L E L L E L 433 in those between 5 and 15 acres and between 15 and 30 acres, which numbered respectively 5439 and 5250. The following table shows the number of acres under the various crops in 1855 and 1881 : . ^ o >- 5 i Sep. sis | S H 5 a S S o s ^ o ooo fc s COO fa S iU
1855 291 28,780 587 23.537 1.075 1.193 718 56,181 28,598 84,779 1881 306 13,749 193 19,319 942 1,529 177 36,215 46,338 82,553 The acreage under crops is thus less than one-fourth of the whole area. In 1880 there were 212,374 acres under pasture, and 78,330 waste. The number of horses in 1881 was 3983, of which 2627 were used for agricultural purposes. Between 1855 and 1881 cattle diminished from 91,061 to 84,914. The number of milch cows in the latter year was 35,732, the production of butter being one of the principal industries of the small farmer. Sheep diminished from 20,578 in 1855 to 11,347 in 1881, and pigs from 20,790 to 19,302. Poultry in 1881 numbered 311,920. According to the corrected return of 1878 the land was divided among 451 owners possessing 371,371 acres, with a total annual valuation of 135,946. Of the owners about 70 per cent, possessed more than one acre, and the average value per acre was 7s. 3d. The average size of the estates is 823 acres ; and the largest owners are Lord Massy, 24,751; Earl of Leitrim, 22,038; George Lane Fox, 18,850; Owen Wynne, 15,436; and Arthur L. Tottenham, 14,561. Manufactures. These are confined chiefly to coarse linens for domestic purposes, but coarse pottery is also made. In 1880 there were three scutching mills in the county, all driven by water. Raihvays. The Longford and Sligo branch of the Mid land Great Western Railway passes through the southern part of the county, and in the northern part there is a branch between Sligo and Bundoran. Administration and Population. The county is divided into 5 baronies, and contains 17 parishes, with 1489 town- lands. It is within the Connaught circuit, and assizes are held at Carrick-on-Shannon, and quarter sessions at Ballinamore, Carrick-on-Shannon, and Manorhamilton. There are two poor-law unions in the county and portions of other three. The county is within the Dublin military district, and there are barracks at Carrick-on-Shaunon. It is in the dioceses of Kilmore and Ardagh. In the Irish House of Commons two members were returned for the county and two for the boroughs of Carrick-on-Shannon and Jamestown, but at the union the boroughs were disfranchised. In 1760 the population was 26,142, which in 1821 had increased to 124,785 and in 1841 to 155,309, but in 1861 had diminished to 104,744, in 1871 to 95,562, and in 1881 to 89,795, of whom 44,777 were males and 45,018 were females. The total number of emigrants from the county between 1st May 1851 and 31st December 1880 was 43,186, a percentage of 41 2 to the population in 1861. In 1880 the rate of marriages per 1000 of estimated population was 2-6, of births 22 4, and of deaths 15 9. The population is almost entirely rural, the only town being Carrick-on-Shannon, with a population in 1871 of 1442. History and Antiquities. Anciently the entire country bordering on Lough Erne, including Fermanagh and Cavan, was, accordin? to Ptolemy, occupied by the Erdini. Afterwards, along with Cavan, Leitrim formed part of the territory of Breffny or Brenny, which was divided into two principalities, of which Leitrim under the name of Hy Bruin-Breffny or Brenny formed the western. From the fact that for a long time it was possessed by the O Rourks, descendants of Roderick, king of Ireland, it was also called Breffny O Rourk. In the 12th century Tiernan O Rourk was expelled from the government by the princes of Leinster and Connaught, but he was afterwards reinstated by Turlougli, king of Ireland, and, although after the arrival of the English it was united to Roscommon, the O Rourks remained practically independent till the reign of Elizabeth. Large confiscations took place in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., in the Cromwellian period, and after the Revolution of 1688-89. There are "druidical" remains near Fenagh and at Letterfyan, and important monastic ruins at Creevelea near the Bonnet, with several antique monuments, and at