WESTMEATH, an inland county in the province of Leinster, in Ireland, is bounded on the north by Longford and Meath, on the east by Meath and Kildare, on the south by the King’s county, and on the west by Roscommon. It lies between 53° 20' and 53° 47' N. lat., and 7° and 7° 55' W. long., extending forty miles in its greatest length from north to south, and forty-five in its greatest breadth from west to east, and comprehending an area of 708 square miles, or 453,468 acres, of which 431,041 are land, and the remaining 22,427 are covered with water. It ranks as the twenty-sixth county in superficial extent, and the twenty-fourth in that of its cultivated land.

The county originally formed part of the central kingdom of Meath, when it was distinguished by the name of Eircamhoin, or the western division. Nor was it till the reign of Henry VIII. that it was formed into a separate county, including within it the district of Longford, which continued to form part of it till the reign of Elizabeth. Before the English invasion, the M‘Geoghegans, chieftains of Moycashel, the Malones, and the Magardleys, were the principal families. When the palatinate of Meath was granted to Hugh de Lacy by Henry II., the former proprietors were supplanted by English settlers, the principal of whom were the families of Petit, Tuite, Hussey, Dalton, Delamaine, Nugent, Geneville, Nangle, Ledwich, and Constantine. The confiscations consequent on the wars of 1641 and 1688, in both of which the landed gentry took an active part, made very great alterations in the state of property. The landing of a French force in the west of Ireland in 1798 occasioned a partial insurrection in this county, in the course of which the armed peasantry seized [7:21:861]and fortified Wilson’s Hospital, but were quickly dispossessed of it by a detachment of the royal forces.

This district forms the most elevated portion of the great central plain of Ireland, which is here 274 feet above the sea-level; but no part of it is mountainous. The highest elevations are Knocklayde in the north, 795 feet high, and the Hill of Ben, 710. All the hills are suited, even to their summit, for pasturage, and some for tillage; many are richly clothed with timber. Lakes are numerous: the largest lie in a direction nearly north and south along the middle of the county. Lough Shillin, the most northern, is a border lake on the side of Cavan, and near it is the smaller border lake of Lough Kinnail or Kinully. Lough Dereveragh is a winding expanse of water, eleven miles long and three broad, bordered in some parts by steep hills richly clothed with trees. Farther south is Lough Owell or Hoyle, studded with islands, and Lough Tron or Hiern, of smaller dimensions. The most southern, and also the largest lake of the chain, is Lough Ennell, equally admirable for its scenic beauties and for its extent of surface. A number of smaller lakes are scattered throughout the county. Loughs Lene, Bawn, Glyde, and Fore, are in the northern part; the small but romantic lake of Loughsewdy in the western. Lough Drin is remarkable only for its great depth; it covers but an acre of land. Lough Ree or Reagh, which is in reality a portion of the Shannon, forms part of the western boundary of the county, separating it from that of Roscommon. It is twenty miles in length, and contains several islands, two of which were the sites of religious foundations.

Though no large rivers traverse this portion of the island, it may be considered to be the source of several. The Inny, which rises in Lough Ramor in Cavan, and enters Westmeath through Lough Shillin, through the most part of its course forms the boundary line on the side of Longford, but in one part traverses the county, and after dividing two of its baronies, ultimately joins the Shannon. Two small rivers, the Golden and Silver Arms, which issued from the northern and southern extremities of Lough Owell, have been closed up, so as to increase the quantity of water in the parent lake, which is the main feeder of the Royal Canal. The Brosna flows from Lough Ennell into the Shannon, which forms part of the western boundary of the county. Lough Lene also gives rise to two streams of some notoriety. The northern, after sinking into the ground near the village of Fore, and re-appearing, empties itself, under the name of the Glore, into the Inny, and the united streams pass through the Shannon into the Atlantic. The southern forms the Deel, which joins the Boyne, and falls into the Irish Sea. Hence this little lake, with its two perennial branches, may be said to divide Ireland into two islands.

The county forms part of the great limestone field that traverses the island across its centre. This substratum is interrupted in two places only, the one at Moat-a-Grenogue, and the other near Ballymahon, at each of which places the sandstone rises from under the limestone bed, and forms insulated protuberances of some elevation. In some places the limestone is wrought up for architectural and domestic purposes, but in others its quality is such as to render it nearly unfit for the farmer’s use, in consequence of the quantity of fuel required for its calcination. Traces of lead and copper have been discovered, but not in quantities sufficient to hold out a fair prospect of pecuniary remuneration by exploring them farther. Coal is also said to have been raised in small quantities. A chalybeate spring rises at Grangemore, near Kinnegad, bursting forth with force, and forming a copious stream; but in consequence of the difficulty of access to it, few take advantage of its medicinal virtues. The soil is in general a deep rich loam resting on the limestone, but in the flat lands in the west it is light. The centre is intersected with numerous eskers formed of calcareous gravel. There is much bog: that of Allen covers a large portion of the western baronies. Many parts are well timbered; and traces of the old forests show themselves by the spontaneous growth of indigenous trees of various kinds in places where the young shoots are protected from the depredations of cattle.

