1813. As a boy he was delicate, precocious and morbid in temperament. He

studied theology at the university of Copenhagen, where he graduated in 1840 with a treatise _On Irony_. For two years he travelled in Germany, and in 1842 settled finally in Copenhagen, where he died on the 11th of November 1855. He had lived in studious retirement, subject to physical suffering and mental depression. His first volume, _Papers of a Still Living Man_ (1838), a characterization of Hans Andersen, was a failure, and he was for some time unnoticed. In 1843 he published _Euten--Eller_ (_Either--or_) (4th ed., 1878), the work on which his reputation mainly rests; it is a discussion of the ethical and aesthetic ideas of life. In his last years he carried on a feverish agitation against the theology and practice of the state church, on the ground that religion is for the individual soul, and is to be separated absolutely from the state and the world. In general his philosophy was a reaction against the speculative thinkers--Steffens (q.v.), Niels Treschow (1751-1833) and Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785-1872); it was based on the absolute dualism of Faith and Knowledge. His chief follower was Rasmus Nielsen (1809-1884) and he was opposed by Georg Brandes, who wrote a brilliant account of his life and works. As a dialectician he has been described as little inferior to Plato, and his influence on the literature of Denmark is considerable both in style and in matter. To him Ibsen owed his character Brand in the drama of that name. See his posthumous autobiographical sketch, _Syns punktetfor min Forfattervirksomhed_ ("Standpoint of my Literary Work"); Georg Brandes, _Sören Kierkegaard_ (Copenhagen, 1877); A. Bärthold, _Noten zu K.'s Lebensgeschichte_ (Halle, 1876), _Die Bedeutung der ästhetischen Schriften S. Kierkegaarde_ (Halle, 1879) and _S. K.'s Persönlichkeit in ihrer Verwirklichung der Ideale_ (Gütersloh, 1886); F. Petersen, _S. K.'s Christendomsforkyndelae_ (Christiania, 1877). For Kierkegaard's relation to recent Danish thought, see Höffding's _Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie_ (1888), vol. ii. KIEV, KIEFF, or KIYEFF, a government of south-western Russia, conterminous with those of Minsk, Poltava, Chernigov, Podolia, Kherson and Volhynia; area 19,686 sq. m. It represents a deeply trenched plateau, 600 to 800 ft. in altitude, reaching 950 to 1050 ft. in the west, assuming a steep character in the middle, and sloping gently northwards to the marshy regions of the Pripet, while on the east it falls abruptly to the valley of the Dnieper, which lies only 250 to 300 ft. above the sea. General A. Tillo has shown that neither geologically nor tectonically can "spurs of the Carpathians" penetrate into Kiev. Many useful minerals are extracted, such as granites, gabbro, labradorites of a rare beauty, syenites and gneiss, marble, grinding stones, pottery clay, phosphorites, iron ore and mineral colours. Towards the southern and central parts the surface is covered by deep rich "black earth." Nearly the whole of the government belongs to the basin of the Dnieper, that river forming part of its eastern boundary. In the south-west are a few small tributaries of the Bug. Besides the Dnieper the only navigable stream is its confluent the Pripet. The climate is more moderate than in middle Russia, the average temperatures at the city of Kiev being--year, 44.5°; January, 21°; July, 68°; yearly rainfall, 22 inches. The lowlands of the north are covered with woods; they have the flora of the Polyesie, or marshy woodlands of Minsk, and are peopled with animals belonging to higher latitudes.[1] The population, which was 2,017,262 in 1863, reached 3,575,457 in 1897, of whom 1,791,503 were women, and 147,878 lived in towns; and in 1904 it reached 4,042,526, of whom 2,030,744 were women. The estimated population in 1906 was 4,206,100. In 1897 there were 2,738,977 Orthodox Greeks, 14,888 Nonconformists, 91,821 Roman Catholics, 423,875 Jews, and 6820 Protestants. No less than 41 % of the land is in large holdings, and 45 % belongs to the peasants. Out of an area of 12,600,000 acres, 11,100,000 acres are available for cultivation, 4,758,000 acres are under crops, 650,000 acres under meadows, and 1,880,000 acres under woods. About 290,000 acres are under beetroot, for sugar. The crops principally grown are wheat, rye, oats, millet, barley and buckwheat, with, in smaller quantities, hemp, flax, vegetables, fruit and