913 



ENNISTYMON. 



ENS. 



914 



buildings of the town and its defences, with the suburbs on each side. 

 The extended boundary of the borough includes the island and the 

 two suburbs which are situated north-east and south-west of the island, 

 in the parishes of Enniskillen and Rossory respectively. The country 

 around swells into highly cultivated eminences; and numerous 

 mansions occupy the shores of the lake above and below the town. 

 Prom its position, commanding the only pass into Ulster within a 

 distance of 50 Irish miles, Enniskillen is a place of considerable military 

 importance. 



The town contains a handsome church, chapels for Roman 

 Catholics, Presbyterians, and Wesleyan Methodists, infantry and artil- 

 lery barracks, a new market-house, a jail, court-house, and hospital. 

 A small fort is situated at each end of the town ; and the royal school, 

 founded by Charles I., which occupies, a conspicuous place, is one of 

 the most richly endowed in Ireland. The manufacture of linen, a 

 small factory for cutlery, two distilleries, a brewery, and a tannery, 

 afford employment. Many of the females are employed in straw- 

 plaiting. Timber, coal, and other commodities, are imported by 

 barges from Belleek, at the western end of Lough Erne. A brisk 

 retail trade is carried on. Fairs are held in May, August, and 

 November. 



Enniskillen was altogether the work of the Protestant settlers intro- 

 duced into Ulster by the new patentees. [FERMANAGH.] It was 

 erected into a corporation in 1612 ; but had increased so far as to 

 cover the greater part of the island in 1641, when, through the 

 exertions of Sir William Cole, it proved a most important asylum 

 for the Protestants on that border of Ulster. Throughout the war of 

 the HI- volution the local levies of Enniskillen and its neighbour- 

 hood <lid excellent service to the cause of the Prince of Orange; 

 their exploits have been recorded in Hamilton's ' Actions of the 

 Enniskiliencrs.' 



(Fraser, Handbook of Inland ; Thorn, Irih Almanac.) 



KXXISTYMON, county Clare, Ireland, in the parish of Kilma- 

 naheen, a small market-town, and the seat of a Poor-Law ;Union, is 

 situated in 52" 55' N. lat., 9 20' W. long., distant 12 miles W. by N. 

 from Ennis, and 104 miles W.S.W. from Dublin. The population of 

 the town in 1851 was 1729, exclusive of 1070 inmates of the work- 

 house and 1 2 in the bridewell. Ennistymon Poor-Law Union comprises 

 20 electoral divisions, with an area of 99,281 acres, and a population 

 in 1851 of 31,612. This little town is delightfully situated on the 

 river Ennistymon, and surrounded by a low range of picturesque hills. 

 The river falling over some ledges of rock forms a rapid of great 

 beauty. The town, which has very little trade, contains a church, a 

 Roman Catholic chapel, the district bridewell, and a Union workhouse. 

 In the vicinity are the ruins of Glen Castle, which formerly belonged 

 to the O'Briens ; there are also several large and handsome mansions. 

 Six fairs are held in the course of the year. 



EXOS. [ADHIAIfOPLE.] 



ENS, the Provinces of the, constitute the archduchy of Austria, 

 which, with Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Gbrz, Trieste, part of Istria, 

 the Tyrol, and Voralberg, form what are denominated the hereditary 

 dominions of the house of Austria. The archduchy is divided into 

 the two provinces of the Lower and Upper Ens, commonly called 

 Lower and Upper Austria, and has (exclusive of the duchy of Salzburg, 

 which until 1849 was included in the archduchy) an area of about 

 12,298 English square miles, and 2,244,363 inhabitants. Lower 

 Austria is the most ancient possession of the house of Austria, and 

 was acquired by conquest from the Avari in the year 796. Charle- 

 magne, who subjected it, formed it into a margraviate ; it became a 

 Bavarian fief, and so continued until Count Leopold of Babenberg 

 was recognised as its independent possessor in 944. It continued in 

 the possession of the princes of Babenberg, who added Upper Austria 

 to it and raised the whole into a duchy, until Ottokar, king of 

 Bohemia, expelled them in the middle of the 13th century. In 1276 

 however Rudolph of Hapsburgh wrested the duchy out of his hands, 

 and his descendants have remained in possession of it to the present 

 day. They assumed the title of archdukes in 1359, but were not 

 recognised as such until the year 1453. 



The province of the Lmcer Em, or Lower A ustria, lies nearly in the 

 centre of the Austrian dominions, on both sides of the Danub3, 

 between 47' 26' and 49 1' N. lat, 14 26' and 17 1' E. long. It is the 

 eastern portion of the archduchy, and it is bounded N. by Bohemia 

 and Moravia, E. by Hungary, S. by Styria, and W. by Upper Austria. 

 The area is 7674 square miles ; the population in 1850 was 1,538,047. 



Surface. The Lower Ens is walled in both on the north and south 

 by ranges of mountains. A branch of the Noric Alps, of limestone 

 formation, not only occupies its southern districts, but spreads its 

 branches over the whole country south of the Danube, with the 

 exception of the most eastern parts. Its most elevated points are the 

 Schneeberg, in the south-west of the Lower Wienerwald, which has 

 two peaks, the Alpengipfel (Alpine peak), 7383 feat, and the Grosser 

 Riese (Great Giant), 7331 feet high. A series of wooded heights, 

 denominated the Wiener Wald (Vienna Forest), separates the Upper 

 from the Lower Circles of the Wienerwald, and runs from south-west 

 to north-east. On the left bank of the Danube, and throughout the 

 western and nearly the whole of the eastern districts of the northerly 

 portion n' the Lower Ens, the Bohemian and Moravian chains of the 

 great Sudetsch range [AuaTRlA, vol i. col. 715] extend their last offsets 



OJKXI. DIV. VOL. II. 