Firnagh in the parish of Fenagh. There was an important Franciscan friary at Jamestown. The abbeys of Mohill, Annaduff, and Drumlease have been con verted into parish churches. Among the more notable old castles are O Rourk s Hall at Dromahaire, now in ruins, Manorhamilton Castle, originally very extensive, but now also in ruins, and Castle John on an island in Lough Scur. LELAND, LEYLAND, or LAYLONDB, JOHN (c. 1506- 1552), a famous English antiquary, was born in London towards the close of the reign of Henry VII. From St Paul s School, where he was brought up under Lily, the famous grammarian, he passed to Christ s College, Cam bridge, and thence to All Soul s College, Oxford. After residing for some time in Paris, he returned to England, and became chaplain to Henry VIII., who appointed him, in 1530, to the rectory of Popeling, in the marches of Calais, made him his librarian, and in 1533 commissioned him as " king s antiquary," with power to search for records, manuscripts, and relics of antiquity, in all the cathedrals, colleges, abbeys, and priories of England. Accordingly he set out on a tour which lasted six years, and afforded him materials for study during the remainder of his life. On his return in 1542 he was rewarded by the king with the rectory of Haseley in Oxfordshire; in 1543 he became a canon of King s College (now Christ Church), Oxford, and about the same time a prebendary of Salisbury. Leland now withdrew to his house in the parish of St Michael le Querne, London, and devoted himself exclusively to the digesting of his information. In 1547 he fell into a state of insanity, which continued until his death on the 18th April 1552. Some of Leland s papers, after passing through several hands, were deposited by Burton, the historian of Leicestershire, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford in 1632. Others came into the posses sion of Sir Robert Cotton, and are now, along with the rest of his books, in the British Museum. His principal works are The laboryeuse Journey and Serchefor Englandes Antiquitees ; A Neiv Yeares Gyfte to Kynge Henry the VIIL in the 37 yeare of his Regne, London, 1549 ; Commcntarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis, edited by Anthony Hall, Oxford, 1709, 2 vols. 8vo ; The Itinerary, published by Thomas Hearne, Oxford, 1710-12, 9 vols. 8vo, and reprinted in 1770 ; andZ>e Rebus Britannicis Collectanea, edited by Hearne, Oxf., 1715, 6 vols. 8vo, and reprinted at London in 1770. See The Lives of those eminent antiquaries John Leland, Thomas Hearne, and Anthony a Wood, vol. i., Oxford, 1772. LELAND, JOHN (1691-1766), a polemical theologian of the 18th century, was born at Wigan, Lancashire, in 1691, and was educated in Dublin, where he made such progress in theological and other studies that in 1716, without having attended any college or hall, he was appointed first assistant and afterwards sole pastor of a congregation of Presbyterians in New Row. This office he continued to fill until his death on January 16, 1766. Leland s first publication was A Defence of Christianity (1733), in reply to Tindal s Christianity as Old as the Creation ; it was suc ceeded by his Divine Authority of the Old and New Testaments asserted (1738), in answer to The Moral Philosopher of Morgan; in 1741 he published two volumes, in the form of two letters, being Remarks on [H. Dodwell s] Christianity not Founded on Argument; and in 1753 Reflexions on the Late Lord Bolingbroke s Letters on the Study and Use of History. A View of the Principal Dcistical Writers that have appeared in England was published in 1754-56. This is the only work of the author "most worthy, painstaking, and commonplace of divines," as he has recently been styled which can now be said to have any present value. This value, however, is purely historical ; his facts about the deists are interesting and useful, but it may be safely conjectured that no one now reads his (doubtless sincere) arguments, here and elsewhere, against the creed he opposed without some sense of their hollowness, contra- dictoriness, and obvious unfairness. His latest work was a treatise entitled The Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation XIV. - 55