tobacco. Camels have been used for agricultural work. Bee-keeping and gardening are general. The chief factories are sugar works and distilleries. The former produce 850,000 to 1,150,000 tons of sugar and over 50,000 tons of molasses annually. The factories include machinery works and iron foundries, tanneries, steam flour-mills, petroleum refineries and tobacco factories. Two main railways, starting from Kiev and Cherkasy respectively, cross the government from N.E. to S.W., and two lines traverse its southern part from N.W. to S.E., parallel to the Dnieper. Steamers ply on the Dnieper and some of its tributaries. Wheat, rye, oats, barley and flour are exported. There are two great fairs, at Kiev and Berdichev respectively, and many of minor importance. Trade is very brisk, the river traffic alone being valued at over one million sterling annually. The government is divided into twelve districts. The chief town is Kiev (q.v.)and the district towns, with their populations in 1897, Berdichev (53,728), Cherkasy (29,619), Chigirin (9870), Kanev (8892), Lipovets (6068), Radomysl (11,154), Skvira (16,265), Tarashcha (11,452), Umañ (28,628), Vasilkov (17,824) and Zvenigorodka (16,972). The plains on the Dnieper have been inhabited since probably the Palaeolithic period, and the burial-grounds used since the Stone Age. The burial mounds (_kurgans_) of both the Scythians and the Slavs, traces of old forts (_gorodishche_), stone statues, and more recent caves offer abundant material for anthropological and ethnographical study. FOOTNOTE: [1] Schmahlhausen's _Flora of South-West Russia_ (Kiev, 1886) contains a good description of the flora of the province. KIEV, a city of Russia, capital of the above government, on the right or west bank of the Dnieper, in 50° 27´ 12´´ N. and 30° 30´ 18´´ E., 628 m. by rail S.W. of Moscow and 406 m. by rail N.N.E. of Odessa. The site of the greater part of the town consists of hills or bluffs separated by ravines and hollows, the elevation of the central portions being about 300 ft. above the ordinary level of the Dnieper. On the opposite side of the river the country spreads out low and level like a sea. Having received all its important tributaries, the Dnieper is here a broad (400 to 580 yds.) and navigable stream; but as it approaches the town it divides into two arms and forms a low grassy island of considerable extent called Tukhanov. During the spring floods there is a rise of 16 or even 20 ft., and not only the island but the country along the left bank and the lower grounds on the right bank are laid under water. The bed of the river is sandy and shifting, and it is only by costly engineering works that the main stream has been kept from returning to the more eastern channel, along which it formerly flowed. Opposite the southern part of the town, where the currents have again united, the river is crossed by a suspension bridge, which at the time of its erection (1848-1853) was the largest enterprise of the kind in Europe. It is about half a mile in length and 52½ ft. in breadth, and the four principal spans are each 440 ft. The bridge was designed by Vignoles, and cost about £400,000. Steamers ply in summer to Kremenchug, Ekaterinoslav, Mogilev, Pinsk and Chernigov. Altogether Kiev is one of the most beautiful cities in Russia, and the vicinity too is picturesque. Until 1837 the town proper consisted of the Old Town, Pechersk and Podoli; but in that year three districts were added, and in 1879 the limits were extended to include Kurenevka, Lukyanovka, Shulyavka and Solomenka. The administrative area of the town is 13,500 acres. The Old Town, or Old Kiev quarter (Starokievskaya Chast), occupies the highest of the range of hills. Here the houses are most closely built, and stone structures most abundant. In some of the principal streets are buildings of three to five storeys, a comparatively rare thing in Russia, indeed in the main street (Kreshchatik) fine structures have been erected since 1896. In the 11th century the area was enclosed by earthen ramparts, with bastions and gateways; but of these the only surviving remnant is the Golden Gate. In the centre of the Old Town stands the cathedral of St Sophia, the oldest cathedral in the Russian empire. Its external walls are of a pale green and white colour, and it has ten cupolas, four spangled with stars and six surmounted each with a cross. The golden cupola of the four-storeyed campanile is visible for many miles across the steppes. The