ROSCOMMON, an inland county in the province of Connaught, in Ireland, is bounded on the north by the county of Sligo, on the east by those of Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath, on the south-east by the King’s County, on the south-west by Galway, and on the west by the same county and by Mayo. It extends over a surface of 609,405 acres, of which 453,555 are cultivated, 131,063 are uncultivated mountain or bog, and 24,787 are under water. According to Ptolemy, it was inhabited by the Auteri; afterwards the tribes or septs of the O’Conors, O’Kellys, M‘Dermots, O'Flanegans, O’Flyns, and O’Hanlys, were the chief possessors of it. Shortly after the arrival of the English in the reign of Henry II. it was seized upon by the new settlers, and their maintenance of it secured by the erection of several fortresses. For a long period afterwards the whole province was considered as consisting but of two counties, that of Roscommon being one, and all the remainder, with the county of Clare included, the other, under the name of the county of Connaught. This arrangement continued until the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, when the whole province underwent a new classification, and the county of Roscommon was divided into the baronies of Athlone, Ballintubber, Boyle, Moycarnon, and Roscommon. At the close of the war of 1641, nearly all the former proprietors were dispossessed for having espoused the royal cause, and their possessions transferred to the republican adventurers and soldiers; since which period, that branch of the O’Conor family, once sovereigns of all Ireland, now known by the name of the O’Conor Don, is the only one of the former possessors who holds any part of ancestral possessions in the country. The five baronies are subdivided into fifty-three parishes, and four parts of parishes, the remaining parts of which are in some of the adjoining counties. According to the ecclesiastical arrangements of the country, Roscommon contains fifty-seven parishes, of which fifty-one are in the diocese of Elphin, three in Tuam, two in Clonfert, and one in Ardagh. The seat of the bishopric of Elphin is in the town of the same name in the county.

Roscommon is in shape long and narrow, extending sixty miles in a northern and southern direction, whilst its breadth from east to west, where greatest, is but thirty-two miles; and it decreases gradually until it terminates in a point in its southern extremity. The greatest part of it is level, forming the western portion of the central floetz limestone field of Ireland; varied, however, by frequent inconsider-ble elevations, and by long low ridges or escars formed of limestone gravel. In the north the country rises into rugged mountains with abrupt precipitous sides and flattened summits, the highest of which, Bracklieve and Slieve Corkagh, are upwards of a thousand feet above the level of the sea. The equally wild though less elevated range of the Curlew Mountains also forms part of the northern boundary. The Slieve Bawn Mountains range along the middle part of the eastern boundary. Slieve Aluyn, in the west, is also of considerable height. No large river passes through the county, but both its eastern and western limits are watered by navigable streams. To the east the Shannon rolls its immense volume of waters along that whole side, and on the west the Suck, which is navigable for barges to Ballina-sloe, unites with the Shannon at the extreme south point. The rivers in the interior, which are small and insignificant, are all tributaries to one or other of these main channels, and chiefly to the former, discharging themselves into their [7:19:478]streams, either directly, or through the medium of some of the numerous lakes dispersed throughout various parts. Of these smaller rivers, the Arigna, the Fiorish, and the Gara or Boyle river, are tributaries to the Shannon; the Bresgue and the Lung, the latter of which flows through a subterraneous channel during part of its course, discharge their contents into Lough Gara. The most remarkable of the lakes, both for size and beauty, is Lough Kea in the northern part, near the town of Boyle, from which place it also takes a name, as likewise that of Rockingham Lake, from the seat of Lord Lorton upon its shore. It is about three miles in length by two in breadth, and studded with several picturesque islands, amongst which Trinity Island is noted for its monastic ruins, and Castle Island for an ancient fortress of the M 1 Dermots, now modernized into an elegant villa. The lake derives its supply from the neighbouring boundary lake of Lough Gara upon the borders of Sligo, which, though larger, and still more irregular in its outline, is less attractive in appearance than that on which it bestows its redundant waters. To the north of Lough Kea the two smaller lakes, Lough Skeen and Lough Meelagh, are connected by a short channel with the Shannon. The lakes of Bodarrig, Boflin, and Reagh, on its eastern side, which are, strictly speaking, expansions of the Shannon, may also be considered as partially belonging to the county. The principal of the smaller lakes are Loughs Errit, Glynn, Funcheon, and Aluyn. There are several extensive furloughs or winter lakes, which, being generally dry in summer, afford rich pasturage for sheep. Between Frenchpark and Elphin, that of Mantua covers seven hundred acres; another near Lough Glynn, in the extreme west of the county, is half a mile long.

