KILKENNY, an inland county, in the province of Leinster, in Ireland, is bounded on the north by the Queen’s county, on the east by the counties of Carlow and Wexford, on the south by the county of Waterford, and on the west by that of Tipperary. It comprehends an area of 513,686 acres, of which 417,117 acres are cultivated land, and 96,569 acres are bog and mountain.

The parish of Durrow, forming an insulated portion surrounded by the Queen’s county, was made part of the county of Kilkenny by an act of parliament, obtained through the influence of the Duke of Ormond. His object was to repress the outrages committed on his tenantry by the Fitzpatricks, who inhabited that district, and who, when tried in the Queen’s county, which belonged to their own sept, were always acquitted, but when tried in Kilkenny, the duke’s county, were sure to be convicted.

According to Ptolemy, the county was inhabited by the Brigantes and the Caucoi. It afterwards formed part of the kingdom of Ossory, which was sometimes tributary to Leinster, sometimes to Munster. After the arrival of the English, it formed one of the counties into which King John divided that portion of the island which recognised his supremacy. At the termination of the sixteenth century it was chiefly occupied by the Graces, the O’Brenans, the Butlers, the O’Sheas, the Rooths, the Harpurs, the Walshes of the mountains, the Shortals, and the For-stals. It is now divided into the nine baronies of Cran-nagh, Fassadining, Galmoy, Gowran, Ida, Iverk, Kells, Knocktopher, and Shillelogher; besides which, the county of the city of Kilkenny forms a separate jurisdiction. These baronies are subdivided into 126 parishes, and one part of a parish.

According to the ecclesiastical arrangements of the country, Kilkenny is chiefly comprehended within the diocese of Ossory, which extends over 120 of its parishes. Of the remainder, six are in the diocese of Leighlin, and part of one in that of Cashel. The see of Ossory was first planted at Seikyran, near Birr, about the year 402. Thence it was removed to Aghaboe, in the Queen’s county, about 1052; and finally to Kilkenny, in the latter end of the reign of Henry II. Like Meath, it derives its name, not from the seat of the episcopal see, but from that of the district over which it extends. Besides nearly the whole part of the county of Kilkenny, the diocese also comprehends the entire barony of Upper Ossory, forming one third of the Queen’s, county, and a small part of the King’s county. The dean of the cathedral exercises a kind of episcopal jurisdiction over the vicars-choral, similar to that of the dean of St Patrick’s, Dublin; and the archdeacon formerly exercised an ordinary prescriptive jurisdiction over the whole diocese. The total number of its parishes is 136, of which 120 are in Kilkenny, fifteen in the Queen’s, and one in the King’s county. The annual value of the see was estimated at L.3859 by the parliamentary return made in 1833. In conformity with the new arrangements for the established church in Ireland, this diocese has been consolidated into that of Leighlin and Ferns.

The face of the country is mostly level, particularly in the central baronies; but hilly in the northern, and still more so in the south-eastern districts. An argillaceous soil is predominant. Very little ground is unfit for tillage, and that which is not productive of good grain throws up excellent herbage. The soil in the northern parts is chiefly a mossy turf a few inches deep, lying over a bed of stiff yellow or whitish clay. More southerly, the soil is light, covering an argillaceous schistus. To the west there is a hungry clayey loam, over a bed of limestone. In general, the nearer the limestone is to the surface, the poorer the soil. A light soil covers all the vicinity of the city of Kilkenny, exhibiting the appearance of slaty hills and gravelly bottoms. Proceeding southwards, the fertility increases. The angle of the river Suir, which forms the parish of Portnascully, is the richest land in the county. There is. a great extent of mountainous land, much of it unimproved. The quantity of bog is inconsiderable, amounting altogether to 3500 acres; the largest tract is in the north-western extremity. Marl has been found between two strata of black turfpnould; three strata of bog have also been discovered, separated by intervening beds of marl, oak, fir; sallow and birch have been found in the bogs. There arc no loughs of any extent. In the parish of Cloghmanta there are some temporary lakes, produced by the water bursting up from the ground in November, and subsiding in spring. They are here named Longhans; in Connaught they are called Turloughs. The climate is less humid than that of Dublin or Wicklow.