statement frequently made that the church was a copy of St Sophia's in Constantinople has been shown to be a mistake. The building measures in length 177 ft., while its breadth is 118 ft. But though the plan shows no imitation of the great Byzantine church, the decorations of the interior (mosaics, frescoes, &c.) do indicate direct Byzantine influence. During the occupation of the church by the Uniats or United Greek Church in the 17th century these were covered with whitewash, and were only discovered in 1842, after which the cathedral was internally restored; but the chapel of the Three Pontiffs has been left untouched to show how carefully the old style has been preserved or copied. Among the mosaics is a colossal representation of the Virgin, 15 ft. in height, which, like the so-called "indestructible wall" in which it is inlaid, dates from the time (1019-1054) of Prince Yaroslav. This prince founded the church in 1037 in gratitude for his victory over the Petchenegs, a Turkish race then settled in the Dnieper valley. His sarcophagus, curiously sculptured with palms, fishes, &c., is preserved. The church of St Andrew the Apostle occupies the spot where, according to Russian tradition, that apostle stood when as yet Kiev was not, and declared that the hill would become the site of a great city. The present building, in florid rococo style, dates from 1744-1767. The church of the Tithes, rebuilt in 1828-1842, was founded in the close of the 10th century by Prince Vladimir in honour of two martyrs whom he had put to death; and the monastery of St Michael (or of the Golden Heads--so called from the fifteen gilded cupolas of the original church) claims to have been built in 1108 by Svyatopolk II., and was restored in 1655 by the Cossack chieftain Bogdan Chmielnicki. On a plateau above the river, the favourite promenade of the citizens, stands the Vladimir monument (1853) in bronze. In this quarter, some distance back from the river, is the new and richly decorated Vladimir cathedral (1862-1896), in the Byzantine style, distinguished for the beauty and richness of its paintings. Until 1820 the south-eastern district of Pechersk was the industrial and commercial quarter; but it has been greatly altered in carrying out fortifications commenced in that year by Tsar Nicholas I. Most of the houses are small and old-fashioned. The monastery--the Kievo-Pecherskaya--is the chief establishment of its kind in Russia; it is visited every year by about 250,000 pilgrims. Of its ten or twelve conventual churches the chief is that of the Assumption. There are four distinct quarters in the monastery, each under a superior, subject to the archimandrite: the Laura proper or New Monastery, that of the Infirmary, and those of the Nearer and the Further Caves. These caves or catacombs are the most striking characteristic of the place; the name Pechersk, indeed, is connected with the Russian _peshchera_, "a cave." The first series of caves, dedicated to St Anthony, contains eighty saints' tombs; the second, dedicated to St Theodosius, a saint greatly venerated in Russia, about forty-five. The bodies were formerly exposed to view; but the pilgrims who now pass through the galleries see nothing but the draperies and the inscriptions. Among the more notable names are those of Nestor the chronicler, and Iliya of Murom, the Old Cossack of the Russian epics. The foundation of the monastery is ascribed to two saints of the 11th century--Anthony and Hilarion, the latter metropolitan of Kiev. By the middle of the 12th century it had become wealthy and beautiful. Completely ruined by the Mongol prince Batu in 1240, it remained deserted for more than two centuries. Prince Simeon Oblkovich was the first to begin the restoration. A conflagration laid the buildings waste in 1716, and their present aspect is largely due to Peter the Great. The cathedral of the Assumption, with seven gilded cupolas, was dedicated in 1089, destroyed by the Mongols in 1240, and restored in 1729; the wall-paintings of the interior are by V. Vereshchagin. The monastery contains a school of picture-makers of ancient origin, whose productions are widely diffused throughout the empire, and a printing press, from which have issued liturgical and religious works, the oldest known examples bearing the date 1616. It possesses a wonder-working ikon or image of the "Death of the Virgin," said to have been brought from Constantinople in 1073, and the second highest bell-tower in