The progress of the population, and its actual state, according to the latest census, appear in the following table.
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The last of these returns gives a population of one inhabitant to every 3∙06 acres. The return of the Commissioners of Public Instruction in 1834, taken according to dioceses, gives a population to the county of about 138,560 souls, of whom 10,175 are of the established church, 251 Protestant dissenters, and 128,133 Roman Catholics. The number of children receiving instruction in the public schools, at the periods stated beneath, is as follows, according to returns made to parliament.
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According to the return of 1824-6, the number of Catholic children educated in the public schools was 8249, of Protestants 1533, and of dissenters six; that of those whose religious persuasion could not be ascertained amounting to 131. The total number of schools was 216, out of which number twenty-six, containing 1532 pupils, were maintained wholly by grants of public money; twenty-five, with 1542 pupils, by voluntary subscriptions; all the remaining schools, in number 165, and educating 6845 children, being supported wholly by the fees of the pupils. An establishment for the maintenance and education of 160 boys, the sons of Protestant parents, natives of Westmeath, who are afterwards apprenticed to Protestant artificers, with a fee of L.10 each, was founded under the will of Andrew-Wilson of Piercefield, Esq. and still exists. The estate bequeathed for this purpose amounts to L.4000 per annum. Under the incorporated society for erecting charter schools, there is a school situate at Leney, six miles from Mullingar, intended for the maintenance and education of sixty children.

The county is divided into the twelve baronies of Braw-ney, called also the territory of Brawney, Clonlonan, Cork-aree, Delvin, Demifore, Farbill, Fartullagh, Kilkenny-west, Moyashel and Magheradernon, Moycashel, Moygoish, and Rathconrath. These are subdivided into sixty-two parishes, of which fifty-nine are in the diocese of Meath, and three in that of Ardagh. It was represented in the Irish parliament by ten members, two for the county, and two for each of the boroughs of Athlone, Fore, Kilbeggan, and Mullingar. By the arrangements under the union act, all the boroughs were disfranchised, except the first, which belongs only partially to this county, one half of it being in Roscommon; it now returns one member. The constituency for the county was as follows in the under-named years.
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The number of electors in the last of these returns gives an average of one elector to every 106 individuals, or of one to every eighteen heads of families of six individuals each.

The county is in the home circuit. The assizes are held at Mullingar. General sessions of the peace are held alternately in that town and in Moate. The local government consists of a lieutenant, fifteen deputy-lieutenants, sixty-nine unpaid magistrates, and a stipendiary, under whom there is a constabulary force, consisting of a county inspector, six sub-inspectors, seven head constables, and 272 constables and sub-constables. The county infirmary is in Mullingar, a fever hospital at Castlepollard, and fifteen dispensaries in various places. Lunatics are sent to the district asylum at Maryborough, where forty patients from the county are received. Mullingar and Athlone have been fixed on as sites for the workhouses of poor-law unions.

All kinds of grain thrive well in this productive soil. The English system of tillage is adopted by all except the poorer farmers and cottagers. Wheat forms a part of every succession of crops, and green crops are very frequent. Limestone gravel, which is to be had in abundance in most parts, is the usual manure. The fences are bad, except in the demesnes of the gentry. The low lands and valleys produce abundance of rich grass; from which cause, and as the management of cattle has been found more profitable and less laborious than tillage, most of the land in the county is assigned to the former department of rural economy. Great attention is paid to the breeds of cattle, which, both great and small, are purchased chiefly at the fairs of Ballinasloe. The long-homed cows are preferred, as being large, and good milkers. The breed of horses is excellent. Many are brought young from Connaught, and reared here till fit for the market. Dairies are frequent, and butter is made in large quantities. The method of haymaking is bad, the hay being allowed to stand in small stacks in the field till late in the season, in consequence of which it is much injured both by the heat and the rains. Like most other parts of the island, timber was abundant, until destroyed by a lavish and improvident use of it, which made no provision for a fresh supply. The deficiency is severely felt; but here, as elsewhere, great exertions are making to remedy it by young plantations, which are now rising in many parts.

