MEATH, a maritime county in the province of Leinster in Ireland, is bounded, on the north, by the counties of Cavan, Monaghan, and Louth; on the cast, by the Irish sea and Dublin county; on the south, by the county of Kildare; and on the west by that of Meath. Its superficial contents amount to 567,127 acres, all of which are capable of cultivation, except 5600 acres of barren land, which would not repay the outlay expended on its improvement.

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 one of the five subordinate kingdoms into which the island was divided. At the time of the landing of the English it was the property of the O’Melaghlin family, from whom it was wrested by Henry II., who bestowed it on Hugh de Lacy, to be holden 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 Meath and Westmeath. The modern division of the county is into twelve baronies, which have been formed into two districts, for the purposes of its civil jurisdiction. The Boyne constitutes the line of demarcation between these divisions. That of Kells, to the north-west of the'river, comprehends the baronies of Slane, Morgallion, Kells, Demifore, Lune, and Navan; that of Dunshaughlin, to the south-west, contains those of Duleek, Skreen, Ratoath, Dunboyne, Deece, and Moyfenrath. The baronies of Deece, Duleek, Kells, Moyfenrath, Navan, and Slane, are each divided into half baronies, distinguished by the terms upper and lower, so that the county may be considered as divided into eighteen great divisions, for the purposes of its internal government. These baronial divisions are again subdivided into 137 parishes, and six portions of parishes, the remaining parts of which extend into some of the adjoining counties.

According to the ecclesiastical division of Ireland this county constitutes the greater portion of the diocese of the same name. 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, which in the wars of 1641 was a castle of considerable strength, but is now a modern mansion built with much taste. 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 bishopric is divided into twelve rural deaneries, and comprehends 224 parishes, of which, according to the ecclesiastical computation, 147 are in the county of Meath; fifty-nine in Westmeath; sixteen in the King’s County; one in Cavan; one in Longford; besides one part of a parish in Kildare. The bishop of Meath takes precedence of all the other bishops in Ireland, and is a member of the Privy Council in right of his see.

From the level aspect of this county, it doesnot present such a variety of picturesque views as many other districts; yet it is 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 of the ground are of sufficient height to be termed hills, and none deserve the title of mountain, except perhaps Scribogue and Lloyd in Kells barony; and even those, where cultivated, are productive to their summits.

The river Boyne enters the county at its south-western extremity, and intersects it diagonally in a north-eastern direction, 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 Nannywater discharges itself into the Irish sea. The Ryewater forms part of the boundary between Dublin and [7:14:346]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 Cion curry. A projected canal, to traverse the county from south-east to north-west, has never been executed. The sea-coast is confined to the short space between the mouth of the Boyne and the stream of the Delvid, 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 north, and the very inconsiderable Lough of Lakefield in Demifore.

The soil is extremely variable, being found of every quality, from a deep rich loam to the lightest sandy texture; 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 four feet as at the surface, so that the land in those favoured spots can never be exhausted, because when the farmer begins to find his fields unproductive, he has only by ploughing somewhat deeper to turn up a quantity of virgin earth, whose productive qualities had hitherto lain dormant.

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, and therefore well suited for building purposes, and also susceptible of a high polish, is raised at Ardbraccan. The Episcopal palace is built of this stone. 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 earthen-ware, is raised in some places. In Slane barony coal-smut has been 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. A chalybeate spring of some repute for the cure of diseases arising from debility, has been discovered at Knock, in Morgallion barony.

The quantity of bog is very small; but in stating this fact, it must be observed that there is a very extraordinary difference in the statements of the two most accredited writers regarding its extent. Thompson, in his County Survey, published in 1802, under the auspices of the Dublin Society, fixes the quantity of unreclaimed bog at 42,000 acres, whereas Griffith, in his return to parliament, on the valuation of Ireland, in 1832, makes the whole of the barren mountain land and bog together to amount only to 5600 acres.

The population of a district enjoying so many of the natural advantages suited to the maintenance of human existence, is by no means so great as might have been anticipated from this cause. The average of inhabitants, compared with the superficial extent, is but as one to 3 j, whilst in the adjoining counties of Louth and Armagh it is as 1 to 1⅜. The increase of population appears in the following table, which presents the results of investigations at different periods :—
[table]

The result of a subsequent census in 1834, by the commissioners of public instruction, cannot be stated here, because it had been made up according to dioceses, instead of counties.

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. The same arrangement has been continued by the reform act.