Russia. The Podol quarter lies on the low ground at the foot of the bluffs. It is the industrial and trading quarter of the city, and the seat of the great fair of the "Contracts," the transference of which from Dubno in 1797 largely stimulated the commercial prosperity of Kiev. The present regular arrangement of its streets arose after the great fire of 1811. Lipki district (from the _lipki_ or lime trees, destroyed in 1833) is of recent origin, and is mainly inhabited by the well-to-do classes. It is sometimes called the palace quarter, from the royal palace erected between 1868 and 1870, on the site of the older structure dating from the time of Tsaritsa Elizabeth. Gardens and parks abound; the palace garden is exceptionally fine, and in the same neighbourhood are the public gardens with the place of amusement known as the Château des Fleurs. In the New Buildings, or the Lybed quarter, are the university and the botanical gardens. The Ploskaya Chast (Flat quarter) or Obolon contains the lunatic asylum; the Lukyanovka Chast, the penitentiary and the camp and barracks; and the Bulvarnaya Chast, the military gymnasium of St Vladimir and the railway station. The educational and scientific institutions of Kiev rank next to those of the two capitals. Its university, removed from Vilna to Kiev in 1834, has about 2500 students, and is well provided with observatories, laboratories, libraries and museums; five scientific societies and two societies for aid to poor students are attached to it. There are, besides, a theological academy, founded in 1615; a society of church archaeology, which possesses a museum built in 1900, very rich in old ikons, crosses, &c., both Russian and Oriental; an imperial academy of music; university courses for ladies; a polytechnic, with 1300 students--the building was completed in 1900 and stands on the other side of Old Kiev, away from the river. Of the learned societies the more important are the medical (1840), the naturalists' (1869), the juridical (1876), the historical of Nestor the Chronicler (1872), the horticultural (1875), and the dramatic (1879), the archaeological commission (1843), and the society of church archaeology. Kiev is the principal centre for the sugar industry of Russia, as well as for the general trade of the region. Its Stryetenskaya fair is important. More than twenty caves were discovered on the slope of a hill (Kirilov Street), and one of them, excavated in 1876, proved to have belonged to neolithic troglodytes. Numerous graves, both from the pagan and the Christian periods, the latter containing more than 2000 skeletons, with a great number of small articles, were discovered in the same year in the same neighbourhood. Many colonial Roman coins of the 3rd and 4th centuries, and silver _dirhems_, stamped at Samarkand, Balkh, Merv, &c., were also found in 1869. In 1862 the population of Kiev was returned as 70,341; in 1874 the total was given as 127,251; and in 1902 as 319,000. This includes 20,000 Poles and 12,000 Jews. Kiev is the headquarters of the IX. Army Corps, and of a metropolitan of the Orthodox Greek Church. The history of Kiev cannot be satisfactorily separated from that of Russia. According to Nestor's legend it was founded in 864 by three brothers, Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, and after their deaths the principality was seized by two Varangians (Scandinavians), Askold and Dir, followers of Rurik, also in 864. Rurik's successor Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and made it the chief town of his principality. It was in the waters of the Dnieper opposite the town that Prince Vladimir, the first saint of the Russian church, caused his people to be baptized (988), and Kiev became the seat of the first Christian church, of the first Christian school, and of the first library in Russia. For three hundred and seventy-six years it was an independent Russian city; for eighty years (1240-1320) it was subject to the Mongols; for two hundred and forty-nine years (1320-1569) it belonged to the Lithuanian principality; and for eighty-five years to Poland (1569-1654). It was finally united to the Russian empire in 1686. The city was devastated by the khan of the Crimea in 1483. The Magdeburg rights, which the city enjoyed from 1516, were abolished in 1835, and the ordinary form of town government introduced; and in 1840 it was made subject to the common civil law of the empire. The Russian literature concerning Kiev is voluminous. Its