Near Lough Neagh, and separated from it by a narrow neck of land, known by the name of the Deer-park, is a beautiful sheet of water, of an oval form, called Loughbeg, or the Little lake. This body of water covers 625 acres of land; and is stored with pike, bream, trout, perch, roach, eels, and a variety of wild fowl. An ingenious attempt to drain it was made about the year 1740, by Arthur Dobbs, Esq then agent to Lord Conway. (This man, Arthur Dobbs, was the author of an excellent pamphlet on the trade of Ireland, and of another on the Rate of Interest. He died Governor of North Carolina.). For this purpose he erected a windmill at the place where the isthmus between the lakes is narrowest; which acting upon buckets, threw the water into the other lake, In this way the lake was emptied; but the water returning again, either through springs, or as some allege, (Sic) by a subterraneous communication with Lough Neagh, the scheme, after various experiments was abandoned.

In a sequestered spot in this lake, called Sally Island, tradition relates that the pious and learned Jeremiah Taylor, who was chaplain to Charles I, and Bishop of Down and Connor, in the year 1661, frequently composed his admired works; probably, among others, his celebrated "Doctor Dubitantium," the preface of which is dated from his study in Portmore, in Killultagh, on the banks of Lough-beg.

It has already appeared, that there were great forests here in the time of James 1, and for many years after. Considerable vestiges of them remained so late as fifty years ago, and fourteen hundred acres, covered with forest trees, on the banks of Lough Neagh, were held as a park by the Lords Conway. This park was stored with deer, pheasants, jays, turkeys, hares, rabbits, and a variety of game. A neat lodge was built in it by Lord Conway, for the purpose of enjoying the pleasures of the field with greater convenience. About thirty years ago, a considerable portion of it was leased to tenants, by whom it has been altogether cleared of wood, and is now well cultivated. The remaining part, forming a peninsula with Lough Neagh, was enclosed by a wall constructed at the entrance; and continued for some time a receptacle for deer, under the name of the Hogg, or Little Deer-park. This park was also given up to cultivation, about twelve years ago, and leased to tenants; since which time, it has been entirely divested of timber, and reduced under the dominion of the plough. Here grew an oak tree called, from its extraordinary size and dimensions, the Royal Oak. This noble tree was forty-two feet in circumference; the principal arm was sold for an axis of a mill; and the other branches built a vessel of fifty tons, called the Royal Oak. The bark sold for forty guineas; the trunk was sold for £121. 10s. The ground in which it grew, was a very stiff clay. This great tree being decayed at the roots, sunk under the pressure of time, about forty years ago on a calm day. (The above particulars were related to William Smith, Esq, agent to the Marquis of Hertford, by Tho? ?on, his lordship’s park-keeper. This oak tree is noticed in E?) Near to its stately brother grew another oak tree, of an unusual size, called the Broad Oak, from the great expansion if its branches. The trunk of this tree was about sixteen feet high, and twelve feet in circumference. The branches extended to the distance of four English perches, or twenty-two yards diameter. It was entirely hollow, occasioned by the trunk having been chipped with a turf spade, whence it absorbed moisture, and rotted. When it fell, it was therefore of little value.

There is no waste ground in the union; and only an hundred acres of turf-bog, at the Brown Moss, in the parish of Tullyrusk. There was formerly a quantity of moss in the Deer-park, which has been reclaimed, and converted into a meadow.