Dublin county. It presents a shelving strand, without a port of any consequence. There is no sheet of water meriting the name of lake, except that of Lough Sheelin, which bounds the county on the N., being situated partly also in the counties of Cavan and Westmeath, and the very considerable Lough of Lakefield, in Demifore.
The soil is extremely variable, being found of every quality, from a deep rich loam to the lightest sandy earth; but that most generally to be met with is a strong deep clay, resting on a substratum of limestone gravel. In some parts, and even on the tops of the hills, as good earth has been found at the depth of 4 feet as at the surface. The county is wholly included within the great central plain of floetz limestone, which crosses Ireland in a broad band. The mineral productions are few, owing partly to the character of the soil, and partly to that of the surface, which, from its general flatness, prevents the interior from being explored to any depth, without being impeded by subterraneous water. A copper mine was for some time worked in Skreen barony, but the latter of the causes now mentioned put a stop to the operations. Limestone of large scantling, well suited for building purposes, and also susceptible of a high polish, is raised at Ardbraccan. It is white when fresh from the chisel, but assumes a greyish hue from atmospherical exposure. Argillaceous clay, which has been applied to the manufacture of coarse earthenware, is raised in some places. In Slane barony coal-pan is found in abundance, at the edges of streams, where the soil has been washed away by the action of the water; but coal has not yet been discovered.
The population of a district enjoying so many of the natural advantages suited to the maintenance of human existence, was probably in early times more numerous than in most other parts of the kingdom; but in consequence of the conversion of the greater portion of its surface into pasture land, the operation of the clearance system has for some time past reduced the number of its inhabitants, in proportion to the extent of cultivated land, to much less than in any other Irish county.
The population of the county in modern times has been stated as follows:
| Year | Population | |------|------------| | 1760 | 81,516 | | 1792 | 112,400 | | 1812 | 142,579 | | 1821 | 159,183 | | 1831 | 176,826 | | 1841 | 183,828 | | 1851 | 140,750 |
Meath returned no fewer than fourteen representatives to the Irish parliament,—two for the county at large, and two for each of the boroughs of Trim, Navan, Athboy, Duleek, Kells, and Ratoath. This number was reduced to two at the Union, all the representatives for boroughs having been struck off.
In 1851 the number of schools and of pupils attending them during the week ending 12th April was:
| Schools | No. of Schools | No. of Children | |---------|---------------|----------------| | National | 82 | 2730 | | Church Education | 6 | 96 | 62 | 158 | | Endowed | 6 | 495 | 490 | 985 | | Boarding | 2 | 111 | 111 | 222 | | Private | 54 | 575 | 610 | 1185 | | Parochial | 13 | 179 | 125 | 304 | | Free | 12 | 143 | 234 | 377 | | Workhouse | 7 | 945 | 896 | 1841 | | Gaol | 1 | 87 | ... | 87 | | Total | 183 | 5662 | 5107 | 10,769 |
There are charter-schools at Trim and Ardbraccan, a school endowed at Navan by a bequest of Alderman Preston in 1686, and a large free school was established at Oldcastle by a bequest of Mr Gibson of London.
The population is chiefly engaged in agriculture. The soil being principally composed of a deep rich earth, the deepest ploughing is considered as the best tillage. A complete summer's fallow at stated intervals is considered necessary to keep the land thoroughly clean; every other attempt to eradicate the weeds, by means of clover, vetches, or any other umbrous green crop, having proved ineffectual. Planting potatoes, even without manure, is considered as a good method of fallowing where cleansing is the only object. In the neighbourhood of villages it is a common practice for farmers to throw open the field which he intends to fallow to the cottagers, who furnish manure and plant their potatoes on it. If the ground be in good heart, he charges them at the rate of somewhat more than his own rent, which is termed "paying the standing rent;" but if poor, he makes no charge. With respect to the rotation of crops, or system of cropping, no restriction is imposed on the tenant. Every one is permitted to raise that kind of grain from which he expects to derive the greatest produce.
