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The books of reference appear to have been complete, and properly vouched; and the maps to have consisted of parishes surveyed, in outline, by townlands, condensed into barony maps, and these again into a county map. They do not appear to have contained any topographical information of a general nature, but to have shown the situation and quantity of arable, pasture, and meadow, while they are, nevertheless, stated to have been deficient in information as to the relative value which different parts of the wholly waste or unprofitable, bore to the good and profitable land. This latter objection may be thought somewhat hypercritical. It required, in fact, the word "improvable."
In regard to the names of baronies, in page 55, it is to be observed, that some of them are not now recognized as baronies; Kilnelonger being included in Kilnemanagh, and Mulrian in Owney and Arra, which at present form but one barony instead of two, as here given. Mulrian, indeed, in the curious original volume above mentioned, is even there called "Owney Mulrian."
It may not be out of place here to quote a clause of an ordinance of the Protector's Council, of the 16th June, 1654, in regard to the names of baronies in the Down Survey and Distribution:
"And be it further ordained and established by the authority aforesaid, that all and every city and county, or county and city, city and liberties, town and county, half-barony, territory, franchise, liberty, parish, town, place, or land which is returned among the baronies, or for, or as a barony, (on the abstract of the surveys or estimate, made concerning the ten counties appointed for the said soldiers and adventurers), shall, as to the division, subdivision, and enjoyment thereof among the said soldiers and adventurers, and every of them respectively concerned, be deemed and taken to be as the same are returned in the survey, although the same then were not a barony, or were in another county, or were a county franchise, or liberty of itself; and that all counties, baronies, and places returned or certified in or by miswritten or wrong names, shall be enjoyed by those whose lots are or shall be on such counties, baronies, or places, as if they had been returned or certified by their true and proper names."
Among the valuable records in the custody of Sir William Betham, there is a memorandum of an order from the King (Charles II.), stating that the "barbarous and uncouth names of places" in Ireland, much retard the reformation of the country, and directing the Lord Lieutenant and Council to change such names into others more suitable to the English tongue, annexing the ancient names in every grant so altered. This appears to have been subsequently embodied in the Act of Explanation, of which it forms the last clause.
Few persons will now be found to regret that the change of names thus authorized and ordered, was not generally carried into effect; but in reference to the subject it may not be out of place to refer to the orthography of the names engraved on the maps of the Ordnance Survey, for which the different spellings and alias names of every townland were collected from all accessible documents, some (where the names were ancient) of very great antiquity; and finally, local inquiry and examination were made by an Irish scholar on the spot, to render the name ultimately adopted as nearly as possible consistent with the ancient orthography. This information being all classified and arranged in proper descriptive books, forms a large collection of documents, which, being preserved with the records of the Survey, may be at any
