Mount-Leinster, and terminates in the Blackstairs mountains, precipitous in ascent and of a sable hue. The interior of the connty is either flat or gently undulating, and the soil of a calcareous and rich nature. The navigable river Barrow flows through the county from north to south; and the Slaney crosses it towards the east; both rivers adding at once to the fertility and beauty of contiguous districts.

The county is divided into five baronies, named Ravilly; Catherlogh, or Carlow; Idrone; Forth; and St. Mullin's, or Molin's. These are again subdivided into fifty, parishes, the whole of which are in the diocess of Leighlin.

Large tracts of rich pasture

The quantity of cultivated and uncultivated land is thus stated in Mr. Wakefield's Account of Ireland. Cultivated land, 123,516 acres; uncultivated land, (mountain and bog) 12,217 acres. Total number of acres 135,733. Much barley, of an excellent quality, is grown in this county, together with considerable quantities of other grain. land are occupied as dairy-farms, and the butter of Carlow has the reputation of being the best that is sent to the Dublin market. "The Dairies," observes the writer last quoted, " consist of from twenty to fifty cows; and, during the season, produce 1cwt. of butter per cow." Great care is taken in the breed of cattle, and the dairies are frequently let to persons who agree to give a certain sum per annum, for what may be termed the usufruct of each cow. The butter is usually sent to Dublin by means of the canal, and large quantities are thence forwarded to London. The farms are frequently large, and are often stocked with fine flocks of long-woolled sheep, many of which are fattened for market.

This county contains numerous seats of gentry, several of which are highly embellished. The principal subjects of antiquarian gratification consist in vestiges of ecclesiastical and military structures, not often on an extensive scale.

POPULATION OF THE COUNTY OF Carlow,

According to the returns made under an act of Parliament

According to the returns made in the year 1821, the number of houses was 13,854; and the number of inhabitants, 81,287. Thus, according to those returns, the increase of inhabitants between the years 1813 and 1821, would appear to have amounted to 11,721.

CARLOW,

The assize town of this county, is a neat, and, in many parts, a well-built town, of considerable extent, agreeably and eligibly situated on the banks of the river Barrow. The surrounding country wears a cheerful aspect of cultivation, and the town is sheltered, in several directions, by lovely ranges of hills, so soft in character, and of so gentle an ascent, that they are often cultivated to the summit, whilst their sides are enlivened with farmdwellings, scattered over the scene in picturesque irregularity.

Many historical events relating to this town are closely connected with the annals of its antient castle; but some few notices, of more general application, may be inserted in the present page. As a proof of the rising importance of Carlow in the fourteenth

The annexed view of Carlow is taken from the road to Leighlin bridge, at the distance of about one quarter of a mile from the town. From this point of prospect are seen the bridge, the church, and the remains of the castle.

century, it must be mentioned that Lionel Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1361, removed the exchequer to this place, and contributed the sum of £500. towards the charge of encompassing the town with a strong wall. In the year 1577, Carlow was burnt, after a siege of considerable duration, by Rory-Oge O'More, then in rebellion against Queen Elizabeth. It was, probably, in a great part owing to the injuries then committed on its fortifications, that the town submitted, without an attempt at resistance, to Oliver Cromwell, in the seventeenth century, who placed there a garrison of 700 men. In the year 1642, however, Sir Patrick Wemys, of Deansfort, in the county of Kilkenny, an officer in the army of the Duke of Ormonde, was sent to its relief. The garrison fled on his approach, but not until they had set fire to several parts of the town. On the 25th of May, in the calamitous year 1798, this place was assailed by an undisciplined, forlorn, and hopeless body of insurgents, the greater number of whom were in a state of intoxication. These miserable assailants were, of course, easily repulsed and put to flight; and a lamentable scene of carnage immediately commenced. Many were shot from the windows. Others took shelter in the houses forming Tullow Street; on which (writes Sir Richard Musgrave, with a vulgarity of language and coarseness of feeling, happily unpractised by: other historians) "the soldiers set fire" to the houses, make them bolt!" We forbear to follow further the various disgusting accounts of this day's transactions, but must observe that about 417 bodies were subsequently "buried in three gravel-pits, and covered with quick lime, at the other side of the Graigue bridge."

