in corn, flour, meal, butter and provisions, which are exported in large quantities. There are no manufactures. The sandstone of the county is frequently of such a nature as to split easily into layers, known in commerce as Carlow flags.
Porcelain clay exists in the neighbourhood of Tullow; but no attempt is made to turn this product to use.
The Great Southern & Western railway from Kildare to Wexford follows the river Barrow through the county, with a branch from Bagenalstown to Kilkenny, while another branch from the north terminates at Tullow.
As regards population (41,964 in 1891; 37,748 in 1901), the county shows a decrease among the more serious of Irish counties, and correspondingly heavy emigration returns. Of the total, about 89% are Roman Catholics, and nearly the whole are rural. Carlow (pop. 6513), Bagenalstown (1882), and Tullow (1725) are the only towns. The county is divided into seven baronies, and contains forty-four civil parishes and parts of parishes. It belongs to the Protestant diocese of Dublin and the Roman Catholic diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. The assizes are held at Carlow, and quarter sessions at that town and also at Bagenalstown and Tullow. One member is returned to parliament.
Carlow, under the name of Catherlogh, is among the counties generally considered to have been created in the reign of John. Leinster was confirmed as a liberty to William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, by John, and Carlow, among other counties in this area, had the privileges of a palatinate on descending to one of the earl’s heiresses. The relics of antiquity in the county comprise large cromlechs at Browne’s Hill near Carlow and at Hacketstown, and a rath near Leighlin Bridge, in which were found several urns of baked earth, containing only small quantities of dust. Some relics of ecclesiastical and monastic buildings exist, and also the remains of several castles built after the English settlement. Old Leighlin, where the 12th century cathedral of St Lazerian is situated, is merely a village, although until the Union it returned two members to the Irish parliament.
CARLOW, the county town of Co. Carlow, Ireland, on the navigable river Barrow. Pop. of urban district (1901) 6513. It is 56 m. S.W. of Dublin by the Great Southern & Western railway. The castle (supposed to have been founded by Hugh de Lacy, appointed governor of Ireland in 1179, but sometimes attributed to King John), situated on an eminence overlooking the river, is still a chief feature of attraction in the general view of the town, although there is not much of the original building left. It consisted of a hollow quadrangle, with a massive round tower at each angle. The principal buildings are the Roman Catholic College of St Patrick (1793), a plain but spacious building in a picturesque park adjoining the Roman Catholic cathedral of the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin; the Protestant parish church, with a handsome steeple of modern erection; the court-house, where the assizes are held, an octagonal stone building with a handsome Ionic portico; and other county buildings. The cathedral, in the Perpendicular style, has a highly ornamented west front, and a monument to Bishop James Doyle (d. 1834). The Wellington Bridge over the river Barrow connects Carlow with the suburb of Graigue. Two m. N. E. of the town is one of the finest cromlechs in Ireland, and 3 m. to the west is the notable church, of Norman and pre-Norman date, of Killeshin in Queen’s county. The industries of Carlow consist of brewing and flour-milling, and a considerable trade is carried on in the sale of butter and eggs.
Carlow was of early importance. In the reign of Edward III. the king’s exchequer was removed thither, and £500, a large sum at that period, applied towards surrounding the town with a strong wall. In the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the castle was taken, and the town burned by the Irish chieftain, Rory Oge O’More. When summoned to surrender by Ireton, the Commonwealth general, during the war of 1641, Carlow submitted without resistance. In the insurrection of 1798 the castle was attacked by an undisciplined body of insurgents. They were speedily repulsed, and suffered severe loss, no quarter being given; and, in the confusion of their flight, many of the insurgents took refuge in houses, which the king’s troops immediately set on fire. Carlow obtained a charter of incorporation as early as the 13th century, and was reincorporated, with enlarged privileges, by James I. The corporation, which was styled “The Sovereign, Free Burgesses and Commonalty of the Borough of Catherlogh,” was authorized to return two members to the Irish parliament. The town returned one member to the Imperial parliament until 1885.
CARLSBAD, or Kaiser-Karlsbad (Czech, Karlovy Vary), a town and celebrated watering-place of Bohemia, Austria, 116 m. W.N.W. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 14,640. It is situated at an altitude of 1227 ft. and lies in the beautiful narrow and winding valley of the Tepl at its junction with the Eger, being hemmed in by precipitous granite hills, covered with magnificent forests of pine. The town is spread on both banks of the river and in the valley of the Eger, its houses being built up the mountain sides in tier above tier of terraces approached by long flights of steps or steep and tortuous roads. This irregularity of site and plan, together with the varied form and high-pitched roofs of the houses, makes the place very picturesque. Among the principal buildings of Carlsbad are the Catholic parish church, built in 1732–1736 in rococo style; the gorgeous Russian church, finished in 1897; the English church; and a handsome synagogue. In the first rank of the other buildings stands the famous Mühlbrunnen Colonnade, erected between 1871 and 1878, which, with its 103 monolithic granite Corinthian columns, is a fine example of modern classical architecture; the Kurhaus (1865); the magnificent Kaiserbad, built in 1895 in the French Renaissance style, and several other bathing establishments; the Sprudel Colonnade, an imposing iron and glass structure, built in 1879, within which rises the Sprudel, the principal spring of Carlsbad; and several hospitals and hospices for poor patients. Both banks of the Tepl are provided with quais, planted with trees, which constitute the chief promenades of the centre of the town; and there are, besides, a municipal park and several public gardens.
The mineral springs, to which Carlsbad owes its fame, rise from beneath a very hard kind of rock, known as Sprudelschale or Sprudeldecke, beneath which it is believed that there exists a large common reservoir of the hot mineral water, known as the Sprudelkessel. Several artificial apertures in the rock have been made for the escape of the steam of this subterranean cauldron, which, owing to the incrustations deposited by the water, require to be cleared at regular intervals. Altogether there are seventeen warm springs, with a temperature varying from 164° F. to 107.7° F., and two cold ones. The oldest, best-known, and at the same time the most copious spring is the Sprudel, a hot geyser with a temperature of 164° F., which gushes up in jets of 1½ ft. thick to a height of about 3½ ft., and delivers about 405 gallons of water per minute. Other springs are the Mühlbrunnen, with a temperature of 121° F., which is after the Sprudel the most used spring; the Neubrunnen (138° F.); the Kaiser-Karl-Quelle (112° F.); the Theresienbrunnen (134° F.), &c. The warm springs belong to the class of alkaline-saline waters and have all the same chemical composition, varying only in their degree of temperature. The chemical composition of the Sprudel, taken to a thousand parts of water, is: 2.405 sulphate of soda, 1.298 bicarbonate of soda, 1.042 chloride of soda, 0.186 sulphate of potash, 0.166 bicarbonate of magnesia, 0.012 bicarbonate of lithium, and 0.966 carbonic acid gas. They contain also traces of arsenic, antimony, selenium, rubidium, tin and organic substances. The water is colourless and odourless, with a slightly acidulated and salt taste, and has a specific gravity of 1.0053 at 64.4° F. The waters are used both for drinking and bathing, and are very beneficent in cases of liver affections, biliary and renal calculi, diabetes, gout, rheumatism, and uric acid troubles. They are very powerful in their effect and must not be used except under medical direction, and during the cure, a carefully-regulated diet must be observed, coupled with a moderate amount of exercise in the open air. The number of visitors in 1901 was 51,454; in 1756 it was only 257; in 1828 it was 3713; and it attained 14,182 in 1869, and 34,396 in 1890.