The crops usually cultivated are,—wheat, oats, barley, bere, rye, clover, flax, potatoes, cabbage, rape, turnips, and peas. The red wheat is preferred by most as agreeing best with the soil, and having a thinner rind, bearing the change of season better, and being less apt to lodge than the white. The latter is cultivated on the lighter and more gravelly soils. It comes in earlier, but is more liable to injury from the weather or mildew. Oats are produced in the greatest variety and of the finest samples. Barley is sown on the richest land, and requires the nicest tillage; and it is considered as one of the most profitable crops. Bere is a good deal sown, particularly after potatoes; it is also a profitable crop where it succeeds, but it is uncertain. The straw makes excellent fodder for young cattle. Rye, by itself or mixed with wheat, when it is called meelin, is chiefly ground into whole meal for domestic consumption. Flax is mostly sown in small patches for the use of the farmer's family, and seldom offered in quantities for sale; it grows strong and luxuriant, so as to be seldom fitted for the finer fabrics. When a field is laid down for grass, those parts of it on which flax had been grown produce the most luxuriant herbage, and show the earliest verdure in the following year. Rape is grown with the greatest success on bog which has been reclaimed by burning. Red clover is much used as a renovating crop; white clover is seldom sown except on land laid down for pasture.
The total extent of land under each description of crop in 1855 and 1856 was as follows:
| Crop | 1855 | 1856 | |---------------|------|------| | Wheat | 18,764 | 23,398 | | Oats | 86,831 | 78,302 | | Barley, bere, rye, beans, and peas | 4,876 | 3,633 | | Potatoes | 19,235 | 21,898 | | Turnips | 9,904 | 9,261 | | Other green crops | 4,005 | 4,067 | | Flax | 206 | 216 | | Meadow and clover | 64,646 | 60,597 |
Total | 208,527 | 201,269 |
The quantity of artificial grass sown is very small, as compared with the extensive tracts producing natural grasses; the depth and richness of the soil throughout almost the whole of the county, and its tendency to moisture without being absolutely wet, making it throw up a coat of nourishing herbage scarcely equalled in Ireland. In other counties there are districts which far exceed the richest lands here; such are the Golden Vale in Tipperary, and the corcass lands in Limerick. But no other district can exhibit 560,000 acres in close proximity of such excellent quality, and so appropriate to every purpose of tillage and pasture, as Meath. It is, generally speaking, more friendly to the latter kind of agriculture, and consequently was almost wholly applied to grazing, until the legislative measures adopted by the Irish parliament for the encouragement of tillage induced many to break up the large tracts which for ages had continued untouched by the ploughshare. The superior excellence of the beef reared here over that of any other district has made the county proverbial for its feeding. All the old pastures are composed of grasses of the best kinds. Graziers seldom think of procuring any particular species, from an opinion that the land, after three years, will revert to its natural herbage, even though grasses of other kinds had been sown upon it when laid. Meath. down. Dry gravelly soils throw up a rich coat of white clover, though no red has been sown; and grounds of a clayey nature, when drained and manured with limestone gravel, often exhibit a similar tendency. Natural meadows are to be met everywhere; few farms, whatever be their size, are without a sufficiency for the holder's use. The artificial grasses chiefly cultivated are clover and trefoil. Much attention is paid by the graziers to the treatment of their feeding stock. The first week in May the pastures are generally opened for the summer stock, which are seldom reared here, the land being deemed too valuable to be given up to young cattle. Beasts of this description are brought from Connacht or Munster. When they arrive they are bled and turned into the pasture-field, where they remain till completely fattened, each field being stocked at once with its full complement. They are then sold partly in the Dublin market for the consumption of the metropolis, or for exportation to Liverpool. The sheep, like the cattle, are seldom bred in the country, but are bought at the October fair of Ballinasloe. Lands newly laid down are generally appropriated to the rearing of lambs for the Dublin market.
The quantity of live stock in the county of Meath in 1855 and 1856 was—
| | 1855 | 1856 | |-------|--------|--------| | Horses| 23,310 | 23,616 | | Cattle| 135,485| 140,813| | Sheep | 170,582| 189,069| | Pigs | 22,425 | 17,546 |
There are about 11,000 holdings exceeding one acre in extent, and most of the farmers occupying from 30 to 100 acres keep a few cows, the produce of which, both in milk and butter, that remains after supplying their own families, is sent to market. There are also a number of dairy farms in Dunboyne and Ratoath, on which the landlord supplies the land, houses, and stock; the tenant furnishes labour and utensils, and pays for the mowing and hay making. Cheese is very seldom made, and only for domestic use.
The quantity of natural wood throughout the country is small, but the plantations in demesnes and about gentlemen's seats, are numerous and thriving. The trees most usually met with are ash, elm, sycamore, lime, and larch. Scotch and spruce fir are less common. The oak is very scarce, the principal growth of it being at Loughcrew, in Demiöire. There are many osieries, of from 2 to 10 acres each, the produce of which is sold to the basket-makers of Dublin.