bibliography will be found in the _Russian Geographical Dictionary_ of P. Semenov, and in the _Russian Encyclopaedic Dictionary_, published by Brockhaus and Efron (vol. xv., 1895). Among recent publications are: Rambaud's _La Russie épique_ (Pans, 1876); Avenarius, _Kniga o Kievskikh Bogatuiryakh_ (St Petersburg, 1876), dealing with the early Kiev heroes; Zakrevski, _Opisanie Kieva_ (1868); the materials issued by the commission for the investigation of the ancient records of the city; Taranovskiy, _Gorod Kiev_ (Kiev, 1881); De Baye, _Kiev, la mère des villes russes_ (Paris, 1896); Goetz, _Das Kiewer Höhlenkloster als Kulturzentrum des Vormongolischen Russlands_ (Passau, 1904). See also Count Bobrinsky, _Kurgans of Smiela_ (1897); and N. Byelyashevsky, _The Mints of Kiev_. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.) KILBARCHAN, a burgh of barony of Renfrewshire, Scotland, 1 m. from Milliken Park station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway, 13 m. W. by S. of Glasgow. Pop. (1901), 2886. The public buildings include a hall, library and masonic lodge (dating from 1784). There is also a park. In a niche in the town steeple (erected in 1755) is the statue of the famous piper, who died about the beginning of the 17th century and is commemorated in the elegy on "The Life and Death of Habbie Simson, Piper of Kilbarchan" by Robert Sempill of Beltrees (1595-1665). The chief industries are manufactures of linen (introduced in 1739 and dating the rise of the prosperity of the town), cotton, silks and "Paisley" shawls, and calico-printing, besides quarries, coal and iron mines in the neighbourhood. Two miles south-west is a great rock of greenstone called Clochoderick, 12 ft. in height, 22 ft. in length, and 17 ft. in breadth. About 2 m. north-west on Gryfe Water, lies Bridge of Weir (pop. 2242), the industries of which comprise tanning, currying, calico-printing, thread-making and wood-turning. It has a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Immediately to the south-west of Bridge of Weir are the ruins of Ranfurly Castle, the ancient seat of the Knoxes. Sir John de Knocks (fl. 1422) is supposed to have been the great-grandfather of John Knox; and Andrew Knox (1550-1633), one of the most distinguished members of the family, was successively bishop of the Isles, abbot of Icolmkill (Iona), and bishop of Raphoe. About 4 m. N.W. of Bridge of Weir lies the holiday resort of Kilmalcolm (pronounced Kilmacome; pop. 2220), with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. It has a golf-course, public park and hydropathic establishment. Several charitable institutions have been built in and near the town, amongst them the well-known Quarrier's Orphan Homes of Scotland. KILBIRNIE, a town in north Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Garnock, 20½ m. S.W. of Glasgow, with stations on the Glasgow & South-Western and the Caledonian railways. Pop. (1901), 4571. The industries include flax-spinning, rope works, engineering works, and manufactures of linen thread, wincey, flannels and fishing-nets, and there are iron and steel works and coal mines in the vicinity. The parish church is of historical interest, most of the building dating from the Reformation. In the churchyard are the recumbent effigies of Captain Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill (d. 1603), who in 1575 effected the surprise of Dumbarton Castle, and his lady. Near Kilbirnie Place, a modern mansion, are the ruins of Kilbirnie Castle, an ancient seat of the earls of Crawford, destroyed by fire in 1757. About 1 m. E. is Kilbirnie Loch, 1(1/3) m. long. KILBRIDE, WEST, a town on the coast of Ayrshire, Scotland, near the mouth of Kilbride Burn, 4 m. N.N.W. of Ardrossan and 35¾ m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 2315. It has been growing in repute as a health resort; the only considerable industry is weaving. In the neighbourhood are the ruins of Law Castle, Crosbie Castle and Portincross Castle, the last, dating from the 13th century, said to be a seat of the Stuart kings. Farland Head, with cliffs 300 ft. high, lies 2 m. W. by N.; and the inland country is hilly, one point, Kaim Hill, being 1270 ft. above sea-level. KILDARE, a county of Ireland in the province of Leinster, bounded W. by Queen's County and King's County, N. by Meath, E. by Dublin and Wicklow, and S. by Carlow. The area is 418,496 acres or about 654 sq. m. The greater part of Kildare belongs to the great central