being thus unable to attend to the tythes, has made annual bargains with a person for them, who, without any exception, deals with the occupiers, at from four to seven shillings per English acre for potatoes and barley; and from three to six shillings for oats. As to wheat, the quantity in the parish is too inconsiderable to mention; and barley having latterly failed, this mountainous moist climate being unfit for its growth, it may be said that the only grain now cultivated is oats.

There are no parish funds, save the cess imposed at Easter for the repairs of the church, at which divine service is regularly performed, though there is but one resident Protestant family.

IX. Modes of Agriculture, Crops, &c.

old Agricul No

ture.

The inhabitants are very tenacious of the modes of agriculture, old stocks of cattle, &c. amendment whatever has taken place in their husbandry; and as for the rents of this parish, as Rents. most of the lands are set by the lump, it is not very easy to give any account of the acreable prices; but some of the lands (the leases of which have expired a few years ago) have been surveyed and set at an acreable price, which is from three half guineas to twenty shillings per acre, and may be almost counted as rack-rents, were it not for the high prices of corn.* No fairs are held in this parish; Fairs. it is in fact much shut out from other parishes, nor have strangers any intercourse with the inhabitants, there being, to speak correctly, no high road through it, no resident gentlemen, no village, trade nor manufacture.

• This account was written before the peace of 1815.

Incum

bents.

X. Trade, Manufactures, &c.

Previously answered.

XI. Natural Curiosities, Remarkable Occurrences, &c,

Nothing under this head merits attention, except the following list of Incumbents, which has been formed from the First-Fruits' Records.

Capella de Ardagh, Membrum Collegii de Youghall; the Church and Chancel ruynous for these twenty yeares; served heretofore by Mr. Hawckes, now by Mr. Wood.

Georgius Ledbeter admiss. 10° Aug. 1637, ad Rector. integram de Ardagh dioc. Clonen. et Com, Corke; non tax.

Wmus. Fitzgerald admiss. fuit 15o December, 1671, ad Rector. integram Ecclie. polis. de Ardagh dioc. Clonen. et Com. Corke.

Revdus. Arthurus De Anverse Clicus. ad Rectorias integras de Cloinpriest et Ardagh octavo die mensis Aug. in anno. 1720, pd. et admiss. et institut. fuit.

Wm. Chartres Rect. Cloinpriest et Ardagh, 18th May, 1755; n. t.

John Killeen, D.D. R. of Ardagh and R. of Cloinpriest, 5th Oct. 1764. Co. Corke; n. t.

Brinsley Nixon, A. M. collated and instituted 28th July, 1789, R. of Ardagh, Corke; n. t.

XII. Suggestions for Improvement, and means for meliorating the condition of the People.

Good roads, and larger farms, inducing the settlement of persons qualified and able to set an example of improved systems of agriculture and of good order, would tend much to better the situatioa of the parishioners.

Total.

Not ascertained, the southern part of the

parish

only

surveyed; the north is all mountainous, tho' not high land.

No. of Families.

No. of Houses. being No. of Acres.

Males.

Females.

The above is from the return of the Barony Collector, made by personal examination two years ago, and is supposed to be as accurate as any report ever made. One thing is remarkable, as being a single instance which occurred in a very extensive census made by Mr. Gibson, the gentleman alluded to- viz. the number of males in Ardagh exceeding that of the females. In no other place in the barony of Imokilly did the males equal the number of females.-In Ardagh, it appears, there is no spirit of emigration, nor have the young men enlisted or gone to sea as in other parishes.

No. II.

PARISHES OF

ARDCLINIS AND LAID,

(Diocese of Connor and County of Antrim,)

BY THE REV. STEWART DOBBS, CURATE.

I. Name of the Parish, Situation, Extent, &c. THE parish of Ardelinis, or Ardeleny, being contiguous to and nearer Glenarm than that of Layd, Situation. Laid, or Lede, shall be first described. The

arable and inhabited part of this parish consists of one long stripe, extending from the small village of Carnalough along the sea coast into Red Bay, and up one side of the beautiful glen of Glenariff. It is enclosed on the land side by a steep and high mountain, to be ascended only by narrow paths traversing its sides, by which the inhabitants convey their fuel of turf on slide cars, composed of two poles, fastened by rungs in the hinder part, on which is placed a wicker creel, about a yard square; having no wheels, it does not press on the ponies which draw it downwards, and it is so light as to be easily drawn up when empty.

The extent of the cultivated part of the parish is Extent. about nine miles and a half; viz. three and a half from Carnalough to the entrance of Red Bay, or, as it is commonly called, Foran Path or Garron Point; three to the inner shore, and three up the glen towards the interior of the country. The arable ground from the sea to the hill does not exceed one quarter of a mile in breadth, and in some places not one tenth, except across the Red Bay to a little village called the Waterfoot of the Acre, or Glenariff River, about a mile, mostly sandy ground, and occupied as a rabbit-warren, till lately cultivated for potatoes, which are planted on sea-weed-at Carnalough, also, it is about a mile broad. Excepting at Boundaries the village now named, the river Acre is the mearing between the parishes of Laid and Ardelinis. The river must have a little changed its course at this point.

Ardelinis lies in the barony of lower Glenarm, Situation. county of Antrim, and diocese of Connor. It is Boundaries bounded on the north and north-east by the sea and Red Bay; on the north and north-west by the parish of Laid; on the south by the parish of Teckmacreevan or Glenarm, from which it is divided by the little rivulet of Carnalough; on the west and southwest by the parishes of Dunaghy and Skerry.

In general, a portion of these mountains, which lie from six to seven hundred feet above the level of the sea, or so many sums grazing, are attached to each denomination of the low land; a sum consists of either eight wethers, six ewes and six lambs, or a cow; a horse is one sum and a half. Just above

B