Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/85

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

K I L K 1 L 73 16s. 4^d. The duke of Leiuster owned 67,227 acres ; the marquis of Drogheda, 16,609; Sir G. G. Aylmer, 15,396; Johii La Touche 11,282 ; and seven other estates exceeded 5000 acres. Manufactures. Though possessing a good supply of water-power, the county is almost wholly destitute of manufactures ; but there are u few small cotton, woollen, and paper mills, as well as breweries jind distilleries, and several corn mills. Large quantities of turf are exported to Dublin by the canal. Railways. The Great Western line crosses the county at its northern boundary ne;ir Leixlip, Mayuooth, Kilcock, and Enlield, and the Great Southern and Western passes through nearly its whole extent by Naas, Newbridge, Kildare, Monastcrevan, and Athy. Administration. The county comprises fourteen baronies, and contains 107 civil parishes, live parts of parishes, and 1240 town- lands. Judicially it is within the home circuit, and is divided into fourteen petty sessions districts and three parts of petty sessions districts. Assizes are held at Naas, and quarter sessions at Athy, Kildare, Mayuooth, and Naas. The county contains portions of the six poor-law unions of Athy, Baltinglass, Carlow, Celbridge, Eden- derry, and Naas. The military stations at Newbridge and the Curragh constitute the Curragh military district, and the barracks at Athy and Naas are included in the Dublin military district. There are three townships Athy, Naas, and Newbridge. The principal other towns are Maynooth (which is the seat of a Roman Catholic college), Celbridge, Kildare, Monasterevan, Kilcullen, Leixlip, Kilcock, Castledermot, Ballymore Eustace, and Rathangan. Previous to the Union Kildare returned ten members to parlia ment, of whom eight represented boroughs ; but now it sends only two. who sit as members for the county. Population. According to the census return of 1659 the popu lation amounted to only 13,825, of whom 796 were English and 13,029 Irish. In 1760 it was estimated at 51,726. According to the parliamentary return of 1821 it was 99,065, and by 1841 it had in creased to 115,190, but in 1851 had diminished to 96,495, in 1861 to 1)0,946, in 1871 to 83,614, and in 1881 to 76, 102,of whom 40,859 were males and 35,243 females. In several other counties there is an excess of males over females, but it is much larger in Kildare than in any other, which is the more remarkable that between 1851 and 1880 there has been also an excess of male emigrants, the total number of emigrants being 13,651 males and 11,765 females, or 27 9 per cent. f the population of 1861. The rate of marriages in 1880 to every 1000 of the population was 3 6, of births 22 "0, and of deaths 16 9, the rates for Ireland being 3 8, 24 0, and 19 3. The number of natives of England and Wales residing in the county in 1841 was 406, and in 1871 they had increased to 5270 ; of natives of Scot land there were 151 in 1841 and 574 in 1871. The number of Roman Catholics in 1881 was 66,184; of Protestant Episcopalians, 8616; of Presbyterians, 754; of Methodists, 344. In 1871 there were none who spoke Irish only, but 554 spoke Irish and English. The number who could read and write in 1871 was 43,783 ; 11, 472 could read but could not write, and 28,359 could neither read nor write. History. The early inhabitants of the county are perhaps to be identified with Ptolemy s Coriondi. Afterwards it formed part of the district of Caellan or Galen, which also included portions of Wicklow and Carlow, the principal chieftain being a representa tive of the family of Hy Caellan or M Kelly, who had their residence at the moat of Ardscull near Naas. According to a tale in the Hook of Leinster the original name of Kildare was Druim Criaidh (Dramcree), which it retained until the time of St Brigit, after which it was changed to Cilldarct, the church of the oak, from a very old oak under whose shadow the saint had constructed her cell. For some centuries it was under the government of the Macmurroughs, kings of Leinster, but along with the remainder of Leinster it was granted by Henry II. to Strongbow. On the division of the, palatinate of Leinster among the five granddaughters of Strongbow, Kildare fell to Sibilla, the fourth daughter, who married William de Ferrars, earl of Derby. Through the marriage of the only daughter of William de Ferrars it passed to William de Vescy who, when challenged to single combat by John Fitz Thomas, baron of Otl aly, for accusing him of treason, fled to France. His lands were there upon in 1297 bestowed on Fitz Thomas, who in 1316 was created earl of Kildare, and in 1317 was appointed sheriff of Kildare, the office remaining in the family until the attainder of Gerald, the ninth curl, in the reign of Henry VIII. Kildare was a liberty of Dublin until 1296, when an Act was passed constituting it a separate county. Antiquities. In the county there are several old gigantic pillar stones, the principal being those at Punchestown, Hair. stown, .1 igginstown, and Mnllamast. Among the more remarkable earth works are the raths at