The manufactures are not, nor were they ever, of any magnitude; the making of woollen and linen cloths being almost wholly confined to the domestic demand, and the operations carried on in the farmers’ houses. Fish is abundant in the lakes and rivers. Bream, trout, pike, and eels, are taken in the Inny; salmon in the same river and in the Brosna. The goaske, a fish about the size of the herring, is found in Lough Dereveragh; a thin-shelled mussel in some of the bogs. The Royal Canal passes through the central part of the county from east to west; a branch of the Grand Canal proceeds from near Philipstown in King’s county to Kilbeggan. There are three banking establishments, one a branch of the Provincial, the other two of the National Bank of Ireland. There are nine loan societies, in which the total amount of the loans in the hands of borrowers at the close of 1839 was L.10,675, and the total number of borrowers during the year 9071. Under the direction of the late Commissioners for Railroads in Ireland, a survey has been made of a line from Dublin, to enter the county near Killucan, and to proceed to Mullingar, whence it is to diverge in two branches, the one north-west through Longford to Sligo, the other westward through Athlone to Galway; but no steps have yet been taken to carry the plan into execution.

A considerable number of the landed proprietors reside on their own property; hence the county contains many elegant mansions and villas, surrounded by well-planted demesnes, which add very much to the natural beauties of the landscape. In the demesne of Mount d’Alton is an obelisk fifty feet high, erected in honour of the empress Maria Theresa, the Emperor Joseph, and King George III., by a late member of the D’Alton family, a retired officer in the Austrian service. An obelisk of similar dimensions stands on the estate of Lowville, near Kilkenny-west. The character of the middling and lower classes is superior to that of those in the adjoining county of Meath. The peasantry are described as being lively, intelligent, and quick-witted; hasty in their tempers, and prone to litigation; unwilling to deviate from the habits and customs of their forefathers; lax in their ideas of morality towards their superiors, but rigidly observant of the engagements voluntarily entered into with one another, and of the religious observances imposed on them by their clergy. They are also much addicted to superstitious practices. The horses are bathed in one of the lakes on the second Sunday in August, called Garlic Sunday, from a belief that they will thus be secured from injury during the rest of the year. Fish taken out of the stream that sinks into the ground near Fore will not be eaten, in consequence of the religious respect with which the water of it is honoured. A disinclination to improvement in their farms, and to domestic neatness, is also observable. The cottages are ill constructed and badly furnished, the roofs being made of boughs of trees with the leaves on, covered with sods of turf or peat called scraws, and thatched with straw. Many are without chimneys, the place of which is supplied by a hole in the roof. The furniture consists of a deal table, a few stools, an iron pot, and a dresser, with a few plates and dairy utensils. Yet their clothing is comfortable, usually of home-made gray or drab frieze. The use of linen has of late been almost universally superseded by cotton. The favourite garment of the men is a large loose coat, wrapped up in which they go to the fairs and markets even during the heat of summer, followed by their wives, who transact most of the business there. The women spin the wool and flax for their clothing, perform the household work, and take a large share in the labours of the field. When married, they still retain their maiden names. English and Irish are spoken, but the use of the latter is more general in their intercourse with one another.

Many remains of antiquity still exist. The parish of Rathconrath takes its name from a rath or moat of large dimensions and peculiar construction; besides which, nine of smaller size have been discovered within its boundaries. A still more remarkable pile of the same kind exists at Ballymore. It had originally been a Danish fort, and its position was so well chosen for military purposes, that it was strongly fortified by the Irish in the wars of 1641 and 1688; and after its capture by the English in the latter period, it was made the head-quarters of General Ginckell when preparing to besiege Athlone. A third, called the Fort of Turgesius, as being the reputed place of residence of that monarch during his reign in Ireland, is to be seen near Lough Lene. Those of inferior note are too numerous to be particularized. The ruins of ancient castles are also visible in many places. The origin of several of them can be traced back to Hugh de Lacy, the first lord palatine of the county. His chief place of residence was at Kilbixy, where he had a large and well-fortified castle, and where also stood a town of such importance as to be governed by a mayor or sovereign, and burgesses, with their usual appendages of inferior officers. The site of the former is now merely matter of conjecture; and the privileges, and consequently the importance, of the latter have been transferred to Mullingar. Another of this nobleman’s castles was at Ardnurcher, better known by the name of Horseleap, from the romantic tradition of an extraordinary bound made by a horse across a cleft between two steep hills, in effecting [7:21:863] which the animal is said to have left the marks of its hoofs on the rock whence it started, and their traces are supposed to be visible to the present day; or from a leap over the drawbridge, made by a knight in effecting his escape from the castle. The castle is also noted in history as being the place where the same De Lacy was treacherously killed by one of his own menials. The castles of Sonnagh, Rath-wire, and Killare, were built by the same nobleman. In the barony of Moycashel are the remains of several castles formerly possessed by the M‘Geoghegans, the ancient proprietors of the soil. Some of the old monastic buildings have been converted into parochial places of worship, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. The ruins of a few are still in existence, but the locality of many others is now a subject tending rather to excite than to satisfy curiosity. The ruins of Tristernagh Abbey, called also the Priory of Kilbixy, and founded by one of Hugh de Lacy’s immediate successors, were visible till the year 1783, when they were totally destroyed. Near them are the remains of the chapel of Templecross, which, though of inferior note as a structure of monastic celebrity, is memorable from being the place where the corp-naomh, or blessed body, a relic of extraordinary sanctity, was found. The relic consists of a wooden box about the size of a small Bible, clasped with bands of brass, studded with valuable stones, and marked with a crucifix. Its contents, if any, are unknown, for no hand has yet been found of nerve sufficient to venture to force it open. It is used as a test of evidence. An oath on the corp-naomh is considered as an act of peculiar solemnity; a pledge which, if given in support of a falsehood, is supposed to bring down on the guilty person some visitation of dreadful consequence. Such is the respect paid even to its name, that if any one asserts what he wishes to be received with implicit credit, he avers its truth “by the corp-naomh that arose at Templecross.” The site of the Abbey of Multifernan can still be traced by its ruins. It lies about four miles north of Tristernagh, and is singularly remarkable as being in possession of the Franciscan friars till the commencement of the year 1641, notwithstanding the total suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII. upwards of a century before. For some years previous to the breaking out of the civil wars at the above-mentioned period, it had been much frequented by visitors of every description, who went thither, as was said, to arrange the plans of the ensuing insurrection. The unusual assemblage of strangers is also said to have excited such apprehensions in the mind of the then bishop of Ardagh, that he removed with all his property to England, and thus escaped the calamities with which so many who continued to reside in the country were visited. There were three religious houses at Mullingar, belonging respectively to the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians. At Kilkenny-west are the reliques of a preceptory of the Knights of St John. It is also remarkable for a noted holy well.