The principal rivers are the Nore, the Barrow, and the Suir, all of which rise in the range of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, and, taking a southern direction, discharge themselves by a common mouth into the estuary at Waterford. The Nore passes through the middle of the county, and by the city of Kilkenny; it is navigable for boats as far as Thomastown, whence a canal has been for many years proposed to be carried to the last-named city; but it still remains uncut. The salmon-peal, a fish resembling the salmon, is caught in this river. The King’s River joins the Nore at Jerpoint, and the Argula near Innistioge. The Barrow forms the eastern boundary of the county, [7:12:715]from near New Bridge to its junction with the Suir, which latter river is its boundary to the south. The Barrow is navigable for boats along the whole extent of the borders of the county of Kilkenny, and still farther to Athy in Kildare county. The Suir is navigable for sloops to Carrick, and for barges to Clonmell in Tipperary.

The substrata of this county are granite, siliceous schistus, siliceous breccia, argillite, sandstone, and limestone. The granite hills form a very small part t being merely the extension of the Wicklow group. The rock is of various shades, but the best is of a light yellow tint, finely grained, and compact; black mica is found in it, together with specks of iron ore, and crystals of schorl. Siliceous breccia forms many of the lower hills. It consists principally of fine quartz sand, united by a siliceous cement, and enveloping rounded pebbles of quartz. This stone is constantly accompanied by a red argillite, which covers the sides of the hills, but scarcely ever the summits. The hills of breccia run southward from the Nore towards Waterford. The great hill of Drumdowney, near the Ross River, forms the extremity of the principal range. The stone is here of a fine grain, and is quarried for millstones, which are exported to Cork, Dublin, and other parts. In the western part of the county there is an extensive slate quarry, highly esteemed. The northern part of the county consists either of ferruginous argillite or of siliceous schistus. The former, from being always found above coal, is called coal-cover.

The collieries of Castlecomer are situated near the confluence of the small rivers Dinan, Dian, Bruckagh, and Cloghoge, which join the Nore. They were discovered by accident, in working for iron ore. The depth of the beds varies from two feet six inches to three feet one inch. The coal sill, or seat of the coal, which is sometimes raised with it, is a soft, black, brittle stone, full of shining impressions, exhibiting obscure traces of the roots of rushes. It stands fire in a peculiar manner; crucibles made of it resist the strongest heat, as, the more it is exposed to the fire, the harder it becomes. Fire-bricks are made from two parts of it and one part of clay. The excellent qualities of the Kilkenny coal for particular purposes occasion a great demand for it. It is heavy, burning with little flame, like charcoal in an ignited state, and throwing out a steady and violent heat. It dries malt well, and is excellent for the forge. When analyzed, it appears to approach nearly to pure carbon, the proportions being 97∙3 of that element, and the remainder uninflammable ashes. It seems peculiarly calculated for cementing steel, and for potteries; but it has not been applied to either purpose, although materials for earthenware are to be found in the neighbourhood, and iron-mines of the best quality from the upper strata of entire hills. Yellow ochre is found in various places; also pipeclay of good quality. Manganese is seen on the banks of the Barrow, and near Freshford, and lead in small quantities between Innistioge and Ross; a mine of the latter at Floodhall was worked for some time with considerable profit. Iron has also been raised. Jasper, in pieces from ten to twelve inches long, and half as broad, have been found near the extremity of the granite district, between the Nore and Barrow. Limestone is the base of the central part of the county; but the quality varies much in different places, all the species of it containing impressions of shells or corallines. The most important limestone quarry is that which produces the Kilkenny marble; it lies about half a mile from the city. The stone, when polished, presents a black ground, varied with white marks, which appear more strongly when exposed to the air; but that approaching nearest to unmixed black is most esteemed. The analysis gave ninety-eight per cent, soluble in marine acid, and two per cent, of a black powder, which appeared to be carbon. The blocks, when raised, are finished at a marble-mill at some distance, remarkable for the ingenuity and simplicity of its mechanism.

At Ballyspellan, in Galmoy barony, is a very celebrated mineral spring. It is a chalybeate, and contains carbonic acid gas, which soon evaporates on exposure to the air. Its medicinal qualities have long been highly esteemed in the neighbouring country. Chalybeate springs, but not of much strength, exist in other places. This county is also celebrated for springs of very pure transparent water, most of them dedicated to some saint, whose patron-day is annually celebrated on their verge.

The population, taken at different periods, presents the foliowing results:

1760 De Burgo 62,832

1792 Beaufort 100,000

1812 Parlimentary census 134,664

’ 1821 Ditto 158,716

1831 Ditto 160,283

• This table exhibits an increase of more than double in seventy years, and gives an average of one inhabitant to every three acres and a quarter, or of a family of six to every nineteen acres.

The parliamentary returns of the numbers of children receiving education in the public schools, in the years 1821, and 1824-26, give the following results:

Boys. Girls. Total.

ascertained.

