475 
mountain, which did not enter into the agricultural calculation. The 
sheshragh or plowland was ascertained by estimation, not measurement; 
and thus we can account for the great discrepancy between the esti- 
mated contents ofa townland two centuries and a half ago and the pre- 
sent result of actual survey. I give an example from the county of 
Antrim. The parish of Ballyclug has three townlands, called the Cross, 
Crebilly, and Caherty. Of these, the first was returned in an inquisition 
of 1640, as containing 120 acres; now it measures 1529 acres, or more 
than twelve times the early amount. Crebilly was reckoned at 90; 
now it is 800. Caherty was 120; now it is 946. 
To the tricha-ced, or cantred,* as it is sometimes rendered, we 
have now no corresponding division. It is sometimes, but incorrectly, 
identified with the barony, because occupying the second place in the 
seale ; the fact that there are 325 baronies, according to the present ar- 
rangement, or 271 undivided, while the tricha-céds amounted but to 
185, proves that they were different in their constitution. The bally- 
betagh is still more destitute of a modern equivalent,+ except in some 
few cases where groups of twelve townlands under a generic title still 
constitute distinct properties. In fact, the seisreach, which is derived 
from setsear, “ six,’’ and each, “horse,” and is understood to denote the 
extent of ground a six-horse plough would turn up in a year at so much 
per day,{ is the division best represented in our present allotment. The 
number of seisreachs, or plowlands in Ireland, is stated to be 66,600; 
and it is a remarkable approximation to that sum, especially in such 
high figures, when the number of townlands as now defined, named, and 
laid down on the Ordnance Survey, is found to amount to 62,205. In 
the former case, the average acreable extent of the plowland would be 
304°8, while in the latter it is about 326°4.§ But, in detail, the town- 
lands exhibit great variety as to their contents. For example, Sheskin, 
in the parish of Kilecommon, barony of Erris, and county of Mayo, |j 
* Giraldus Cambrensis, when stating that the Isle of Man consisted of 343 ville, or 
three cantreds, asserts that ‘‘ Cantredus composito vocabulo tam Britannica quam Hiber- 
nica lingua, tanta terre portio quanta 100 villas continere solet.”—Itinerar. Cambr. ii. 7, 
(p. 867, ed Camden). Again, speaking of Wales as comprehended in 54 cantreds, he 
observes: ‘‘ Cantredus id est cantref, a Cant, quod centum, et Tref, villa, composito yo- 
cabulo tam Britannica quam Hibernica lingua.”—Cambrie Descript. c. 4 (p. 884, ib.) 
According to this the Irish compound would be ced-trebh. In another place (Top. Hib. 
iii. 5) Giraldus Cambrensis states the cantaredi of all Ireland to be 176 (p. 737, ib.) We 
meet with the term very often in the Irish rolls of King John. 
+ The nearest approach to the estimated size of an ancient ballybetagh would be half 
an average parish. There are on the Ordnance Map 2422 several parishes laid down. 
In Ware’s time they were in number 2293. 
}{ O’Flaherty makes the seisreach the same as the ceathramhadh, or ‘‘ quarter,” and 
latinizes it “‘ sesquiquadriga.” Ogyg. p. 24. 
§ Ina very valuable paper, by Sir Thomas Larcom, prefixed to the Irish Relief 
Correspondence, in the Board of Works’ Series (London, 1847), the number of townlands 
is stated at 66,700, and 330 the average amount of acres in each. It would seem that the 
learned compiler borrowed the old Irish computation of plowlands rather than computed the 
modern townlands, as there is only one hundred difference between his total and the old one. 
|| Ordnance Survey, Mayo, sheet 19. 
