DON 



48 



DOR 



mm, 4c. 



IdiTi- 



hour*. But of Into VMI-S. all the fisheries *n the coast 

 of Donegal have, from \.irious causes, very much de- 

 clined. 



The chief manufactures in this county are those of 

 linen, cluck, and canvass. The linen, of which a con- 

 siderable quantity is made, is narrow, not exceeding S- 

 inches when bleached. Much of the yarn made use of 

 is spun in the adjoining counties of Londonderry, An- 

 trim, and Tyrone. The amount of yarn sold in the 

 monthly yarn market of Donegal is "L. 1500; and in 

 the market of Ardra it is not less than L.2000. In the 

 yews 1807 and 1808, the Linen Hoard paid the suma 

 of L.165 and L.147, 12s. 3d. as bounty at the rate of 

 2d. per yard on 19,798 yank, and 17,750 yards of duck 

 and canvass. On the coast at Ards, there is a sea-weed 

 called slaUi-marrau.', which grows to an immense size, 

 and is washed up sometimes in ridges, ten feet high 

 and a mile long. This sea-weed is dried, and burnt 

 for kelp ashes, which sell at from 5s. to 15s. per cwt 



There are no towns in this county of any great conse- 

 quence. The principal one is Ballyihannon, which stands 

 upon the Erne,and has the advantage of a salmon fishery. 

 Ijffbrd, the county town, is but a small place. J^etler- 

 kenntf, though happily situated at the bottom of Lough 

 Swilly, seems not to have profited by that circumstance. 

 Donegal also, notwithstanding its favourable situation 

 on a fine bay, is of very little note. KiUibcgt, with si- 

 milar advantages, is equally insignificant. And Raphoe 

 has no other recommendation, than that of being the 

 ee and residence of a bishop. 



The dry measures and weights are Troy and Avoir- 

 dupois : and the liquids are pints, &c. as through the 

 rest of Ireland. From Ballybofes to the sea, potatoes 

 are generally sold by a measure, which is supposed to 

 weigh about 8 stone, 1 4 Ib. to the stone. Oaten and 

 barley meal is sometimes sold by the peck, which con- 

 tains 28 quarts, and is supposed to weigh 8 stone. 

 Selling oats by measure is abolished. 



Donegal is divided into five baronies, viz. Inishoen, 

 Kilmacrenan, Raphoe, Boylagh and Bannogh, and Tyr- 

 hugh. It contains 42 parishes. Along with the burghs 

 of IJallyshannon, Donegal, Killibegs, Lifford, and St 

 Johnston, it fonnerly returned 12 members to Parlia- 

 ment. But since the union, it sends only two, and both 

 of them are for the county. There are 9000 freeholders. 

 Earl Conyngham and the Marquis of Abercorn have free- 

 holders sufficient, when united, to return the members 

 for tins county : but Lord Donegal possesses an estate, 

 which enables him, with good management, to succeed 

 again-t either of them singly. There is one regiment 

 of militia. 



In this county, which is all in the ecclesiastical pro- 

 vince of Armagh, the diocese of Raphoe, according to Dr 

 Beaufort, has 31 parishes, with 32 churches, comprehend- 

 ing an area of 515,250 Irish acres ; that of Derry has 1 1 

 parishes and 13 churches, with an area of 139,300 Irish 

 acres ; and that of Clogher has one parish and one 

 church, with an area of 25,000 Irish acres. The bishop 

 of Rapluic has a revenue of L. 8000, in the time of 

 Mr Young, author of the Tour in Ireland, it was only 

 L. 2600. The whole of his diocese lies in the county 

 of Donegal. It is 56 English miles long and 40 broad. 

