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and valued at £5466 per annum. The surface is very
uneven, and the substratum is entirely clay-slate. Agri-
culture is gradually improving under the spirited ex-
ample of St. John Jefferyes, Esq., but the old heavy
wooden plough is still in use in many parts, particularly
towards the mountains. Here are more than 400 acres
of bog, and 600 of barren mountain. Here is a woollen
factory, which was built in 1806, and is worked by
a mountain stream. Grenagh is the residence of H.
Low, Esq. It is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of
Cloyne, forming part of the union of Garrycloyne: the
tithes amount to £1050; there is a glebe of 15 acres.
In the R. C. divisions it is part of the union or district of
Mourne, or Ballinamona, and has a large plain chapel at
South Grenagh. The parochial schools are supported
by the rector, and there are three private schools, at
which about 240 children attend during the summer.
At Dawestown is an extraordinary flowering lime tree,
with 16 very large and wide-spreading branches. The
gables and side walls of the church are nearly entire;
and there are remains of druidical altars at Lyradan,
Knockantoha, and Glauncoum, and several forts and
raths.
GREY-ABBEY, a post-town and parish, in the
barony of Ardes, county of Down, and province of
Ulster, 6 miles (S. E.) from Newtownards (to which it
has a sub-post-office), and 95 (N. N. E.) from Dublin, on
the road from Newtownards to Portaferry; containing
3700 inhabitants. This place derives its name from a
monastery founded here in 1192, by Afric, wife of John
de Courcy, and daughter of Godred, King of Man, in
honour of the Blessed Virgin, for monks of the Cister-
tian order, who were brought hither from the Abbey of
Holme-Cultram, in Cumberland. The establishment
continued to flourish till the dissolution, and had ample
possessions in Great and Little Ardes. Towards the
close of the reign of Elizabeth it was nearly destroyed,
in the rebellion raised by Tyrone; and in the 3rd of
Jas. I. the site and precincts, together with all its pos-
sessions, were granted to Sir James Hamilton. The
village is pleasantly situated on Lough Strangford, and
on the road from Portaferry to Belfast; and the neigh-
bourhood is embellished with some elegant seats and
beautiful scenery. Mount Stewart, the splendid resi-
dence of the Marquess of Londonderry, is a spacious
mansion, situated in an extensive demesne richly
wooded and pleasingly diversified with water. On
the summit of an eminence in the grounds is an
elegant building, a model of the Temple of the Winds
at Athens, erected under the personal superintendence
of J. Stewart, Esq., whose skill and taste in Grecian
architecture have procured for him the appellation of
the Athenian Stewart; it is built of stone from the
quarries of Scrabo, and the floors, which are of bog fir
found in the peat moss on the estate, are, for beauty of
material and elegance of design, unequalled by any
thing of the kind in the country; nearly adjoining the
village is Rosemount, the residence of Mrs. Montgo-
mery. According to the Ordnance survey the parish,
with some small islands in Strangford Lough, com-
prises 7689 statute acres, nearly equally divided be-
tween tillage and pasture, the land on the shore being
good, but in the interior boggy and rocky; very little
improvement has been made in agriculture. Excellent
slate is found in the townland of Tullycaven, but the
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GRO
quarry is not judiciously worked. There is a very
extensive bog, which supplies the inhabitants with
abundance of fuel, and beneath the surface are found
large oak and fir trees lying horizontally at a depth of
15 and 20 feet; the fir is in a fine state of preservation,
exceedingly hard, and susceptible of a very high polish.
A great quantity of calico and muslin is woven here
by the peasantry at their own dwellings, and many of
the females are employed in tambour-work. It is a
perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Down, and in the
patronage of W. Montgomery, Esq., in whom the rectory
is impropriate: the tithes are included in the rent, and
the perpetual curate’s stipend amounts to £96. 19. 10½.,
of which £13. 16. 11. is paid by the impropriator,
£9. 4.7½. by the Marquess of Londonderry, £4. 12. 4.
by A. Auchinleck, Esq., and £69. 6. by the Ecclesiasti-
cal Commissioners out of Primate Boulter’s fund. The
church is a small neat building, erected in 1778, and
contains some handsome monuments of the Montgomery
family. Here is a place of worship for Presbyterians in
connection with the Synod of Ulster, of the third, class.
There is a school on Erasmus Smith’s foundation, for
which the school-house was built by the late Marchioness
of Londonderry, and 60 of the children are supported and
clothed by the present Marchioness; and a male, female,
and an infants’ school, to which Mrs. Montgomery an-
nually contributes £6, £12, and £6 respectively. In
these and six other schools about 460 children are edu-
cated. The remains of the abbey are beautiful and
picturesque; the eastern gable is nearly entire; and
contains five lancet-shaped windows, of which the stone
work is quite perfect; there are also a window of the
same character on the north and south sides of the choir;
the nave, which till 1778 was used as the parish church,
is tolerably entire, and is now the mausoleum of the
family. There are the remains of several ancient monu-
ments, and within the choir are two recumbent effigies,
said to be those of John de Courcy and his wife,
finely carved in freestone. There are also several other
walls remaining, serving to give an idea of the former
extent of the buildings, which appear to have been in
the purest style of early English architecture. A very
large tumulus was opened in 1825, by Dr. Stephen son,
and found to contain 17 stone coffins, formed by placing
together several flag-stones on edge, and covering them
with one large stone; one of these in the centre was
larger than the rest, and in each of them was found an
urn of baked clay, containing granular earth of a dark
colour.
GREY STONES.—See DELGANY.
GROGAN, a village, in the parish of Lemanaghan,
barony of Garrycastle, King’s county, and province
of Leinster, 4½ miles (N. W.) from Clara, on the road
to Farbane; containing 52 houses and 298 inhabit-
ants.
GROOMSPORT, a village, in the parish of Bangor,
barony of Ardes, county of Down, and province of
Ulster, 1½ mile (N. E. by E.) from, the sea-port town of
Bangor, on the coast road to Donaghadee; containing
408 inhabitants. It is situated on the south side of
Belfast Lough, and has a harbour for small craft chiefly
engaged in fishing. Here is a station of the coast-
guard, forming part of the district of Donaghadee. On
the 13th of August, 1689, the advanced army of Wm.
III., consisting of about 10,000 troops under the com-