id to contain the
remains of its founder, together with those of St Columba and St
Bridget. A round tower adjoining it was destroyed in 1790. A small trade
is carried on at Strangford Lough by means of vessels up to 100 tons,
which discharge at Quoile quay, about 1 m. from the town; but vessels of
larger tonnage can discharge at a steamboat quay lower down the Quoile.
The imports are principally iron, coal, salt and timber; the exports
barley, oats, cattle, pigs and potatoes. Linen manufacture is also
carried on, and brewing, tanning and soap-making give considerable
employment. The Down corporation race-meeting is important and attracts
visitors from far outside the county. The rath or dun from which the
town is named remains as one of the finest in Ireland. It was called
Rath-Keltair, or the rath of the hero Keltar, and covers an area of 10
acres. In the vicinity of the town are remnants of the monastery of
Saul, a foundation ascribed to St Patrick, and of Inch Abbey (1180),
founded by Sir John de Courcy. Three miles south is a fine stone circle,
and to the south-east are the wells of Struell, famous as miraculous
healers among the peasantry until modern times. The town is of extreme
antiquity. It was called _Dun-leth-glas_, the fort of the broken
fetters, from the miraculous deliverance from bondage of two sons of
Dichu, prince of Lecale, and the first convert of St Patrick. It is the
_Dunum_ of Ptolemy, and was a residence of the kings of Ulster. It was
already incorporated early in the 15th century. It returned two members
to the Irish parliament until the Union in 1800, and thereafter one to
the Imperial parliament until 1832.

DOWNS, the name of a system of chalk hills in the south-east of England.
For the etymology of the word and its meaning see DOWN. It is most
familiar in its application to the two ranges of the North and South
Downs. Of these the North Downs are confined chiefly to the counties of
Surrey and Kent, and the South to Sussex. Each forms a well-defined long
range springing from the chalk area of Dorsetshire and Hampshire, to
which, though broken up into a great number of short ranges and groups
of hills, the general name of the Western Downs is given. The Downs
enclose the rich district of the Weald (q.v.).

The North Downs, extending from a point near Farnham to the English
Channel between Dover and Folkestone, have a length along the crest
line, measured directly, of 95 m. The crest, how