The limestone, which forms the base of all the level districts, is of various kinds, some gray, containing numerous fossil remains, chiefly madrepores; some of the formation called calp, which is often found blended with layers of Lydian stone; and some black, being susceptible of a high polish, as is a light gray marble found in the southern parts. Sandstone shows itself in the eminences that protrude through the limestone. Slieve Bawn is mostly composed of it; and in the neighbourhood of Frenchpark it is raised in laminae so thin as to be used for the covering of roofs. The northern district is of the coal formation, which extends also into the adjoining county of Leitrim; but the principal stores of this most valuable mineral, and of ironstone, are to be found on the Roscommon side. The entire area, which is divided into two parts by the Arigna, extends over six thousand five hundred acres, of which two thousand are to the north and four thousand five hundred to the south of that river. The strata of coal rise into the mountains of Bracklieve and Slieve Corkagh, where the outcrop may be distinctly seen in several places in the precipitous sides of the declivities. The coal is of the blazing or bituminous character, less inflammable than that of Scotland, but more so than that of the north of England. The principal beds are the Rover, Gubberother, and Aughabehy collieries, in the latter of which, the chief seam, and the only one deemed sufficiently rich to defray the expense of working, is from one foot to two and a half feet thick, and promises to be abundant in quantity, although subject to interruptions, or what the workmen call faults, occasioned by the strata of one part of a hill having slipped down to a depth of from twenty to fifty yards, and settled on a lower level. The principal beds of iron ore are also on the south side of the Arigna river, whence the workings derive their name. They exhibit decisive indications of having been in operation at an early period; but, most probably in consequence of the exhaustion of timber for fuel, they were latterly inoperative until 1788, when the pit-coal found in the neighbourhood led to a new speculation in them, which, however, was dropped at the end of twenty years. The workings were resumed by three of the mining companies which the extravagant spirit of joint-stock enterprise gave rise to about the year 1825; but only one of them, the Arigna company, persevered in the experiment, until involved in a chancery suit as to the right of tenure, which being decided against them in 1836, the works have been resumed by their successful opponent, by whom they are now carried on upon a very extended scale, and with a prospect of adequate remuneration for the capital sunk in the concern. Both the ironstone and the limestone used as a flux have been pronounced to be of prime quality. Potters’ clay is found in several places, and is manufactured into the coarser kinds of wares. Fire-bricks are made at Arigna, of fire-clay, which forms some of the mineral strata there.

The soil varies nearly according to the nature of its substratum, that on the limestone being much the most productive; except in the hilly district between the Shannon and the Suck, in which the stone rises so near the surface that the superincumbent vegetable mould is scarcely of denth sufficient to admit the use of the plough. The borders of the rivers which flow through the level parts, and are therefore liable to overflow their banks during winter, become, on the return of dry weather, pastures and meadows of the richest quality. Bogs of every size, from an extent of a thousand acres to patches merely adequate for the domestic demands of the immediate neighbourhood in which they lie, are to be found in many parts. The mountains are mostly covered with bog and marsh, interspersed with dry patches on which heath grows most luxuriantly. In the southern part, large tracts of a very light sandy soil, lying on the low hills between the Suck and the Shannon, afford excellent pasturage for sheep. The borders of Lough Aluyn are in some parts formed of sand, apparently carried from the lake by the wind. Large deposits of gravel and different kinds of loam are often found between the surface-soil and the rock which forms the substratum.

The population, according to calculations made at different periods, was as follows:
[table]

The latest of these returns gives a ratio of one inhabitant to every 2∙54 acres, or of one to every l∙89 cultivated acre. The returns of the Commissioners of Public Instruction in 1834 having been made up according to dioceses, though they do not give results sufficiently accurate to be placed along with those in the preceding table, afford data sufficient respecting the comparative numbers of the three principal religious persuasions, to justify the statement, that if the whole population of the county be estimated at 240,000 (a close approximation to that of 1831), the numbers of Protestants are 7000, and of Roman Catholics 233,000, being an average of one to thirty-three nearly. The total number of protestant dissenters in the county, according to the same return, was but forty-three.

