WICKLOW, a maritime county in the province of Leinster, in Ireland, is bounded on the north by Dublin county, on the east by St George’s Channel, on the south by Wexford, and on the west by Carlow, a detached portion of Dublin, and Kildare. It lies between 52° 40', and 53° 14' north latitude, and 5° 57' and 6° 46' west longitude, extending forty miles in its greatest length from north to south, and thirty-three in its greatest breadth from cast to west, and comprehending an area of 781 square miles, or 500,178 acres, of which 405,039 are cultivated land, 94,100 uncultivated mountain or bog, and 1039 covered with water. It ranks as the eighteenth county in superficial extent, and the seventeenth in that of cultivated land.

According to Ptolemy the geographer, the northern part of the county was the residence of the tribe of the Cauci, and the southern that of the Menapii. It was afterwards occupied by the Irish septs of the Byrnes and O’Tooles, who, though the district was claimed by the English after their settlement, as part of the county of Dublin, maintained their independence, and carried on an almost continual war against the new settlers, until the end of the reign of Elizabeth, after whose death the district was made shireground by her successor James I. in 1605, and placed under the jurisdiction of English magistrates. The inha∙
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bitants adhered to the royal cause during the war of 1641, until the arrival of Cromwell, to whose superior force they submitted without opposition. No other occurrences of historical importance took place until the year 1798, when several bands of insurgents sought refuge in the mountainous fastnesses here, after the dispersion of their main body in Wexford, and continued’ to harass the neighbouring counties, until tranquillity was restored, partly by making terms with their leaders, and partly by cutting roads and establishing military posts through the interior of the country, which till then had been nearly impassable.

The county forms one of the four great mountain groups of Ireland. The land rises from the valley of the Liffey and Dublin Bay on the north, by successive ridges, increasing in height, and occasionally intersected by deep glens, to the middle of the county, whence it again subsides to the borders of Wexford and Carlow. The direction of the range is from north-east at Bray, to south-west, the central part of the line being usually the most elevated, and the surface declining to the sea on the east, and the level country of Kildare and Carlow on the west. Lugnaquilla, to the east of Baltinglas, is the most elevated point of the range: its summit is 3039 feet above the sea-level. To the north, on the verge of Dublin county, are the Butter Mountain, 1459, Kippure, 2473, and the Three-rock Mountain, 1763 feet high; more southerly, Djouce, 2384 feet, and Sugar-loaf, 1126. In the centre are Thonalagee, 2683; Comaderry, 2296; Lugduff, 2148; Knockreagh, 1559; and Croghan, 2175. The glens form very striking and picturesque features of this romantic district, being deep, narrow, and several of them densely covered with wood. The most celebrated are the Dargle, near the county of Dublin; Glencullen, Glencree, the Glen of the Downs, the Devil’s Glen, Glenmalur, the Glen of Imail, and the Vale of Ovoca. The rivers are few and small, all having their sources in the central group. The Liffey, which rises in Djouce Mountain, and after a circuitous course through Kildare, discharging itself into Dublin Bay, is known chiefly as having the metropolitan city on its banks. The Slaney, which rises near Glendalough, is not navigable until it has traversed the greater part of Wexford county. The Ovoca is formed by the junction of the Awenmore and Awenbeg at the meeting of the waters in the romantic Vale of Ovoca. It is afterwards joined by the Daragh or Aghrim from the west, and empties itself into St George’s Channel at Arklow. The Vartrey, a small stream, falls into the sea north of Wicklow Head. Numerous lakes lie in the valleys between the central mountain-ridges. They are small, but generally surrounded by very picturesque scenery. The most remarkable are Lough Bray, in Glencree, near the borders of Dublin; Lough Dan, Lough Tay, Luggelagh, and the lakes of Glendalough. The last form an object of peculiar interest, from their romantic situation, the remains of ancient ecclesiastical structures in their neighbourhood, and the popular legends connected with them. The coast presents a succession of fine prospects, but is much dreaded by mariners, in consequence of the sand-banks that skirt it. These are, the Kish Bank, each extremity of which is marked by a floating light; Bray Bank, the Codling, South Ridge, Wicklow, and Arklow Banks. The southern extremity of the last named is also marked by a floating light. The only harbours in this line of coast are those of Wicklow and Arklow, both fit only for small vessels. The projecting point of Wicklow Head is marked by two fixed lights. A few creeks afford shelter for fishing-craft. Herrings and round fish are taken off Wicklow Bank, where also oysters and lobsters are caught; but the business is carried on with so little spirit, owing, it is said, to the want of capital, that fish is brought from Dublin for sale. The state of the fisheries in 1836 was as follows:
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The western side of the county presents one of the great granite formations of Ireland, extending from Kingstown Harbour to the south-western extremity of the county. Each side is bordered by a range of clay-slate rock, passing into greenstone or a greenstone-slate. The rest of the county consists of clay-slate, graywacke, and graywacke-slate, interspersed in various places with small patches of granite, quartz-rock, and greenstone-trap protrusions, with whindykes. The eastern side of the granitic range abounds with metalliferous veins, while the western is totally destitute of them. Lead has been raised near Lough Dan, at Luganure in Comaderry Mountain, at Glendalough, and at Ballyfinshogue; copper at Ballymurtagh and elsewhere. The annual produce of the lead-mines now in operation is estimated at 2500 tons, valued at L.38,000; and of copper and lead in other mines at 12,500 tons, value L.35,000. The granite supplies inexhaustible quantities of stone for building and flagging. Slates for roofing are procured at Dunganstown and Carnew. The climate, though moist, is healthy; the lower lands near the sea produce the arbutus, myrtle, and laurestinus, which flourish in the open air, seldom requiring artificial protection during winter. The character of the soil is very various; near the sea, and along the banks of the larger rivers, it is rich, abounding with limestone, limestone-gravel, and marl. The mountainous tracts have generally a deep thick covering of heath and turf, based upon disintegrated granite. This part contains large tracts of bog. Along the verge of Dublin boundary, a substratum, lying within a few inches of the surface, forms a crust impenetrable to water, thus rendering the upper soil wholly unprofitable until this layer be broken up with the axe, for it resists the action of the spade or plough; after which, when blended with the subjacent clays, it forms a productive soil. Much of the natural timber with which the county was at a former period nearly covered, is still preserved, forming an important feature in the landscape; and young plantations are yearly rising around the mansions and villas with which this district, the chosen pleasure-ground of Ireland, is thickly studded.

