Caption: "Saint Bridget's Chair stands close to the water's edge, and which, it is said, whoever once sits, is ever after preserved from accident and sudden death."
"After quitting the prison, and before leaving the island, it was formerly the practice to go into the water, and, being stark naked, wash their whole bodies, and more particularly the head, to signify that they were entirely cleansed from their…
"It is almost incredible what crowds visit this island annually, during the months of June, July, and August—it being no unusual thing to see from 900 to 1000 persons of both sexes upon it at one and the same time..."
"An early writer describing the place, says — 'As soon as the pilgrims come within sight of the holy island, they pull off their shoes and stockings, and uncover their heads, and walk thus with their beads in one hand, and sometimes a cross in the…
“‘I was considerably surprised when, upon my remarking, that with only one meal of bread and water in twenty four-hours, the pilgrims must become faint, the women with whom I was speaking, said, “Oh, no! the wine revives us, and gives us…
"On every side of the island lay the watery fields, winding themselves into inlets and across bays. Great sheets of water, unbroken save by a group of smaller islands that rode like ships that had run to seed and blossom in tropical seas, with the…