This population was represented in the Irish parliament by eight members; two for the county at large, and two for each of the boroughs of Boyle, Roscommon, and Tulsk. The number was reduced to two at the Union, all the boroughs being deprived of the right of election. The number of registered electors for the county is about two thousand; elections are held at Roscommon. The local government is vested in a lieutenant, ten deputy-lieutenants, all appointed by the crown during pleasure, and a hundred magistrates, in which number the lieutenant and his deputies are included, appointed by the lord chancellor, and continued during good behaviour. The constabulary force con[7:19:479]sists of a sub-inspector, six chief constables, seven head constables, forty-three constables, and a hundred and eighty-seven sub-constables; total two hundred and forty-four.

The state of education, according to the parliamentary returns made in 1821 and 1824-26, was as follows:

Year. Boys. Girls. 8e i. n . of , Total.

ascertained.

1821............6981.........3306......... — ..........10,287

1824-26........8937.........4998..........711...........14,646

Of the numbers stated in the latter of these returns, 1041 were Episcopalian Protestants, and 13,262 Roman Catholics; the religious persuasion of the remaining 343 was not specified. The total number of schools in the county was 309; of which seventeen, containing 545 pupils, were maintained by grants of public money; thirty-eight, containing 1954 pupils, by the voluntary contributions of societies or individuals; and the remaining 254 schools, which afforded the means of instruction to 12,147 pupils, were maintained wholly by the pupils’ fees. The report of the Commissioners of National Education in 1837 (the latest published) states the number of schools, teachers, and pupils, connected with their board, as follows: Schools, eleven; teachers, twelve; boys, 941; girls, 757; total of pupils, 1698. The diocesan school of the see of Elphin is in the county.

The habits of the population are so thoroughly rural, that there are but four towns of which the population of each exceeds a thousand souls, two of them containing between three and four thousand, and the other two between one and two thousand. There are several fine mansions and demesnes in the hands of resident noblemen and gentlemen, and numerous villas and country-seats belonging to independent landed proprietors; but as to the small farmers and cottiers, the appearance of their dwellings and homesteads in many cases are far from showing those indications of internal comfort that might be expected in a district so highly favoured by nature. Agriculture is carried on with much spirit amongst the higher classes, by whom the latest improvements in tillage, and the best constructed vehicles and implements, have been introduced; but the old customs and antiquated implements are pertinaciously adhered to by most of the smaller farmers. Wheat is largely sown; a judicious rotation system is carried on; and green crops are frequent, with the exception of turnips and mangel-wurzel, which have not been found to answer. In the mountainous districts the spade is frequently used instead of the plough. In these also the neighbouring landholders generally club their labour together, particularly in planting and raising potatoes, all uniting to complete the work of one farm, and then proceeding successively in a body to execute that of the other partners in the amicable joint-stock concern. The pastures are amongst the best in Ireland, and as their proprietors are almost fastidiously particular in the selection of live stock of every description, the best-fed beasts are to be met with here. This is peculiarly the case with respect to bullocks; the sheep also are of first-rate quality, both as to fleece and flavour of carcass. In prime grazing land an acre feeds a bullock and a sheep. Notwithstanding the superior capabilities of the soil for pasturage, there are not many large dairies. But few farms, however small, are without one cow, if not more, so that butter of excellent quality is made, not only sufficient for the internal demand, but for forming a material article of export. The breed of horses is much esteemed. The annual fair of Ballinasloe, in October, is the principal mart at which the black cattle and sheep are disposed of. Fences in general are made of stone-walls, raised to a considerable height, as they arc considered to afford better shelter for cattle than those of timber. That the county was once well wooded, appears not only from the evidence of history, but from the fact that wherever the impediments to its growth are removed, the soil spontaneously throws up shoots of those species of forest-

