ARMAGNAC. 



ARMENIA. 



60S 



institutions, and a good public library. A brewery and several 

 tanneries and flour mills are in or near the town. Two distilleries, 

 which were some years ago in operation, are not now worked. The 

 general market is on Tuesday ; markets for grain are held on Wednes- 

 day and Saturday. The town is lighted with gas. 



The origin of Armagh is entirely ecclesiastical and scholastic. 

 Between the 5th and 9th centuries it was a celebrated school of 

 divinity and letters. So great was the concourse of students from 

 England that one quarter of the city was called ' Trian-Sassanagh,' or 

 the Saxon division ; the name of which is still preserved in the modern 

 English-street. From the middle of the 9th to the beginning of the 

 llth century it was exposed to frequent ravages by the Danes. After 

 the English invasion it remained with scarce any interruption in the 

 hands of the native Irish until the Reformation ; after which it was 

 the theatre of repeated conflicts, and was several times burned and 

 pillaged by the contending English and native Irish armies, until the 

 submission of the Earl of Tyrone in 1602, and the subsequent attainder 

 \~eill and O'Donnell led to the final plantation of Ulster in 1608. 

 With the exception of the cathedral there is now no part of the 

 ancient city remaining. The archiepiscopal palace, a large mansion in 

 i taste, with a chapel in the Ionic style ; the public library, 

 containing 14,000 volumes ; the observatory, to which the successive 

 directors have secured a European reputation ; the assembly rooms, 

 and the college, were all erected by Primate Robinson, to whom the 

 city also owes many other local improvements. At the time of this 

 prelate's promotion to the see in 1765 there were but three slated 

 houses in Armagh, and the cathedral was roofed with shingle. The 

 principal business of the city is the retail of goods to the surrounding 

 district. Armagh was until lately the head-quarters of the northern 

 military district of Ireland ; and the presence of numerous military 

 officers and churchmen of rank, made it a rather fashionable place of 

 residence. The military head-quarters are now removed to Belfast. 



The Archbishop of Armagh is Primate and Metropolitan of all 

 Ireland. His ecclesiastical province includes the following dioceses : 

 Armagh and Clogher; Meath ; Tuam, Rillala, and Achonry; Deny 

 and Raphoe; Down, Connor, and Dromore; and Kilmore, Elphin, 

 and Ardagh. The dioceses of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh, formerly in 

 the province of Armagh, are now united to Killaloe, in the province 

 of Dublin. The diocese of Armagh coniprises 103 benefices, including 

 nearly all in Armagh and Louth, and a third in Tyrone. The chapter 

 consists of a dean, archdeacon, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, four 

 prebendaries, and two vicars choral. The income of the archbishop 

 is fixed at 12,087f. 



(Stuart's Historical Memoirt of the City of Armagh; Original 

 Communication*.) 



ARMAGNAC, a division of the old province or government of 

 Gascogne in France, was bounded N. by Agenois and Condomois, E. 

 by Languedoc (from which it was in part separated by the Garonne) 

 and Lower Comminges, S. by Bigorre and Comminges, and W. by 

 Marsan, Chalosse, and B<5arn. It seems at one time to have extended 

 southward even to the Pyrenees, as the districts called Les Quatre 

 V allies were included in it. Arinagnac was governed from the 10th 

 to the 1 5th century by sovereign counts, some of whom are notorious 

 in the history of France. John the last count incurred general odium 

 by his crimes, and rendered himself obnoxious to Louis XI. of France 

 by his political conduct. Besieged in 1472-3 in Lectoure, of which he 

 had gut possession, he was himself killed and the town taken. The 

 county was confiscated, and though it was subsequently re-established 

 by Francis I. it reverted to the crown by inheritance on the accession 

 of Henri IV. It was again re-established in 1645 during the minority 

 of Louis XIV. in favour of Henry of Lorraine, Count of Harcourt, 

 and his heirs. 



Armagnac was divided into Haut-Armagnac, which is now partly 

 included in the department of Hautes-PyrtSndes, and Bas-Armagnac, 

 which with a part of the preceding division is now comprehended in 

 the department of Gers. The chief town was Auch. The territory 

 of Armagnac is very fertile in corn, fruits, and wine, from which 

 excellent brandy is manufactured. [GERS.] 



ARMENIA, a country of Western Asia, belonging chiefly to 

 Turkey, but partly also to Russia and Persia. It formed in ancient 

 times a powerful kingdom, the limits of which undefined by any 

 ].. niiiin. lit natural features were subject to many changes in the 

 course of its history. Although the term is now a mere geographical 

 expression and of no very certain import, for our knowledge of the 

 country is in many respects but scanty, it may serve as a heading to 

 introduce a notice of this part of Asia to which one of the most 

 widely-diffused traditions among mankind points as the cradle of the 

 human race ; and whoever reflects upon the great physical features of 

 the country and its peculiar geographical position, must confess that 

 a spot more fitted for roaring a vigorous primal stock, and at the 

 same time affording greater facilities for the rapid dispersion of man- 

 kind, could not be pointed out on the surface of the earth. Its high 

 but fertile plains yielding abundance of corn of the finest quality ; its 

 pastures on plain and mountain sustaining fine breeds of horses and 

 kine ; its valleys in which the grape, the apple, and other common 

 fruits seem to be of indigenous growth ; ami iu cold but healthy 

 climate attest the first part of our assertion. For proof of the 

 I, one needs but to unfold the map and sec to the northward 



routes along the Euxine and the Caspian, leading respectively to 

 Eastern and Central Europe on the one side and to Central and Upper 

 Asia on the other ; to the southward the plains of Mesopotamia and 

 Northern Syria, one sloping towards the Persian Gulf, the other 

 leading to the Levant and Egypt ; on the east high plateaus and 

 mountain passes sloping down into the vast table-land of Iran ; and 

 on the west the wide plains of Asia Minor opened out a ready way for 

 the moving tribes to the shore of the island-studded ^Ego;an, inviting 

 the exertion of their infant skill in navigation, and wooing them to 

 Greece and southern Europe. 



