4 STATISTICAL SURVEY 



the befl parts of the county. This difference mufl 

 have arifen from the more early fettlement and con- 

 fequent cultivation of Lecale. Its fituation, difficult 

 of accefs, when' ; once poffeffed by the Englifh, mufl: 

 have given a degree of fecurity to the perfons and 

 properties of the inhabitants, which they feenfcto have 

 enjoyed fooner than the reft of the county, it having 

 been finally fettled about the middle of the fixteenth 

 century , but long before that time, in the beginning 

 of the twelfth century, a number of Englifh gentlemen 

 under Sir John de Courcy were planted there. Ano- 

 ther circumftance muft have contributed to give this 

 barony a fuperiority over the reft of the county at 'a 

 very early period ; great part of it was portioned out 

 in the different monaftic eftablifhments, which were 

 certainly attended with this benefit, a more improved 

 cultivation, not only from the fuperior knowledge of 

 the ecclefiafti^Sj but from their mode of life, which 

 was in general exempted from the interruptions, to 

 which other proprietors were fubje& ; and thofe, who 

 lived under them, were better protectell by the prevail- 

 ing religious tenets of thofe times. To fay that the 

 ecclefiaftics poffefled more knowledge at that time 

 than the reft of mankind, is not faying too much for 

 them. 



The ecclefiaftical divifion is into the two bifhoprics 

 of Dromore and Down ; the firft occupies the weftern 

 part of the county, and contains in it twenty-one 



parifhes; 