trees with which the whole face of the country was once covered. The excessive clearing of the woods, without precautionary measures to secure a new growth, has left the surface very bare; but this defect, equally unsightly to the eye of taste and injurious to the progress of improvement, is annually diminishing, through the exertions of the landed gentry, many of whose mansions are surrounded with noble plantations. Manufactures, with the exception of those already noticed, and of coarse woollens and linens for domestic consumption, are almost unknown. The articles of export are confined to agricultural produce and live stock, for which the recent improvements on the course of the Shannon have afforded great facilities. The navigation of this fine river, which, as has already been said, skirts the county along the whole of its eastern verge, was so much obstructed by several rapids as to render it useless as a channel of enlarged inland traffic. These impediments have been obviated by means of short canals along the side of the river in those parts where the rapids occur. The first is from Lough Allen in Leitrim to Battlebridge, whence the river-stream is available somewhat farther than Carrick, where a second canal serves to avoid the rapids between Jamestown and Drumsna. Other short canals occur at the falls of Ruskey, of Lanesborough, and of Athlone. Thence the channel is clear to the junction with the Suck, where it quits the county. The connection by water with the eastern counties to Dublin is maintained by the Royal and Grand Canals, which communicate with the Shannon at Tarmonbarry and Shannon Harbour. The principal exports are corn and butter, all the coal as yet raised being not more than sufficient for the supply of the districts surrounding the collieries. As all the great lines of land conveyance to Connaught from Leinster and Ulster pass through the county, the roads are numerous, and generally well kept up.

The monastic antiquities are very numerous. The ruins of the abbey of Boyle still exhibit a large part of its highly ornamented church, with its tower rising from the middle of the building, and resting on four colum∏3 of colossal dimensions, enriched with a variety of sculptures; and the Dominican friary at Roscommon contains a monument of an ancient member of the O’Conor family, exhibiting an effigy of an armed warrior in a lying posture, with four other armed figures on the base. Derhan Abbey, in the neighbourhood of Roscommon, is little more than a heap of stones. The others of which some relics still exist, are Trinity Abbey in Lough Kea, Tulsk, Clonshanvill, and Clontuskert, in which there are several monuments and inscriptions relating to the O’Kellys and other ancient families. In the parish of Oran on the Suck, in the west of the county, are the remains of an ancient pillar-tower, about ten feet high; and in every part there are raths so numerous that nearly five hundred are still visible. The county contained a great number of small fortresses, evidently built when it was one of the marches or border districts, to repress the incursions of the Connaught Irish, besides which there were a few of great extent and strength, as is testified by that of Roscommon, forming a quadrangle of 220 by 180 feet, with towers at the angles and at the gateway, and containing the remains of a large building, supposed to be the residence of the governor. The most remarkable of the other castles are those of Athlone, Ballinasloe, Ballynafad, and Lough Glynn.

Roscommon, the county town, is built on the sides of a hill, near the middle of the county, in a plain between the Shannon and the Suck. It consists but of one main street, with several minor avenues branching out into five main roads, in various directions. It was incorporated at a very early period, and was considered to be one of the chief places in these parts. Writs for the better defence of the town and castle are frequent among the earlier records. It returned [7:19:480]two members to the Irish parliament till the Union. Here are all the buildings connected with the local administration of justice. The county court-house is a spacious and well-arranged edifice, with an elegant Grecian-Doric porticoin front. The county prison, built on the radiating plan, contains accommodations for upwards of a hundred prisoners, and has a tread-mill. The county infirmary, which also contains a fever hospital and infirmary, admits an average of three hundred patients annually. The modern ecclesiastical buildings are not remarkable for architectural elegance. The parish church is a neat structure. The old court-house has been converted into a Roman Catholic chapel. The town is a place of very limited trade, except in that of grain, large quantities of which are sent to Lanesborough to be exported thence by means of the Royal Canal or the Shannon. The population in 1831 was 3306. That of other towns the number of whose inhabitants exceeded 1000, was Boyle, the largest and most commercial in the county, 3433; Strokestoun, 1548; and Elphin, in which there is a poor cathedral to a very wealthy diocese, and a diocesan school, 1507. That part of the town of Athlone on the Shannon, in which the fortified magazines and works intended for the defence of the pass of the Shannon have been built, is on the Roscommon side of the river. The greater part of the town of Ballinasloe, celebrated for its great annual fair of sheep and horned cattle, is also in this county, (c. p.)