Boundaries. When taken in the widest sense, Armenia may be said 

 to embrace the country from lake Urmia or Urumiyeh and the 

 junction of the Kur and Araxes in the east, to the upper course of 

 the Kizil Irmak in the west ; and from the upper course of the rivers 

 Choruk and Kur in the north, to the Taurus Mountains in the direc- 

 tion of Bir, Mardin, and Nisibis in the south. It thus included the 

 source and the basin of the Upper Euphrates within its limits the 

 portion west of that river being called Armenia Minor, and the portion 

 east of it to the Caspian Armenia Major. 



The Armenia of Herodotus (v. 52) bordered on the west on Cilicia, 

 from which country it was separated by the Euphrates ; towards the 

 north it included the sources of the Euphrates (i. 180) ; towards the 

 south and east its limits are not distinctly defined ; probably Mount 

 Masius separated it from Mesopotamia, and Mount Ararat from the 

 country of the Saspires, who occupied the valley traversed by the 

 Araxes. 



The Armenia of Strabo (xi. 14) is limited on the south by Mesopo- 

 tamia and the Taurus, and on the east by Great Media and Atropatene ; 

 on the north by the Iberes and Albaui, and by the Parachoathras and 

 Caucasus mountains ; on the west by the Tibareni, the Paryadres and 

 Skydises mountains, as far as the Lesser Armenia and the country 

 on the Euphrates which separated Armenia from Cappadocia and 

 Commagdne. 



In the Hebrew Scriptures the name Armenia does not occur, but 

 the country so designated is termed Togarmah in Gen. x. 3, 1 Chron. 

 i. 6, and Ezek. xxvii. 14, xxxviii. 6. Ararat, mentioned in Gen. viii. 4, 

 2 Kings xix. 27, Isa. xxxvii. 38, and Jer. li. 27, and Minni, Jer. li. 27, 

 refer to particular districts or kingdoms in Armenia. 



Armenia Minor is now included in the pashaliks of Marash and 

 Sivas, which form part of Asia Minor. By the term Armenia the 

 country anciently called Armenia Major is generally meant, and of 

 this the present article treats. 



The country under consideration then extends eastward from the 

 Euphrates to -the Araxes and the mountains of Kurdistan which run 

 southward from the neighbourhood of Mount Ararat, inclosing Lake 

 Van and holding Lake Urumiyeh upon their eastern slope. The 

 western boundary north of the junction of the Kara-Su and the Murod 

 which form the Euphrates is not naturally defined. An offset of the 

 Antitaurus that bounds the basin of the Kara-Su on the west, the 

 Gaur-Dagh, and the Almali-Dagh which connects the Antitaurus with 

 the mountains of Lazistan on the coast of the Black Sea, seem to form 

 the natural boundary in this direction ; but part of the country thus 

 included has been already assumed to belong to Asia Minor. 

 [ANATOLIA.] On the south Armenia included the northern part of 

 the basin of the Tigris, certainly to the Buhtan, the ancient Kentrites 

 which Xenophon ( Anab." iv. 3) says divided it from the country of 

 the Karduchians. The extreme northern boundary is the Perengah- 

 Dagh, a projection from the Caucasus which separates the basin of 

 Phasis from the basins of the Kur and the Choruk, and divides in 

 this part the Russian and Turkish empires. That portion of Armenia 

 which lies east of the Araxes, the Arpa, and the highlands that run 

 due north in a line with the Arpa to the Perengah-Dagh, is now 

 included in the Transcaucasian provinces of Russia, and is noticed 

 under GEORGIA. A portion of the country is also comprised in the 

 Persian province of Azerbijan. In the present article then we have 

 to extend our view over a high central table-laud resting on mountain 

 terraces, supported by extensions of the Taurus and Antitaurus ; 

 over a mountainous country north of this, which is included in the 

 basin of the Black Sea, and finally over the basin of the Upper Tigris. 



The Black Sea Slope. The Turkish pashalik of Trebizond, which 

 extends along the Black Sea between the mouths of the Yeshil and 

 Choruk, and is separated in the interior by those rivers from the 

 pashaliks of Sivas, Erz-rum, and Kars, belongs partly to Asia Minor ; 

 the eastern part of it from Trebizond to the Russian frontier, at the 

 mouth of the Shef katil-Su east of Batum, is included in Armenia. 

 Trebizond, an important city from the earliest times, will be noticed 

 separately ; in connection with the present article it may be mentioned 

 that in Roman times and more especially in the middle ages this city 

 formed a conterminous mart for the commerce of the east and west. 

 The Genoese who brought the productions of the east to Europe for 

 a long period previous to their expulsion from the Krimea in the 

 middle of the 15th century, constructed a line of fortified stations 

 distant from each other about a day's journey, between Trebizond 

 and Bayazid. These fortifications were strongly built in commanding 

 positions, and served as resting-places for the caravans and quarters 

 for the guards which had to escort them from one station to another. 

 Biiibut and Erz-rum were two of the strongholds on this route, and 

 some others will be mentioned in the course of the present article. 