1821, 10,191 4,420 — 14,511

1824-26, 12,398 7,000 274 19,672

Out of this total of children enjoying the benefits of public instruction, according to the latter of these returns, upwards of 18,000 were Catholics; the Protestants amounting only to 1376, of which number but thirteen were dissenters. The number of schools maintained by public money was nineteen, in which 1515 pupils were instructed; of those maintained by private subscriptions, the number*was the same, the pupils in them being 1281; all the other schools, 346 in number, in which 16,876 children were instructed, were maintained wholly by the fees of the pupils. From the same data, it may be inferred that the Catholics in the county of Kilkenny were to the Protestants at that time in the proportion nearly of twenty to one.

The county returned sixteen members to the Irish parliament, two for the county at large, two for the city of Kilkenny, two for the adjoining borough of Irishtown, and two each for the boroughs of Callan, Gowran, Innistioge, Knocktopher, and Thomastown. All these, except Kilkenny, were close boroughs, the elective franchise being vested in the burgesses, whose number seldom exceeded twenty, and who were elected through the influence of the proprietor of the land. The constituency of the county was as follows, before the Catholic relief act, after that act but previously to the reform act, and subsequently to the reform act :—-

L.50. L.20. L.10. 40s. Total.

1829, 689 210 — ‘2353 3261

1830, 726 234 118 — 1024

1832, 222 106 918 — 1246

Very little ground throughout the county is unfit for tillage; the central parts are peculiarly adapted for wheat, to the growth of which the best ground, most of which has a limestone sub-soil, is devoted. The more mountainous tracts are exclusively appropriated to oats or pasture. Wheat is sown either on a fallow or after potatoes. The seed is always steeped for a day and night, in which prccess brine has been found most effectual in guarding against smut. Wheat here suffers also from what is called the red or yellow worm; but as this disease appears only in dry seasons, when [7:12:716]the crop is better and more abundant, the evil is not much felt. Change of seed is much attended to. Barley is usually sown after wheat. Bear is little cultivated. The same may be said of rye; when raised, it is sown on burned land, and produces fine crops in the mountainous districts. All the manure that can be collected is applied to the potatoes. The street scrapings of Waterford bear a high price in the neighbouring baronies; sea-sand and composts of turf mould are also common. The use of green food for cattle is not so general as might be desired. Many of the cattle graze out during the winter; some are housed from Christmas to April. The only green food used in winter is furze-tops pounded, on which the cattle soon become sleek and fine skinned; for this purpose the large French furze is preferred. Little attention is paid to improve the pasturages. The mountain pastures are left in a state of nature, and the land produces little but heath. These heaths are very liable to take fire in dry summers, by which means the soil is eventually improved. Much land on the borders of the Nore and Suir is embanked and used for meadowing. The most considerable dairies are in the Walsh Mountains; a name supposed to be derived from the family to which a large tract of land formerly belonged. It is now mostly held by a single family, consisting of five branches, who possess upwards of two thousand acres amongst them. Their houses are small and contiguous. They intermarry amongst each other, which renders ecclesiastical dispensations frequently necessary. If a widow marry a stranger, she loses all except what she had brought with her to her first husband. The land is grazed in common, excepting three hundred acres, which are divided equally among the five families. They live principally on potatoes and griddle bread, with occasionally the offal of the pigs killed for sale. Their dairies have earthen floors, and are without ceiling, window, table, or shelf, but they are kept very neat.

Few horses are bred in the county, most are brought in from Munster to the fair of Callan, the only esteemed fair for this description of stock. The Suffolk sorrel breed is much in request. The common stock of black cattle is a cross of the Irish breed on the long-horned English. The Kerry cow is much in demand in dairies, for its low price and quantity of milk. The breed of sheep has improved very much, in consequence of the great pains taken to improve it. Merinos have been successfully introduced. Pigs are fattened to the weight of five hundred lbs. Goats are kept by small fanners and cottiers, but not in flocks. Rearing fowl is also an object with the small farmers. Large numbers of turkeys are sent to the autumn fair of Callan. Bees were more attended to formerly than now, yet the soil and climate are well suited to them. The dry hills, covered with heath and scented herbs, produce honey celebrated for its flavour, and for the depth of its combs.

Within the memory of some old persons, many parts of the county were covered with woods. Now there are but few, not covering more than two thousand acres. Attempts to raise plantations from the seed have not been successful, the seeds in this mild climate being liable to destruction from vermin. Orchards are much neglected. There are some ozieries on the banks of the Nore and Suir.