Roscommon, Wentworth Dillon, Earl of, a celebrated poet of the seventeenth century, was the son of James Dillon, earl of Roscommon, and was born in Ireland, under the administration of the first Earl of Strafford, who was his uncle, and from whom he received the name of Wentworth at his baptism. He passed his infancy in Ireland; after which the Earl of Strafford sent for him into England, and placed him at his own seat in Yorkshire, under the tuition of Dr Hall, afterwards bishop of Norwich, who instructed him in Latin, without teaching him the common rules of grammar, which he could never retain in his memory, though he learned to write in that language with classical elegance and propriety. On the Earl of Strafford’s being impeached, he went to complete his education at Caen in Normandy; and after some years he travelled to Rome, where he became acquainted with the most valuable remains of antiquity, and in particular was well skilled in medals, and learned to speak Italian with such grace and fluency that he was frequently taken for a native. He returned to England soon after the Restoration, and was made captain of the band of pensioners; but a dispute with the lord privy-seal about a part of his estate obliged him to resign his post, and revisit his native country, where the Duke of Ormond appointed him captain of the guards. He was unhappily very fond of gaming; and as he was returning to his lodgings from a gaming-table in Dublin, he was attacked in the dark by three ruffians, who were employed to assassinate him. The earl defended himself with such resolution, that he had despatched one of the aggressors, when a gentleman passing that way took his part, and disarmed another, on which the third sought his safety in flight. This generous assistant was a disbanded officer of good family and fair reputation, but reduced to poverty; and his lordship rewarded his bravery by resigning to him his post of captain of the guards. Heat length returned to London, when he was made master of the horse to the Duchess of York, and married the Lady Frances, the eldest daughter of Richard earl of Burlington, and the widow of Colonel Courtney. Here he distinguished himself by his writings; and, in imitation of those learned and polite assemblies with which he had been acquainted abroad, he began to form a society for refining and fixing the standard of the English language, in which his great friend Dryden was a principal assistant. This scheme, however, was entirely defeated by the religious commotions which ensued on King

James’s accession to the throne. In 1683 he was seized with the gout; and being too impatient of pain, he permitted a bold French empiric to apply a repelling medicine, in order to give him immediate relief. This drove the distemper into his bowels, and in a short time put a period to his life. He died in the month of January 1684, and was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey.

His poems, which are not numerous, are in the body of English poetry collected by Dr Johnson. His Essay on Translated Verse, and his translation of Horace’s Art of Poetry, have been much commended. Upon the latter, Waller addressed a poem to his lordship when he was seventy-five years of age. “In the writings of this nobleman we view,” says Fenton, “the image of a mind naturally serious and solid; richly furnished and adorned with all the ornaments of art and science; and these ornaments unaffectedly disposed in the most regular and elegant order. His imagination might probably have been more fruitful and sprightly, if his judgment had been less severe; but that severity (delivered in a masculine, clear, succinct style) contributed to make him so eminent in the didactical manner, that no man with justice can affirm he was equalled by any of our nation, without confessing at the same time that he is inferior to none. In some other kinds of writing his genius seems to have wanted fire to attain the point of perfection; but who can attain it ?” He was a man of an amiable disposition, as well as a good poet; as Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, has testified in the following lines:

Roscommon not more learned than good,

With manners generous as his noble blood:

To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known,

And every author’s merit but his own.

We must allow of Roscommon, what Fenton has not mentioned so distinctly as he ought, and what is yet very much to his honour, that he is perhaps the only correct writer in verse before Addison; and that, if there are not so many or so great beauties in his composition as in those of some contemporaries, there are at least fewer faults. Nor is this his highest praise. For Pope has celebrated him as the only moral writer of King Charles’s reign.

Unhappy Dryden! in all Charles’s days,

Roscommon only boasts unspotted lays.

“Of Roscommon’s works,” as Dr Johnson has remarked, “the judgment of the public seems to be right. He is elegant, but not great; he never labours after exquisite beauties, and he seldom falls into gross faults. His versification is smooth, but rarely vigorous; and his rhymes are remarkably exact. He improved taste, if he did not enlarge knowledge, and may be numbered among the benefactors to English literature.