The state of the county constituency, at three periods, viz. 1st, previously to the disqualification of the forty-shilling freeholders; 2d, subsequently to their disqualification; and, 3d, under the reform act, is as follows :—
[table]

The constabulary is now placed, by the new act, under one sub-inspector, eighteen chief constables, thirty-six head constables, and 284 constables and sub-constables. The number of men in this force, according to the returns made previously to the new arrangement, were nine chief constables and 288 sub-constables, who were maintained at an annual expense of £11,685, being at an average of £39 each man.

According to returns made to parliament, the state of education at the periods specified below was the following. The returns made by the commissioners of public instruction, in 1834, cannot be made available, for the reason stated in the preceding paragraph relative to the population in general :—
[table]

Of the numbers specified in the latter of these returns, 1280 were Protestants of the Established Church, 8817 were Roman Catholics, and five Dissenters; the religious persuasion of the remaining 205 could not be ascertained. Of the 272 schools in which these children were instructed, thirty-one, containing 1275 pupils, were supported by grants of public money; thirty-eight, containing 1937 pupils, by the voluntary contributions of societies or individuals; and the remainder, amounting to 203 schools, affording education to 7195 children, were supported wholly by the fees of the pupils. The diocesan school for the sees of Meath and Ardagh was fixed by the commissioners of education to be kept at Mullingar or Westmeath. That of Meath diocese had been long kept in Trim. There are charter-schools at Trim and Ardbraccan. A school was endowed at Navanby abequest of Alderman Preston in 1686. A large free school, on the Lancasterian system, has been established at Oldcasto, 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; and from the great tendency to weeds, the farmer, who keeps his ground in the most cleanly state, and at the same time most friable and pulverized, is considered as having it in the most profitable condition. A complete summer’s fallow at stated intervals is considered by the most judicious farmers as absolutely necessary to keep the land thoroughly clean; every other attempt to eradicate the -weeds, by means of clover, vetches, or any other umbraceous 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 [7:14:347]own rent, which is termed “paying the standing rent ;” but if poor, he makes no charge. The most intelligent farmers break up their fallows before Christmas as lightly as possible; yet, in order to reverse the surface at the close of the spring work, it is cross-harrowed, the weeds are gathered and burned, and if necessary, it is manured and gravelled. The next ploughing, called the “gorrowing,” is performed by six horses or bullocks turning up the ground in high narrow ridges across the former lines. In this state the land lies during the remainder of the summer, and then receives a ploughing called “stretching,” which runs as the ridges of sown corn are intended to lie. The grain is generally sown broad-cast and harrowed in. With respect to the rotation of crops, or system of croping, 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, bear, rye, meslin, 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; they are sown in the proportion of three to one as compared with other crops, and command a certain sale at the grain markets. Barley is also in much repute. It is sown on the richest land, and requires the nicest tillage; but there is always a brisk demand for it, and it is considered as one of the most profitable crops. Bear 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 meslin, 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 shew the earliest verdure in the following year; if sheep, which are of all animals the greatest epicures, be let in upon it, they invariably settle on the part so laid down; this appearance of luxuriance and early verdure is visible for at least two years. 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 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 such a coat of nourishing herbage, as is scarcely to be 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 districtcan exhibit 560,000 acres situated together, 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 down. Dry gravelling 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 Connaught 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, and partly to buyers from the northern ports, chiefly for the supply of the colonies. The slaughtering season commences in September. Some graziers put a few fat sheep to graze amongst the neat cattle; but the practice is generally condemned, from an opinion that it injures the “proof” of the beasts, by which is meant the quantity of inside fat, the butcher’s test of high feeding, as the sheep feed on the sweetest grass; of course it ultimately hurts the grazier, as the north country butchers avoid those whose beasts do not “die well,” as they express it, and are sure to give a preference to those who are known to have good proof beasts. Bullocks are fed in great abundance. The sheep, like the black cattle, are seldom natives; they are brought in at the October fair of Ballinasloe. Lands newly laid down are generally appropriated to the rearing of lambs for the Dublin market. The marshes of Rossmin and Emla, on the Moynalty river feed great numbers of horses during summer. These marshes admit of easy drainage, but the proprietors deem them more profitable in their present state.

Almost every farmer, occupying from thirty to one hundred acres, keeps a few cows, the produce of which both in milk and butter that remains after supplying his own family, is sent to market. There are also a number of dairy farms in Dunboyne and Ratoath, in which the landlord supplies the land, houses and stock; the tenant furnishes labour and utensils, and pays for the mowing and hay making; the cows, when they go backward in their milk, are charged by the landlord at his own expense. The cream only is churned; the skimmed milk being mixed with butter milk is sold to the Dublin chandlers who retail it to the poor. The dairy cows are invariably housed from the first week in December till May; during which time they are sent out to graze in the day time and fed at night upon hay. Cheese is very seldom made and only for domestic use.