The woollen manufacture was introduced by the Earl of Ormond in the early part of the fourteenth century. He brought over workmen from Flanders, whose manufacture is still to be seen in the castle of Kilkenny. James duke of Ormond went to great expense to introduce the linen manufacture in the seventeenth century. Latterly an attempt was made to manufacture superfine broad cloths in the neighbourhood of Kilkenny, but it soon failed. Frizes and ratteens are still made; the women spin the wool. The manufacture of woollen cloth was succeeded by that of blankets, which is still carried on. The linen trade, after a continuance of fifty'or sixty years, has so died away that not a vestige of it now remains, beyond the making of coarse linen and sacking tor domestic use. There are salt-houses at Kilkenny, Newbridge, and Kilmurry. Paper is manufactured in several places. Bolting mills are numerous on the great rivers. The principal part of the grain raised in the county is sent to Dublin in the form of flour, malt, and meal, the manufacturing of which is another source of wealth.

The number of resident gentry is considerable. Amongst the mansions remarkable for splendour or for architectural beauty are, the castle of Kilkenny; Mount Juliet, the seat of the Earl of Carrick; Desart, the seat of the Earl of Desart; Kilfane, that of George Power, Esq.; Flood Hall, the residence of the head of the Flood family; and Besborough, the seat of the Earl of Besborough. Gentlemen’s seats are numerous and elegant. The farm-houses are of stone, more generally cemented with clay than with mortar; the offices usually forming an irregular yard in front of the house. The people in the hilly parts, who hold land at will, live in scattered villages. The usual food of the peasantry is potatoes, to which milk and salt are sometimes added, and occasionally a herring. Turf is the general fuel, except in the neighbourhood of the collieries, where coal is burned, or else culm made up in balls with one third of clay. The clothing is frize, ratteen, and flannel. The w omen wear stuff petticots and strawhats manufactured at home. Spirituous liquors are seldom used, excepting at fairs, patrons, wakes, weddings, and christenings. One person at least from every family in the village is expected to attend at a wake, and the body is often conveyed many miles to the family burial-place. Irish is the language generally spoken, particularly in the hilly districts and in the western parts, where the priests frequently preach alternately in Irish and English.

Amongst the remains of antiquity may be noticed a circle covered with stones on the summit of Slieve Grian, “the Hill of the Sun,” called also Tory Füll, on one of which is an inscription that has given rise to much controversy. There is another circular mound of stones on the hill of Cloghmanta, which signifies “the Rock of God.” The most remarkable cromleach is at Kilmogue; its upper stone is forty-five feet in circumference. The country people call it Lachan Schal, or “the Great Altar Stone.” Near the spa of Ballyspellin is a large stone, formerly supported by others; it is called Clogh-bannagh, or “the Stone of thessing.” Raths are numerous, particularly in Galmoy and near the Nore. At Earlsrath are the remains of a very large fort enclosed by a fosse. A moat near Rathbeath is pointed out as the place where Heremon, son of Milesius, built his palace and was buried. There are five pillar towers in the county. One is in Kilkenny, close to the cathedral; the others are at Tulloherin, Kilree, Fertagh, and Aghaviller, of which last the lower part only remains. All are in the vicinity of places of worship. Besides the remains of monasteries in the city of Kilkenny, there are vestiges of some others, once of great note, particularly one at Jerpoint, and another at Graige, both of the Cistercian order. The Dominicans had abbeys at Rosbercon and Thomastown, the Carmelites had one at Knocktopher; and there was a nunnery at Kilculliheen.

The number of castles is very great; most of them consist of a single square tow er, which formed the keep. Graney or Grandison Castle, in Iverk, is among the most celebrated, as being the residence of Margaret Fitzgerald, the great Countess of Ormond, a woman of uncommon energies. King John built a castle at Tybrachny, where there are the remains of a Danish town.