plain of Ireland. In the east of the county this plain is bounded by the foot-hills of the mountains of Dublin and Wicklow; in the centre it is interrupted by an elevated plateau terminated on the south by the hills of Dunmurry, and on the north by the Hill of Allen (300 ft.) which rises abruptly from the Bog of Allen. The principal rivers are the Boyne, which with its tributary the Blackwater rises in the north part of the county, but soon passes into Meath; the Barrow, which forms the boundary of Kildare with Queen's County, and receives the Greese and the Lane shortly after entering Kildare; the Lesser Barrow, which flows southward from the Bog of Allen to near Rathangan; and the Liffey, which enters the county near Ballymore Eustace, and flowing north-west and then north-east quits it at Leixlip, having received the Morrel between Celbridge and Clane, and the Ryewater at Leixlip. Trout are taken in the upper waters, and there are salmon reaches near Leixlip. _Geology._--The greater part of the county is formed of typical grey Carboniferous limestone, well seen in the flat land about Clane. The natural steps at the Salmon Falls at Leixlip are formed from similar strata. Along the south-east the broken ground of Silurian shales forms the higher country, rising towards the Leinster chain. The granite core of the latter, with its margin of mica-schist produced by the metamorphism of the Silurian beds, appears in the south round Castledermot. A parallel ridge of Silurian rocks, including an interesting series of basic lavas, rises from the plain north of Kildare town (Hill of Allen and Chair of Kildare), with some Old Red Sandstone on its flanks. The limestone in this ridge is rich in fossils of Bala age, and has been compared with that at Portrane in county Dublin. The low ground is diversified by eskers and masses of glacial gravel, notably at the dry sandy plateau of the Curragh; but in part it retains sufficient moisture to give rise to extensive bogs. The Liffey, which comes down as a mountain-stream in the Silurian area, forming a picturesque fall in the gorge of Pollaphuca, wanders through the limestone region between low banks as a true river of the plain. _Climate and Industries._--Owing to a considerable degree to the large extent of bog, the climate of the northern districts is very moist, and fogs are frequent, but the eastern portion is drier, and the climate of the Liffey valley is very mild and healthy. The soil, whether resting on the limestone or on the clay slate, is principally a rich deep loam inclining occasionally to clay, easily cultivated and very fertile if properly drained. About 40,000 acres in the northern part of the county are included in the Bog of Allen, which is, however, intersected in many places by elevated tracts of firm ground. To the east of the town of Kildare is the Curragh, an undulating down upwards of 4800 acres in extent. The most fertile and highly cultivated districts of Kildare are the valleys of the Liffey and a tract in the south watered by the Greese. The demesne lands along the valley of the Liffey are finely wooded. More attention is paid to drainage and the use of manures on the larger farms than is done in many other parts of Ireland. The pastures which are not subjected to the plough are generally very rich and fattening. The proportion of tillage to pasture is roughly as 1 to 2½. Wheat is a scanty crop, but oats, barley, turnips and potatoes are all considerably cultivated. Cattle and sheep are grazed extensively, and the numbers are well sustained. Of the former, crosses with the shorthorn or the Durham are the commonest breed. Leicesters are the principal breed of sheep. Poultry farming is a growing industry. Though possessing a good supply of water-power the county is almost destitute of manufactures; there are a few small cotton, woollen and paper mills, as well as breweries and distilleries, and several corn mills. Large quantities of turf are exported to Dublin by canal. The main line of the Midland Great Western follows the northern boundary of the county, with a branch to Carbury and Edenderry; and that of the Great Southern & Western crosses the county by way of Newbridge and Kildare, with southward branches to Naas (and Tullow, county Carlow) and to Athy and the south. The northern border is traversed by the Royal Canal, which connects Dublin with the Shannon at Cloondara. Farther south the Grand Canal, which connects Dublin with the Shannon at Shannon