Good lime-kilns are rarely seen in this county. It should be the care of the proprietor of an estate, to erect proper kilns to supply his tenantry with lime at first cost; where it can be accomplished, no surer means could be adopted to improve an estate without any expence to the proprietor. For an improved plan of a lime kiln, see the Statistical Survey of the County of Cavan, page 68. CHAP. CHAP. X. CENERAL SUBJECTS. SECT. 1. Population. ARMAGH is indisputably, in proportion to its size, the most populous county in Ireland. Although much of the surface is covered with mountains, yet the greater part of the wildest country is very thickly inhabited, and it is on this account that its superior population is allowed. I doubt not, but in the neighbouring county of Down there are certain parishes, where the inhabitants and houses are as numerous, as will be found in the like area in this county, but their mountains, which cover so great a tract, are almost uninhabited; a circumstance which pretty clearly proves, what great capability the roughest parts of this county possess, as sustaining so numerous a population. Mr. Mr. Bushe's calculation of the number of inhabitants of Armagh was ascertained by taking the population of 1705 houses, of every description, which were found to contain 6988 souls, or more than six to each house. In Dr. Beaufort's Memoir of his Map of Ireland it is stated, that, from the reports of the hearth-money collectors to the year 1790, the county contains 21983 houses, and 120,000 inhabitants at five and a half to a house, but this he supposed to be far below the truth. The population is at the rate of eight and onefifth acres to a house, or of nearly seventyeight houses, and 429 souls, to every square mile, which is something less than one and a half acre per head; and he justly attributes the extraordinary population to the great industry of the people, and the flourishing state of the linen manufacture.. I believe the general report will be nearer the truth, if estimated at 125,000 souls. I have heard that the late Rev. Dr. Hamilton, who was unhappily murdered during the disturbances in this country, had made some ingenious calculations, and took the actual population of same districts, in which the return exceeded all belief. *See his paper on this subject, in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1789. belief. In one parish the inhabitants were so numerous, as in the same proportion would have equalled 300,000 souls in the county. The population and the number of houses are at present in progressive encrease. SECT. 2. Number and size of Villages and Towns. In the thirteenth chapter will be found a particular description of the several towns in the county, and the trade or manufacture for which they are remarkable. In the following table are the names of the several towns and villages in the county, distinguishing the market, fair, and post towns, with the number of days in the week on which the post arrives from Dublin. The fairs and markets are, in general, well attended by retailers of hats, stockings, shoes, cloth, and wool, from other counties; and also by pedlars, whose stock consists of articles of apparel, principally of women's wear, and hard-ware. itinerant dealers are always travelling from one market town to another; some of them have no fixed residence. These TABLE |