The progress of the population, as far as it can be ascertained from authorities worthy of notice, is as follows:
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The latest of these returns gives an average of one inhabitant to ever}’ four acres. The return of the Commissioners of Public Instruction in J 834, which, being arranged according to dioceses instead of counties, cannot be deemed strictly accurate, gives a gross population of 118,661, of whom 25,005 were members of the established church, 322 Protestant dissenters, and 93,334 Roman Catholics. The number of children receiving instruction in the public schools at the under-named periods was,
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The number of the children of each religious denomination, as stated in the return of 1824—6, being the only one in which this point is noticed, was, members of the established church, 3666; dissenters, 31; Roman Catholics, 7270; besides 366 whose religion could not be ascertained. The number of schools, according to the same return, was 258, of which forty-four, having 3526 pupils, were supported by grants of public money; thirty-eight, with 1619 pupils, by voluntary subscriptions; and 176, with 6188 pupils, wholly by the fees paid by the pupils.

The county is divided into the seven baronies of Arklow, Ballinacor, Newcastle, Rathdrum, Shillelagh, Upper and Lower Talbotstown. These are subdivided into fifty-eight parishes, of which forty-nine are in the diocese of Dublin, two in Ferns, and seven in Leighlin. The diocese of Glen-dalough, which anciently comprehended the greater part of the county, having been united to that of Dublin in 1497, has been so intimately amalgamated with it that their respective boundaries cannot now be ascertained. The county returned ten members to the Irish parliament, two for the county at large, and two each for the boroughs of Baltinglas, thessington, Carysfort, and Wicklow. All the boroughs were disfranchised at the time of the Union, and those of Wicklow and Baltinglas are the only two to which corporate privileges are to be granted under the municipal corporation act. The number of electors was, in
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The number of electors is to that of the inhabitants as one to eighty-eight, and to that of the heads of families as one to fifteen. The county is in the Leinster circuit. The assizes are held in the town of Wicklow, where the county court-house, prison, and infirmary, arc built. General sessions of the peace are also held there and at Baltinglas. The local magistracy consists of a lieutenant, sixteen deputy-lieutenants, fifty-nine other unsalaried magistrates, and a stipendiary. Under these is a constabulary force, consisting of a county inspector, five sub-inspectors, six head constables, and 199 constables and sub-constables. There is a second infirmary at Baltinglas, and four feverhospitals, with a number of dispensaries in different parts. Lunatics are sent to the district asylum in Dublin, into which twenty-two cases from this county are admissible; but several patients are still kept in the county prison. Baltinglas, Rathdrum, and Shillelagh, have been fixed on as sites for workhouses for unions under the poor-law act.