Kilkenny city is situated on the river Nore, nearly in [7:12:717]the centre of the county. Its name is generally derived from Kill-kenny, “the church or cell of St Canice,” though by some it is traced from the words Coil-ken-uĩ, “the wooded hill near the river.” It consists of two separate jurisdictions, the city of Kilkenny properly so called, and the borough of Irishtown, separated from each other by the small river Bregagh. An English settlement was formed here shortly after the landing of Strongbow; a castle was also erected, and the seat of the see of Ossory removed thither. William lord marshal, who married Strongbow’s daughter, granted the town a charter of incorporation, which was confirmed by Gilbert earl of Clare. Elizabeth and James I. confirmed and enlarged its privileges. Parliaments were frequently held in it; amongst others, that which passed the celebrated statute of Kilkenny, which first notices the distinction of English by blood and English by birth. During the wars of 1641, it was the place where the assembly of the confederate Catholics held their sittings; the room where they met is still shown. Cromwell afterwards took the city on terms highly honourable to its defenders, and afterwards held his high court of justice in it. The buildings in the city and borough together occupy an area of about 380 acres. On the two most elevated points of the united towns are the castle and the cathedral, the most marked and ornamental structures of both. The city is irregular, but presents a cheerful and busy aspect: the houses, built chiefly of stone,are large and respectable. The Nore, here a river of some breadth, though not navigable, is crossed by two modern bridges. The castle comprehends the remains of the ancient fortress, combined with more modern buildings. It was purchased by James, third earl of Ormond, in 1391, and has ever since been the principal residence of the head of the Butler family. In 1399, he entertained Richard II. in it for fourteen days. King William dined there after the battle of the Boyne. The buildings now form the sides of a quadrangle. Its principal apartments were the presence chamber, formed of a suite of rooms opening into one another, in the farthest of which was an elevated seat for the lord of the mansion; and the picture gallery, chiefly furnished with family portraits. Several of the rooms were hung with tapestry; but the whole is now undergoing such alterations as will materially change the state of the interior without altering the feudal character of its exterior. The court-house is a large and elegant modern building, erected on the site of Grace’s old castle, where the assizes used to be held. The tholsel, or city court, is also large, but unornamented; it contains several apartments, one of which is used as a library. The market, well stocked with provisions of every kind, is held in one of the divisions of its inferior area. There are barracks both for cavalry and infantry. The theatre is small, and was for some time kept open by an amateur company, composed of the neighbouring resident gentry. The county jail is at a short distance from the city. The environs of the town are very beautiful. The Duke’s Walk is carried from it upwards of a mile along the banks of the Nore. The corporation consists of a mayor and aidermen, two sheriffs, a recorder, and other subordinate officers, who have the management of an income, arising from rents, of about L.1600 per annum. The cathedral of St Canice is an extensive pile, on a commanding elevation, in Irishtown. It is cruciform, surmounted by a small tower, and of greater dimensions than any similar building in Ireland, except the cathedral in Dublin. In the north transept is a chapel used as the parish church, where also is a stone seat called the chair of St Kevin. The choir and chancel are fitted up in a style of chaste simplicity. The aisle contains several sepulchral monuments; amongst them that of Pierce, eighth earl of Ormond, and Margaret Fitzgerald his wife. The burial-ground of the cathedral is entered by a flight of marble steps, and is planted with trees. The episcopal palace was originally erected in the time of Edward III., and was modernized and enlarged in 1735; it is now a commodious, though not a splendid residence. f The church of St Mary is a spacious but plain structure. Several monastic institutions added much to the beauty and dignity of the city. The most ancient was the preceptory of St John, founded about 1211. The abbey church, remarkable for the singular structure of its windows, which procured it the name of “the Lanthorn of Kilkenny,” has been converted into a parochial church under its old name. The extensive and noble ruins of the Dominican or Black Abbey, founded in 1225, have been repaired, and now form a Roman Catholic place of worship. The origin of the Franciscan Abbey is unknown. Its ruins are much admired. The grammar-school, generally called the college, is situated near the banks of the Nore. It was founded by Pierce earl of Ormond, and re-endowed by the Duke of Ormond in 1684. James II. erected it into a royal college, but on his abdication it reverted to its former state, and is now a respectable place of elementary instruction, capable of accommodating eighty resident pupils. In it Dean Swift, Congreve, Farquhar, and Bishop Berkeley, acquired the rudiments of classical literature. Kilkenny has also a seminary for the education of students intended for the Roman Catholic priesthood. A nunnery provides for the education of twelve boys and as many girls. The charter-school is adapted for seventy children. The infirmary, opened in 1767, is supported partly by grants of public money, partly by benefactions and subscriptions. The house of industry provides for the maintenance of the poor when out of employment; and an hospital for lunatics is attached to it. A neat range of buildings, called St James’ Asylum, in the suburbs, was endowed in 1803, by Mr James Switzer, for the maintenance of twelve protestant and eight catholic widows. The population of the city and borough in 1821 amounted to 23,230 souls, and in 1831 to 23,741. The other towns the population of which exceeds one thousand souls each are, Callan,· 6111; Thomastown, 2871; Castlecomer, 2436; Freshford, 2175; Graige, 2130; Ballyragget, 1629; Urlingford, j1 1336; Durrow, ∙ 1298; and Gowran, 1109.