477 
Cavan, which skirts them both on the south-west, succeeds them 
after one interval in the average scale ; and its distribution was at the 
same period numerically similar, though under a different name. Its 
first division was the ballybet, identical with the ballybetagh of other 
parts; of this the proximate species was the poll or pole, sixteen of 
which constituted the ballybet. ach poll contained 2 gallons, each gal- 
lon, 2 pottles, descending even to a subdivision called pints. In most 
cases these fractional parts had peculiar names, some few of which may 
now exist in the townland nomenclature of the county ; but the poll was 
practically the prevailing denomination, and to it, as the sixteenth, in- 
stead of the twelfth of a ballybetagh, we owe the numerical excess of 
townlands in this district. 
In Down, on the other hand, the prevailing denomination was the 
ballyboe or ‘‘ cow-land’’ sometimes called the carewe, from the Latin ca- 
rucata, or plowland, which in the Bagenal Patent was estimated at three- 
score acres. Three of these formed the quarterland, and twelve the 
ballybetagh. Sometimes a smaller division was in use, called the ses- 
siagh.* Thus O’Lavery’s territory, comprising a principal part of the 
parishes of Magheralin and Moira, in this county, was found by inquisi- 
tion to contain 13 sessiaghs. 
In Antrim, the townland, latinized villa and villata, was the pre- 
vailing denomination at the commencement of the seventeenth century. 
The higher division was, as in Down, the quarterland, that is, the con- 
ventional quarter of the ancient ballybetagh. Here, as elsewhere, the 
original name of the quarterland was often lost, while the specific ones 
were retained ; or the generic name was given in exchange to a principal 
component part.t Thus it often happened that out of a quarterland, with 
its four specific portions, each having its own boundaries and peculiar 
name, have grown five denominations of the same order. In Antrim we 
have still the traditional aggregation in the ‘‘four towns” of Carn- 
graney, of Ahoghill, of Duneane, of Drummaul, of Ballyclug, of Inver, 
&c.; the ‘eight towns’ of Muckamore (now increased by subdivision, 
on the Ordnance Map to ten), the ‘‘eight’”’ of Glynn; the ‘‘twelve towns” 
of Balleny; the ‘‘sixteen towns’ of Connor’; and the ‘‘sixteen towns’ of 
Antrim, now increased to twenty-seven. On the other hand, what were 
formerly the “four towns’ of Cranfield, in Upper Toome, have lost their 
severalty,{ and now form the single townland of Cranfield, of 834 acres, 
* Sessiagh is a different word from seisreach, but seems to convey the idea of sixth, 
though in reference to what standard it is difficult to say. As a measure it prevailed in 
Donegal, Tyrone, Armagh, and was considered the third of a ballyboe or plowland. As 
a townland name it occurs simply or in composition twenty-one times, and the average 
contents are 170 acres. In a stanza cited by the Four Masters, at 1031, we find the term 
Seisedhach in the sense of a ‘ measure. —Ed. O’Donovan, p. 823. 
+ Thus, in Mayo, Criathrach was a generic tract containing three bailes, or 1440 Irish 
acres, while the modern townland Creragh, which represents it, consists of but 141 acres. 
See Dr. O’Donovan’s judicious observations in his note on the Tribes and Customs of 
Hy Fiachrach, pp. 203, 204, 453. a 
+ The names of the four sub-denominations are locally preserved. See Ecclesiastical 
Antiquities of Down and Connor, p. 87. 
