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never have his eyes opened to, nor observe one solitary vision 

 of the greatness, the grandeur, and the minuteness of the 

 wonders and beauties of creation, so the historical student who 

 does not know and cannot read the facts and fancies concen- 

 trated in our ancient names is, as it were, talking in a language 

 he does not understand, and using names that are mere sounds 

 expressing nothing, and bear no relation to the story that has 

 passed away. 



Our counties and baronies, though connected with ancient 

 chieftainships, are of Norman origin, the earliest dating from 

 the commencement of the 13th century. The parishes are 

 entirely ecclesiastical and have matured from the 12th century, 

 whilst the townlands, the smallest territorial denomination, 

 may be considered the most ancient, as they designate the 

 earliest description of the smaller tracts of land and can be 

 traced back till the 8th century. It has been calculated that 

 there are 66,700 townlands in Ireland, each averaging 330 

 acres, and as most of these bear ancient names, we can conjec- 

 ture what an enormous amount of historical information must 

 be there stored up. 



Bishop Reeves tells us : — In Down the prevailing denomina 

 tion was the Ballyboe, or cow-land, which was estimated at three 

 score acres, being the amount of land that could be ploughed 

 with one plough in a year and a day. Three Ballyboe formed 

 a quarterland, and twelve the Ballybetagh. Now, this word 

 Ballybetagh has a curious history. In ancient times an Irish 

 chieftain usually established within his territory a sort of public 

 hostelry, over which he placed an officer, called a biadhtach 

 (betagh) or food man (from biadh, food). This biadhtach was 

 given a tract of land, equal to twelve ballyboe, rent free on 

 condition that he should supply food and lodging without 

 charge to travellers and to the chief's soldiers whenever they 

 happened to march in that direction. The quarterland was, of 

 course, the quarter of a ballybetagh, and in Antrim we still 

 have the " four towns " of Bally nabarnish, Kilgreel, Craiga- 

 rogan, and Moylusk, which are held by a landlord separately 

 from the adjoining land. We have also the eight towns of 



