At a mere 403 square miles, one of Ireland's smallest counties, County Longford, has just 30,000 people - and the number is falling, never having recovered from the 1847 famine. Tucked away in an obscure corner of the boggy midlands, it's not exactly the most exciting place in Ireland. Maybe it's not surprising that Oliver Goldsmith,   author of The Deserted Village, came from Longford. Other famous Longfordians are writers Padraig Colum and Maria Edgeworth (okay, not that famous) and, of course, Lord Longford. Much more famous was Chief Justice Thomas Lefroy - or at least, the literary character allegedly based on him: Jane Austen's D'Arcy, and by extension Bridget Jones' Mark Darcy. Not what you normally associate with the boggy midlands. RB

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