in all directions until they subside in the valley of the Danube. A 

 succession of these heights, called the Mannhart group, running from 

 north to south, divides the Upper from the Lower Mannhart circles, 

 and gives their name to them. The most elevated point in this 

 quarter is the Yauerliug, close to that river, in the south of the 

 Upper Manuhartsberg circle, which is 3330 feet high. In the northern 

 and eastern parts of the Lower Manuhartsberg circle the ranges of 

 hills are of inferior height. The Cetian Mountains on the right bank 

 of the Danube are connnected with the Xoric Alps. Many of these 

 chains are densely wooded; others are entirely naked. The most 

 extensive forests are the Wiener (Vienna), Ernstbruun, Hochleiten, 

 and Mannhart ; the line of the first of these divides the Lower from 

 the Upper Wienerwald circle. It is estimated that the area occupied 

 by the mountains of the Lower Ens is at least one-third of its whole 

 surface; they are furrowed by numberless valleys, which give the 

 province a beautifully varied and picturesque appearance. 



The mines of the Lower Ens are not of any great importance. 

 The Annaberg no longer yields silver. There are iron-mines at 

 Reichenau, Piitten, Schottwien, Erdwuis, Weitra, and other spots, 

 but the quantity raised is t>ut inconsiderable. There are numerous 

 quarries of marble, freestone, &c., particularly in the south ; gypsum 

 and calcareous rocks, from which much lime is made, are abundant ; 

 mill-stones, granite, slate, alum, potter's clay, quartz for making glass 

 and china, and porphyry are among the other mineral products. Coals 

 are raised in the south and in some other parts. 



Hydrography and Communications. The fine valley of the Danube 

 spreads out on both banks of the river in a continuous level from 

 Korneuburg as far as Krems, and the greater part of the streams 

 which water the Lower Ens discharge themselves into that river. 

 The Danube itself traverses the province from west to east for about 

 156 miles, entering it a little to the north-east of Neustiidtel, and 

 quitting it between Hamburg and Theben, which latter town is within 

 the Hungarian borders. Between these towns it has a fall of more 

 than 510 feet (450 Vienna feet), and its current is accordingly so rapid 

 that it flows beneath St. Sophia's bridge, in Vienna, at the rate of nine 

 feet per second. Its breadth across the island of Lobau, close to 

 Vieun;i, is 3050 Vienna fathoms (18,986 English feet) : but in some 

 parts, particularly below Marbach and at Thalern below Krems, its 

 channel is so narrowed by the high lands that it rushes forward with 

 a violence which in former times rendered the navigation extremely 

 perilous. The tributaries of the Danube, so far as the Lower Ens is 

 concerned, are of no great length or volume of water. On the right 

 bank are the Ens, Ips, Erlaf, Billach, Trasen or Traisen, Schwechat, 

 Great Fischa, and Leitha, all of which flow from the Alpine Moun- 

 tains in the southerly districts of the Lower Ens, and are remarkable 

 for the green colour of their waters ; the Great Fischa has also the 

 peculiar characteristics of seldom varying in the body of its water 

 and never freezing. The Danube on its left bank receives the Krems, 

 which irrigates the south of the Upper Mannhartsberg circle, flowing 

 through the beautiful valley of the Krems, anciently called the 

 'Vallis Aurea,' or Golden Valley, and falling into the Danube at 

 Krems ; the March, which next to the Danube is the largest river in 

 the Lower Ens, and which, entering the province from Moravia, forms 

 its boundary on the side of Hungary for about 48 miles, and is navi- 

 gable to its mouth, where its breadth is about 1420 feet ; and the 

 Kamp. [AUSTRIA, vol. i. col. 719.] The only streams which are not 

 tributary to the Danube are some rivulets which, like the Salza and 

 the Miirz, flow down from the Alpine heights in the south of the 

 province and join the Murz; and the Lainsitziu the north-west, whe-.e 

 it takes the name of the Braunau at Gmund and of the Schwarzbach 

 at Schwarzbach, under which designation it ultimately falls into the 

 Moldau, a tributary of the Elbe. 



Independently of the Donau Canal (Canal of the Danube), near 

 Vienna, which is merely an enlarged arm of the Danube, the only 

 canal in the Lower Ens is the Vienna or Neustadt Canal, which opens 

 out from the preceding and terminates at Wiener-Neustadt, about 

 34 milec S. from the capital. 



There are some large natural sheets of water, but none deserving 

 of the name of lakes ; the largest is the Erlaf, or Zeller-see, which is 

 about 4998 feet long, 1890 broad, and from 620 to 630 feet deep. 

 Near the Mitter-see there is a beautiful waterfall 200 foet high, and 

 close to it is a spot called the Brullender Stier (Roaring Bull), where 

 the roar of a subterranean cascade is heard. 



The mineral waters of Baden, 19 miles S.W. from Vienna, are in 

 considerable repute ; those of Medling, Deutschaltenburg, Heiligen- 

 stall, and Db'bling are also used. 



The railways in Lower Austria are a portion of the Northern 

 States ; the Vienna and Glognitz ; a portion of the Vienna and 

 Presburg ; and the Vienna and Stockerau ; all of which are noticed 

 under AUSTRIA, col. 723. 



Climate, Soil, Productions. The varied character of the surface 

 occasions considerable difference of climate. The mountainous nature 

 of the north-western and southern parts of the province renders the 

 temperature colder than it is in the lowlands about the Danube and 

 in the eastern districts. The average annual temperature in Vienna 

 is about 51 Fahr. : the summer heat is between 77 and 83, and the 

 maximum heat does not exceed 97 ; tho winter cold varies between 

 10 and 12 below the frce/,iug point, and has never been greater 



