QUEEN ISLAND. See ZEALAND, NEW.
QUEEN's COUNTY, is the name of a county m land, which derives its name from Queen Mary, in whose reign it was established. For the same reason its chief town was called Maryborough. This county is hounded by King's county on the north and west, by Kildare and part of Carlow on the cast ; by Kil kenny on the south, and by Tipperary on the south west. Its form is that of a parallelogram, having one of its sides thirty-two English miles, and the other twenty-five miles long. It contains about 590 square English miles and 378,023 English acres. It has eight baronies and fifty parishes; and in 1821, a population of about 129,391 inhabitants, being an increase of 15,574 since 1813.
The principal hills of the county are the mountains of Sliebh-bloom, and the Dysart hills. The former are so steep and impassable, that for fourteen miles where they separate the King's and Queen's counties, there is only one pass through them, and that a very diffi cult one, called the Gap of Glandine. The rivers Bar row and Note have their source in this Ridge. The Dysart hills form a detached part, and command a view of a fine country, ornamented with plantations and magnificent demesnes. The rest of the county is rather flat, and the whole is watered with rivers and numerous mountain streams. According to Sir Charles Come, the following is the ratio of the different kinds of land, in Irish acres.
In the map belonging to the Grand Jury, the bogs and mountains are reckoned at 60.000.
Queen's county is watered with some rivers, and by many mountain streams. Of these, the Barrow and the Nore, which rise among the mountains in the west, are the principal. The Barrow flows in a north-east direction by Portarlington to Monastereven, and thence in a south-east direction to Carlow, where it forms the boundary between Queen's county and that of Kildare. It is navigable throughout from Portarlington, in the neighbourhood of which it widens its bed, and winds through enclosures of fertile banks. From Athy. on the Barrow, there is a canal to Dublin. The Nore, though deep and long, is not navigable ; but it might, without much difficulty, be rendered so, by levelling the numerous weirs. It has a south-easterly course to Kilkenny ; and, after the junction of the Rose and Bar row, near New Ross, it is navigable for large ships to the sea.
The soil of the county is various, from a very stiff clay to a sandy loam. There is also a good deal of strong gravelly soil, well adapted to the cultivation of corn. " The soil of the Sliebh-bloom mountains is variable, the surface inclining to a black and alternately yellow stiff clay, of depths, covering a loose rotten rock, or a gravel, with occasionally a little appearance of limestone. The western side more gene
rally inclines to a strong red clay, not unlike the nature of the soil in some of the northern counties in Ireland, where oats and potatoes only are sown ; but it generally is throughout swingy, wet and boggy to the summit, and very rocky." I'he general fuel, excepting near Carlow, is bog. The depth of the bogs is various; hut the best is in general only a few spades below the surface. A shallow bog of about two spades deep, occurs in the moors over a stratum of gravel or clay. When this is re claimed, it forms the richest land, and the expense is frequently repaid in one year.
According to Sir Charles Conte, the principal mine rals in Queen's county are, limestone, coal, iron, cop per, manganese, mica, marble, freestone, ochre, made, Fuller's earth, and a variety of clays valuable in pot tery. Rich quarries of limestone exist in almost every town land. The coal is the same as that of Kilkenny, or glance coal of Werner. It occurs near Carlow, where the collcries are very extensive. The quantity of tim ber in this county is very small, in consequence of the tenants having been partly obliged to cut, burn, and de stroy so many acres of wood.
The principal towns in Queen's County are, Mary borough, Portarlington, Stradbelly, Mountmelich, .Mountrath, and Ballynekill. Maryborough, which is the county town, was disfranchised along with Bally nekill, at the Union. Portarlington, which sends one member to Parliament, is a populous and well-built town, of one street on the Barrow. Many genteel families resort to it for the sake of its schools, which are numerous. Stradbelly is a neat village, with a hand some church, a good market place, and a charter school. A monastery was founded there in the 12th century by Lord O'More.
The principal manufactures of the county are linens and coarse woollen goods. The principal exports are corn and other articles of land produce. A good deal of cheese is made for the Dublin market.
Queen's County sends two members to Parliament.
A great part of Queen's County is divided into large estates, from 5,000/. to 15,000/. per annum, some of which are let on perpetual leases. The chief proprie tors are, the Marquis of Drogheda, Lord de Vesci, Ossory, Ashhrooke, Stanhope, Castle Coote, Portarling ton, and Maryborough; Sir Charles Coote, Mr. Parnell, Mr. Strange.
See Beaufort's Memoir of a Malt of Ireland. Sir Charles Coote's Statistical Survey of Queen's County; and Wakefield's Statistical Account of Ireland.