Harbour, occupies the valley of the Liffey until at Sallins it enters the Bog of Allen, passing into King's County near the source of the Boyne. Several branch canals afford communication with the southern districts. _Population and Administration._--The decreasing population (70,206 in 1891; 63,566 in 1901) shows an unusual excess of males over females, in spite of an excess of male emigrants. About 86% of the population are Roman Catholics. The county comprises 14 baronies and contains 110 civil parishes. Assizes are held at Naas, and quarter sessions at Athy, Kildare, Maynooth and Naas. The military stations at Newbridge and the Curragh constitute the Curragh military district, and the barracks at Athy and Naas are included in the Dublin military district. The principal towns are Athy (pop. 3599), Naas (3836) and Newbridge (2903); with Maynooth (which is the seat of a Roman Catholic college), Celbridge, Kildare (the county town), Monasterevan, Kilcullen and Leixlip. Ballitore, one of the larger villages, is a Quaker settlement, and at a school here Edmund Burke was educated. Kildare returned ten members to the Irish parliament, of whom eight represented boroughs; it sends only two (for the north and south divisions of the county) to the parliament of the United Kingdom. The county is in the Protestant diocese of Dublin and the Roman Catholic dioceses of Dublin and of Kildare and Leighlin. _History and Antiquities._--According to a tale in the Book of Leinster the original name of Kildare was _Druim Criaidh_ (Drumcree), which it retained until the time of St Brigit, after which it was changed to _Cilldara_, the church of the oak, from an old oak under whose shadow the saint had constructed her cell. For some centuries it was under the government of the Macmurroughs, kings of Leinster, but with the remainder of Leinster it was granted by Henry II. to Strongbow. On the division of the palatinate of Leinster among the five grand-daughters of Strongbow, Kildare fell to Sibilla, the fourth daughter, who married William de Ferrars, earl of Derby. Through the marriage of the only daughter of William de Ferrars it passed to William de Vescy--who, when challenged to single combat by John Fitz Thomas, baron of Offaly, for accusing him of treason, fled to France. His lands were thereupon in 1297 bestowed on Fitz Thomas, who in 1316 was created earl of Kildare, and in 1317 was appointed sheriff of Kildare, the office remaining in the family until the attainder of Gerald, the ninth earl, in the reign of Henry VIII. Kildare was a liberty of Dublin until 1296, when an act was passed constituting it a separate county. In the county are several old gigantic pillar-stones, the principal being those at Punchestown, Harristown, Jigginstown and Mullamast. Among remarkable earthworks are the raths at Mullamast, Knockcaellagh near Kilcullen, Ardscull near Naas, and the numerous sepulchral mounds in the Curragh. Of the round towers the finest is that of Kildare; there are remains of others at Taghadoe, Old Kilcullen, Oughterard and Castledermot. Formerly there were an immense number of religious houses in the county. There are remains of a Franciscan abbey at Castledermot. At Graney are ruins of an Augustinian nunnery and portions of a building said to have belonged to the Knights Templars. The town of Kildare has ruins of four monastic buildings, including the nunnery founded by St Brigit. The site of a monastery at Old Kilcullen, said to date from the time of St Patrick, is marked by two stone crosses, one of which is curiously sculptured. The fine abbey of Monasterevan is now the seat of the marquess of Drogheda. On the Liffey are the remains of Great Connel Abbey near Celbridge, of St Wolstan's near Celbridge, and of New Abbey. At Moone, where there was a Franciscan monastery, are the remains of an ancient cross with curious sculpturings. Among castles may be mentioned those of Athy and Castledermot, built about the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion; Maynooth Castle, built by the Fitzgeralds; Kilkea, originally built by the seventh earl of Kildare, and restored within the 19th century; and Timolin, erected in the reign of King John. KILDARE, a market town and the county town of county Kildare, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, a junction on the main line of the Great Southern & Western railway, 30. m. S.W. from Dublin, the branch line to Athy, Carlow and Kilkenny diverging southward. Pop. (1901),