to

The Castle of Carlow was a fortress of Anglo-Norman origin, and evidently erected in an age quickly succeeding the entrance of Strongbow, but its precise date, and the name of its founder, are equally unknown; some writers ascribing its foundation to King John, and others to the Lord Justice Lacey, to Isabel, daughter of Strongbow, or to Hugh Bigot, fourth Earl of Norfolk, who married Maud her eldest daughter and co-heir, and became

thereby, Lord of Carlow. Although few particulars have been preserved concerning its remote history, it is evident that this castle was long regarded as one of the principal protections of the English pale in Leinster. Among the accusations presented against Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, and his brother James Fitz-Gerald, for which they were attainted by an act of the Parliament held at Drogheda in 1494, was that of their having seized on the King's Castle of Carlow. We have already stated that Rory-Oge O'More burned the town of Carlow in 1577; and it must be added, that he, at the same time, captured its protecting fortress.* In the civil war of the seventeenth century the castle was alternately possessed by the two chief contending parties, but did not, at that era, form the scene of any very important military transactions, and has since, until lately, remained in majestic solitude, free from any efforts towards inhabitation.

This noble pile was constructed on a slight eminence, upon the west side of the town, overhanging the river Barrow. It was of a square form, flanked with a circular tower at each angle. The doors were remarkably low and narrow, and the apertures for the admission of light consisted chiefly, or entirely, of loop-holes. From the grandeur of its proportions, and the favourable character of its situation, which allowed a free view of its massy towers and rugged sides from the various roads which lead to the town, this august pile constituted a feature of peculiar magnificence in the architectural display of Carlow. But folly and presumption have recently deprived the pictorial examiner, and the antiquary, of an object so well calculated for their gratification.-The manor

* A tomb has been recently discovered, of good workmanship, the top of which presents a recumbent figure, clothed in armour; and round the edge the following inscription appears, in gothic characters. "Hic Jacet Robertus Hartpole Constabularius de Catherlagh Septuagenarios interuit 3 Octobris 1594." Sir Robert Hartpole, constable of the Castle of Carlow, was settled at Shrule in the Queen's County, of which county he was governor. Tradition represents him as a sanguinary, as well as a very vigilant officer, in repressing popular commotions. In the Lord Deputy's state letters he is recommended to the Queen, as entitled to her especial favour and princely reward.

of Carlow, including this noble monument of antiquity, passed, in consequence of an unredeemed mortgage, from a late Earl of Thomond to the family of a Mr. Hamilton, his Lordship's law agent, who are the present proprietors. By this family a lease of the castle was granted, in the year 1814, to a physician, named Middleton, who had formed the project of establishing in Carlow a maison de Santè for the reception of lunatics, and who speedily commenced operations, with a view of rendering the building amenable to his purpose. As the loop-holes in the walls were not sufficient to give the requisite light and ventilation, and as the thickness of the walls contracted undesirably the space of the rooms, this person, confiding in his own skill, undertook to enlarge the windows and diminish the thickness of the walls, without calling professional knowledge to his assistance. For the latter object he laboured by a process rather new in practice, namely, that of blasting the walls with gunpowder. He had not proceeded far in his improvements, when the pile, which had for so many ages derided the efforts of the battering ram, yielded to this more fearful mode of assault, and more than one half of the castle fell to the ground! Only the western side, comprising two of the angular towers, is now remaining.*

A large and commodious house, for the use of the governor, was built by Sir John Villiers, in the vicinity of the castle. In

This tremendous downfall occurred at the hour of nine in the morn ing, a time at which the workmen had suspended their labour, and happily no life was lost. The huge masses of ruin incumber the whole of the mount, except the west side, and mix with cottages at its base, which are inferior in size to many of these ponderous fragments. A man who was a witness of this unusual accident, described the spectacle to the present writer in very lively terms, and observed that the downfall was so slow in operation that a person had sufficient time to escape from the sphere of destruction (as was the case with himself) after viewing the portentous and amazing nodding of the towers. The immense pile gradually disparted into vast masses, which broke with difficulty into fragments less mighty. Many gigantic pieces of the rain rolled to the very doors of some humble cabins, on the opposite side of a road at the

base of the castle-mount.