 The chapter is composed of the dean, the archdeacon, 

 and four prebendaries. The see is in the small town 

 of Raphoe, where there i a neat, though not large ca- 

 thedral, and an old but convenient palace. It is near 

 the one extremity of the diocese, and about 50 English 

 miles from the other. The patronage of six parishes is 

 ill the crown ; of fifteen in the bishop ; of seven in the 



t "Diversity of Dublin ; and of three in lay land*. F.arh Donegal 

 pari.-h, on an average, contains al>out 16,179 acres, and I 

 3350 souls. The greatest pro|M>rtion l>y far of Protcx- DordleM< ^- 

 tants in this county arc Presbyterians. The Antiburghcr 

 Seccdcr- have lour congregations here, viz. at Taugh- 

 bone. Ciinione, Hay, and Hathniclton. The Human Ca- 

 tholics are numerous and foinprehend the greatest )>art 

 of the population. The Catholic bishop of Haphoe ha 

 about L. 1000 JHT annum. He is paid by a poundage 

 on the income of his clergy. At Donegal (town) the 

 priests are paid by a hank of yarn ; and tor confession, 

 they receive a peck of oats, or 2s. 2d. in monev, from 

 the head of each family. There are few Catholic cha- 

 pels ; so that the priest and his congregation meet some- 

 times under the shelter of a rock, or any other that they 

 can conveniently find. The only Catholic of great 

 landed property is Lord Southwell, who has a good 

 estate ; and as there is so little property of this kind in 

 the hands of the Catholics, none of them are ever on a 

 grand jury. The militia regiment has not a single Ca- 

 tholic officer. There is a free and friendly intercourse 

 l>etween the Catholic clergy, and the few country gen- 

 tlemen who reside. Great and disgraceful riots, how- 

 ever, have been from time to time excited by mobs of 

 Orangemen, which have given occasion to trial ;. 



The county of Donegal is about 72 English miles xten , 

 long, and 51 broad; and contains 1704 English square puiauon, 

 miles, or 1,091,736 acres. According to Dr Beaufort's &x. 

 estimate, in 1792, there are 23,521 houses, 140,000 in- 

 habitants, 46.656 acres to a house, and about 13.8 souls 

 to a square mile, and nearly six to a house. By the re- 

 turn made to Mr Bushe, (see Memoirs of the Koyal 

 Irish Academy for 1789,) the population of Donegal 

 is stated to be at the rate of 7.35 to a house. The num- 

 ber of houses in 1791, as returned by the inspector-ge- 

 neral of hearth-money, was 24,976', of which 15,395 

 had one hearth, 1225 had two, 282 had three, 97 had 

 four, 55 had five, 24 had six, 14 had seven, 20 had 

 eight, 5 had nine, 6 had ten, 20 had more than ten 

 and less than forty-four, besides 648 which were ex- 

 empted as new, and 7185 as paupers. The population 

 of Donegal is inferior to that of twenty-nine counties of 

 the thirty-two, which Ireland contains. The proportion 

 of Catholics to Protestants is as six to one ; there being 

 116,667 Catholics, and 23,333 Protestants. See Beau- 

 fort's Memoir of a Map of Ireland;' Newenham's View 

 of the Natural, Political, and Commercial circumstances 

 of Ireland; M'Parlan's Survey of Donegal; and Wake- 

 field's Stntisiical and Political Account of Ireland, (r) 

 DOOR. See CIVIL ARCHITECTURE, vol. vi. p. 631. 

 DOR^ENA, a genus of plants of the class Pcntandria, 

 and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, p. 136. 



DORCHESTER, is in the hundred of Uggescombe, 

 in Dorsetshire, of which it is the county town. Its dis- 

 tance from London is very nearly 120 miles south-west. 

 It sends two members to parliament, a privilege which 

 was conferred on it by 23 Edward I. The right of elec- 

 tion is vested in the inhabitants, paying to church and 

 poor, in respect to their personal estates, and also in such 

 as pay to the church and poor, in respect to their real 

 estates, within the borough. The number of the voters 

 is about 400. The government of the town is vested 

 in a mayor, 2 bailiffs, 6 aldermen, 6 capital burgesses, a 

 governor, and 24 common council men. The form of 

 the town is an irregular square, though there is reason 

 to believe, that anciently it made a complete one. It 

 consists principally of three spacious streets, which 

 unite nearly about the middle. They are well paved 

 and lighted, and kept remarkably clean ; but in this, as 