Mullamast, Knockcaellagh near Kilcullen. Ardscull near Naas, and elsewhere, and the numerous sepulchral mounds in the Curragh. Of the round towers the finest is that of Kildare, which is 130 feet high ; there are remains of others at Taghadoe, Kilcullen, Oughterard, and Castledermot. At one time there were an immense number of religious houses in the county. There are remains of a Franciscan abbey at Castledermot. At Graney there are the ruins of an Augustinian nunnery and also portions of a building said to have belonged to the Knights Templars. The town of Kildare has ruins of no less than four monastic buildings, among others the nunnery founded by St Brigit. The site of a monastery at Old Kilcullen, said to date from the time of St Patrick, is marked by two stone crosses, one of which is curiously sculptured. The fine abbey of Monasterevan is now the seat of the marquis of Drogheda. On the Lifl ey are the remains of Great Connel Abbey near Celbridge, of St Wolstan s near Celbridge, and of New Abbey. At Moone, where there was at one time a Franciscan monastery, there are the remains of a very old cross with curious sculpturings. Among the old castles may be mentioned those of Athy and Castledermot, built about the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion ; Maynooth Castle, built by the Fitzgeralds ; Kilkea, originally built by the seventh earl of Kildare, and restored within the present century; and Timolin, erected in the reign of King John. KILIA, a seaport town of lloumania, formerly in the province of Moldavia, situated on the northern bank of the northern arm of the lower Danube, 20 miles from its mouth. The inhabitants, between GOOD and 7000 in number, are mainly engaged in the river trade and fisheries. Kilia was occupied by the Russians in 1790, and bom barded by the English and French in 1854. Old Kilia is on the opposite side of the river. A plan of the present town will be found in the maps published by the European Commission of the Danube. K ELIAN, ST, the apostle of Francouia, was, according to Hrabanus Maurus, a native of Ireland, whence along with his companions he went to eastern Franconia. After having preached the gospel in Wiirzburg, the whole party were put to death by the orders of an unjust judge of the name of Gozbert. Notker Balbulus (c. 912) relates that Kilian s mission emanated from the pope, and that Gozbert was the duke of Franconia, who, after receiving baptism, had been persuaded to put away his wife (Geila) because she was his brother s widow. Geila in revenge caused Kilian and his comrades, Colonian and Totman, to ! be secretly put to death. Later accounts assign the mis sion to the time of Conon (686). In the Jfartyroloyies Saints Kilian (Kyllena, Chilianus), Coloman, and Totman are commemorated on July 8. Their relics lie in the Ciithedral (St Kiliansmiinster) at Wiirzburg. KILIMANJ/vEO, a great snow-topped mountain in eastern Africa, in 3 5 S. lat. and 37 22 E. long., has a height of 18,715 feet, and is believed to be the loftiest eminence of the whole continent. It stands completely apart from all the neighbouring heights, but is only " one of many summits that crown the eastern edge of the great plateau of equatorial Africa." At a distance of 100 miles to the north, across the wide expanse of the Kaptei and Kikuyu plains, lie the less known mountains Kenia and Lemeru ; and due west, at a distance of about 30 or 40 miles, rises the noble mass of Mount Meru. As the natives believe that the summit of Kilimanjaro is composed of silver, it is possible that Aristotle s reference to "the so-called Silver Mountain " from which the Nile flows was based on indistinct reports about this mountain ; but the real discovery of its existence was made only in 1848 by Mr Rebman of the Church Missionary Society (Church Missionary Intelligencer, 1849). His account, though fully borne out by Dr Krapf, was at first received with great incredulity by professional geographers. The matter has been finally set at rest by the visits paid to the mountain by Yon der Decken (1861 and 1862) and Mr Charles New (1867), the latter of whom reached the lower edge of the snow. Kilimanjaro has two principal summits. The eastern, Kibo or Bnreni, is a magnificent dome with a smooth and regular outline ; the other, Kimawenzi, is a dark and rugged peak ; and between the two stretches a saddle-like ridge several miles in extent. Trachytes, basalt, and obsidian were obtained by Von der Decken from the upper part of the mountain. Air New distinguished six clearly marked /.ones of vegetation. The first was the region of the banana and maize, the surface, when not under cultivation, being clothed with a close turf exceedingly rich in clover ; above this lay a belt of jungle ; the jungle was succeeded by a forest of gigantic trees with a dense and varied undergrowth, and an extraordinary profusion of moss both on the ground and on the steins and branches ; beyond the trees was a region of hills covered with rich grass and clover ; beyond ( the grass came heath ; and this gradually dwindled away into a region of bare wind-swept rocks. Among the fifty species of plants col- XIV. 10