The manufactures are chiefly confined to the making of sacking from tow, of coarse linens in the neighbourhood of Drogheda, where the cotton manufacture is also carried on to some extent, and of linens of a texture somewhat finer in the western baronies. Some coarse frieze is also manufactured for home consumption. There are paper manufactories, distilleries, breweries, and tanneries in several localities, but the number of persons in this county employed in manufacturing occupations is very small. The chief outlet for the produce of the county is Drogheda. There are good markets for grain and provisions at Trim and Navan, and extensive flour-mills on the Boyne and Blackwater.
There are several mansions in this county of great size and splendour, surrounded by highly improved demesnes, and numerous seats of resident gentlemen. The farm houses are generally of very inferior construction, formed of the earth or clay taken off the surface of the spot on which the house is to be built; hence the floor is commonly several inches below the level of the sea, and consequently damp and unwholesome. The habitations of the labourers and cottars are of a description still worse, being built of mud, and often with sunken floors. The owners of some estates, however, have provided comfortable residences for their labourers, to be held by them on moderate terms. In many parts the lower classes suffer from want of fuel; bog-land being extremely scarce, and the expense of carriage precluding the purchase of coal, which must be drawn from Dublin or Drogheda.
The peasantry of Meath are generally a fine, well-looking and healthy race, but more phlegmatic and serious than the inhabitants of the mountain districts of Ireland; and owing to the early occupation of this portion of the country, and its situation within the English pale, the admixture of races is very great.
Amongst the most ancient remains of antiquity may be mentioned the round or pillar towers at Kells and Donaghmore. The former is a very perfect specimen of these peculiar structures, 99 feet high, and has four small apertures near the top facing the four cardinal points of the compass. The latter, also very perfect, is remarkable for having a representation of the Saviour on the cross, carved on the key-stone over the entrance, which some antiquaries consider a decided proof that these structures were not built by the pagans; while others, anxious to support the theory of the pagan origin and the antiquity of the Irish round towers, assert that this doorway is not the original one. At Kells is a fine ancient sculptured cross of beautiful workmanship, and another of plainer construction at St Kieran, about 3 miles from Kells. At New Grange, near Slane, is a pagan relic of great interest, consisting of an artificial cavern or underground gallery, in the form of a cross, 71 feet in its greatest length, 20 feet between the extremities of the arms of the cross, and 11 feet in its greatest height, surrounded by a tumulus or hillock raised by art, which is surrounded by a circle of huge unhewn stones set upright. "It is," says Dr Wilde in his interesting work on the beauties of the Boyne and the Blackwater, "probably one of the oldest Celtic monuments in the world, which has elicited the wonder and called forth the admiration of all who have visited it, and has engaged the attention of nearly every distinguished antiquary, not only of the British Isles, but of Europe generally." It is supposed to have been either a place of Druidical worship or a burying-place; and two skeletons, uncovered with earth, were found in it when first opened. The Hill of Tara, a few miles S. of Navan, is famous as being the place where the kings of Ireland were crowned, and where the states of the island held their triennial assemblies, called the Fez of Tara. The traces of some of the localities supposed to have been connected with this ancient custom, are said by some antiquaries to be still discoverable on it. On the summit of the sacred hill, which is 512 feet above the level of the sea, is a rath called the Rath of the Synods, or the King's Chair, and at a short distance a larger rath called the King's Rath. Other raths are to be seen at Lismullen, Odder, and Ringlestown. Columbkille's House, a stone-roofed crypt or cell at Kells, is said to be the most ancient building of that material in Ireland. The ruins of monastic buildings scattered throughout the county are too numerous to admit even of recapitulation. Trim had seven monastic institutions; Kells, Killeen, Duleek, and Skryne, three each. Several of these buildings have been converted into parish churches. The ruins of ancient castles are not less numerous. Some of them have been altered into modern residences. Of these Slane Castle, the seat of the Marquis of Conyngham, is conspicuous both for architectural structure and beautiful situation on a richly wooded elevation overlooking the Boyne. It was a favourite spot with King George IV., during his visit to Ireland in 1821. Killeen Castle, the seat of the Earl of Fingal, in addition to its claims on the score of antiquity, is memorable as having afforded an asylum during the rebellion of 1798 to the well-affected of every description. The clergymen, both Protestant and Catholic, performed divine service there under the same roof as long as danger existed. The principal towns of Meath are Navan, Kells, and Trim, the county town, none of which has a population above 4000. These towns will be found described under their respective heads.