The population of Westmeath is so exclusively rural, that Mullingar, where the assizes are held, is the only town containing more than 2000 inhabitants. It is situate nearly in the centre of the county and of Ireland, at the junction of the barony of Fertullagh with that of Moyashel and Magheradernon, on the stream of the Golden Arm, about midway between Loughs Owell and Ennell. It was one of the ancient palatinate towns of the county, and suffered much by the ravages committed during the petty wars with the Irish. In the war of 1688, it was fortified by General Ginckcll, and was for some time the head-quarters of the English army. Though it obtained a charter, it enjoyed none of the usual corporate rights, except that of returning two members to parliament, a privilege of which its proprietor or patron availed himself till the union. Four general sessions of the peace are held here. It is the site of the county court-house, prison, and infirmary, and has a large church, and a Roman Catholic chapel capable of holding 6000 persons, which is considered to be the cathedral of the diocese; the parish, with two others and a part of a third, being the mensal of the bishop, who resides in the town. The vicinity of the Royal Canal, which passes close to the northern side of the town, and on which steamers ply regularly to Shannon harbour, has made the place the centre of an increasing inland trade, which is also aided by the mail-road to Sligo passing through it. It holds a weekly market, and four fairs during the year. Large quantities of butter are brought to the former, and the latter are great marts for wool, homed cattle, and pigs; the November fair is for horses. One half of the town of Athlone is in this county, and is connected with the other half, lying on the Roscommon side, by a long bridge over the Shannon, so narrow that two carriages can with difficulty pass each other; but this check upon the communication between the two provinces of Leinster and Connaught is about to be obviated by the erection of a new bridge. The town is governed by a sovereign, two bailifs, and a recorder. It returned two members to the Irish parliament, and since the union one to the imperial parliament. The number of electors in 1832 was 243; in 1834, 274; and in 1839, 275. It is a place of great antiquity, being known as such before the settlement of the English; and after their arrival a castle was erected here by King John, to secure the main pass of the Shannon, which was deemed of such importance, that in a grant of the whole of Ireland by Henry III. to his son Edward, Athlone was specially excepted. It afterwards was the seat of government for the lord president of Connaught. In the war of 1642 it was taken by the Irish after a stubborn and protracted resistance, but subsequently retaken by the parliamentary army. In the war of 1688 it was invested by King William’s forces under General Douglas, who was forced to raise the siege by means of the gallant defence of Colonel Grace; but it was soon after taken by storm by General Ginckell, in the face of the Irish army commanded by St Ruth. In 1697, the magazine was struck by lightning, and the castle and town nearly destroyed. It is still considered of such importance in a military point of view, that large works have been thrown up on its western side, in which a garrison is maintained. The population of Mullingar amounted in 1831 to 4295, that of the eastern portion of Athlone to 5655. The population of the other towns whose number of inhabitants exceed 1000 each is, Kilbeggan, 1985; Moate, 1785; Castlepollard, 1618. (c. p.)