The quantity of natural wood throughout the county is but 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. Gross oak is very scarce, the principal growth of it being at Lougherew, in Demifore. There are many osieries, of from two to ten 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, and breweries, of considerable magnitude. Tanyards are to be met with in several places.
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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. But on the whole Meath cannot be considered to be a manufacturing county.

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 soil, and consequently damp and unwholesome. The habitations of the labourers and cotters are of a description still worse, being built of mud, and with sunken floors, insomuch that it is found necessary to form a hole in the floor as a receptacle for the water that comes in at the door, or oozes through the foundation. This description, however, is not universally applicable. The owners of some estates have provided comfortable residences for their labourers, to be held by them on moderate terms. The furniture, food, and clothing, is of a character similar to that of their habitations. In many parts the lower classes suffer extremely from the 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. When coal can be had upon moderate terms, another objection .to its use is the want of grates, as it will not burn on the hearth like turf; although this difficulty has been overcome in some places by the ingenious contrivance of placing two bricks edgeways and parallel to each other, at about eight or ten inches asunder, by which means a current of air is produced sufficient to support combustion. Though the English language is universally spoken, the peasantry still prefer the use of Irish in their communications with each other. Books of devotion in the latter language, but printed in the Roman character, are much used. It is a proverbial expression here, as also in some other parts of Ireland, “If you have to plead for your life, plead in Irish.” A fund exists here derived from bequests of Dr. Sterne, bishop of Clogher, and Dr. Chetwood, the income of which is applied to apprentice the children of protestant parents to masters and mistresses of the same persuasion. Another bequest of a gentleman of the name of Charleton, disposes of the interest of L.900, in marriage portions of six guineas to labourers’ sons under thirty who marry labourers’ daughters under forty, provided they have resided a year previous to marriage in the same parish, and have had the consent of the parents on both sides. Two-thirds of this singular bequest is appropriated to Meath, and the remainder to Longford.

Amongst the most ancient remains of antiquity may be mentioned the round or pillar towers at Kells and Donogh-more. The former is ninety-nine feet high, and has four small apertures near the top facing the four cardinal points of the compass. The latter is remarkable for having a representation of the Saviour on the cross, carved on the key-stone over the entrance. At Kells and St. Kiarans’are two fine stone crosses. At New Grange, near Slane, is another relique equally extraordinary, consisting of an artificial cavern Or underground gallery in form of a cross seventy-one feet in its greatest length, twenty feet between the extremities of the arms of the cross, and eleven feet in its greatest height. It is surrounded by a tumulus or hillock raised by art, which is surrounded by a circle of huge unhewn stones set upright. 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 Tarah is also worthy of note, 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 Tarah. The traces of some of the positions supposed to have been connected with this ancient custom, are said by some antiquaries to be still discoverable on it. Near it is a large rath. Other raths are to be seen at Lismullen, Odder, and Ringlestoun. Columbkill’s house, a stone-roofed crypt or cell at St. Kiarans, is said to be the most ancient building of that material in Ireland.

The ruins of monastic buildings scattered throughout the country are too numerous to admit even of recapitulation. Trim had seven monastic institutions; Kells, Killeen, Du-lek, 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 is amongst the finest, both for architectural structure and grandeur of situation on a richly wooded elevation overhanging the Boyne. It was the favourite residence of King George IV. during his visit to Ireland in 1821. Killeen castle, in addition to its claims on the score of antiquity, has been rendered splendidly memorable by its present proprietor, the Earl of Fingal, a Roman Catholic nobleman, who, during the disastrous period of the rebellion of 1798, threw it open as an asylum for the well-affected of every description. The clergymen, both Protestant and Catholic, performed divine service there, each to their respective congregations, under the same roof, as long as the danger existed.

Trim, the county town, situated on the Boyne, presents an appearance very unsuitable to the metropolis of a county so wealthy and populous. But though now a place of very inferior note, it was once amongst the principal of the Anglo-Irish towns. In the war of 1641, it was besieged by Cromwell. The ruins of its monastic establishments have been already noticed. Its present public buildings are, the Protestant church, two Roman Catholic chapels, the court house, the market house, the county jail, the charter school, and the barracks. A Corinthian pillar was erected here in 1817, in honour of the Duke of Wellington, who was born at Dan-gar castle in this county. The population of Trim in 1831, amounted only to 3282 souls. The following are the names and number of inhabitants of the other towns in this county, the population of which exceeds one thousand souls, viz Navan, 4416; Kells, 4326; Athboy, 1959; Oldcasde, 1531; Duleek, 1217.