The rich low' lands near the sea, and along the banks of the Slaney and Ovoca, are under tillage, all the operations of which are carried on according to the most approved systems. Much of the mountain district is adapted for pasturage, particularly for feeding a small breed of sheep, whose meat is much prized in the Dublin market. The mountain of Lugnaquilla has a fine sheep-walk on its summit. Lime and marl are the chief manures: the former is brought by sea from Howth to the districts near the coast; it is also drawn in large quantities from Carlow to the inland parts. Butter is made in large quantities in the dairies, which are generally attached to the farm-houses. The fences in the most highly improved districts are of white thorn; in other parts earthen mounds, and in the rocky mountainous heights dry stone-walls

The manufacture of flannels was here carried on extensively, and a market-house for their sale was erected at Rathdrum; but it has declined greatly, and the woollen manufacture is now nearly confined to the fabrication of friezes and coarse cloths for home-consumption. Some coarse linen is also wrought for the same purpose. But the county owes its wealth wholly to its agriculture. Most of the produce is sent to Dublin; but some is exported from Wicklow and Arklow, and the quantities are annually increasing. The annual average of the exports and imports through these places is estimated as follows:
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This is the only county in Ireland in which there is no banking establishment, either private or joint-stock; yet it is the most thriving in proportion to its population and extent of productive land. There are loan-societies in eight places: the sums in the hands of borrowers at the close of 1839 amounted to L.9315, the number of borrowers during the same year to 9100.

Though the high state of prosperity this county displays is mainly attributable to the well-directed efforts of agricultural industry, yet some portion of it must be allowed to arise from the number of men of landed property whom the extraordinary beauty of the country has induced to make it their chosen place of residence, thus heightening its natural advantages of scenery by the adventitious ornaments of splendid mansions and villas, surrounded by demesnes laid out in the most refined style. Two main lines of road conduct the stranger through it. The one on the eastern side, and mostly near the sea-coast, presents an almost uninterrupted succession of splendid prospects, through a highly cultivated country. Proceeding from the city of Dublin, through the Scalp, the lands of Powerscourt, the Dargle, the Glen of the Downs, Delgany, the Devil’s Glen, Luggelagh, Glendalough, and the Vale of Ovoca, to Arklow, the eye finds nothing to rest upon but scenes of rural beauty. The other main road, along the western side, chiefly through the rich valley of the Slaney, presents a similar succession of scenery of a less romantic character. Even the intermediate space, though wholly composed of mountain tracts little capable of high cultivation, presents several wild landscapes of combined cliff and glen, to which an easy access is found through the military road already noticed.

The peasantry, notwithstanding the proximity of the metropolis, resembles that of the more remote agricultural districts in habits, dwellings, and mode of life; the chief article of food being the potato, and the fuel turf, though coal imported from England is in general use among the wealthier classes, especially near the sea.

There are several cromlechs still existing, and many raths. Ruins of monastic buildings are to be seen at Baltinglas, Wicklow, Rathdrum, and Glendalough or “the Glen of the Two Lakes,” where there is a pillar-tower, and the remains of several places of religious worship, one of them being the cathedral of the ancient diocese, from which it has acquired the name of “the Seven Churches.” It had been the site of a city, the metropolis of the sept of the O’Tooles, and is now a place of great resort for visitors, from its picturesque scenery. Several castles were built in this county by the English, the sites of most of which can still be ascertained by what is left of their structures.

Wicklow, the assize-town, is built on an elevated spot projecting into the sea near the mouth of the Vartrey. It was originally the site of a castle erected by Maurice Fitzgerald, and was long maintained as a post of importance, under the superintendence of a constable. The town is small and irregularly built, owing most of its support to the assizes and sessions. It was a borough by prescription, but its corporate rights were confirmed by a charter of James I., granted in 1613, to be enjoyed under a portreeve, burgesses, and freemen, who had a right of exemption[7:21:881] from harbour-dues, and of pasturage on the common. The corporate landed property is about 300 acres. The portreeve held a weekly court for the recovery of debts to the amount of five marks. By the municipal corporation act, the old corporation has been dissolved, and, under certain conditions, power is to be given to create a new one, styled “the portreeve, free burgesses, and commonalty of the town of Wicklow.” There is a Saturday market, and four fairs annually. Races are held every year at the Mur-ragh, a border of dry sandy land, extending for several miles along the sea-shore to the north of the town, forming a peninsula, which encloses a long narrow basin, in which vessels drawing less than eight feet of water can enter at spring tides. The population in 1821 amounted to 2146, and in 1831 to 2472. The population of the other towns having each upwards of 1000 inhabitants was, in 1831, as follows: Bray, 3656; Arklow, 4383; Baltinglas, 1699; and Rathdrum, 1054. (c. P.)