"(June 8, 1632) Right Honorable. I have received a copy of a letter sent by my lord Balfour, directed to his Lordship, myself and others for seizing until his Majesty's use St Patrick's Purgatory..."
"The Liffer largens near its source and forms a lake in which there is an Island with a little Convent, near which there is a grotto narrow enough and full of spectres horrible to the view..."
"It is more certain than certainty that in the northern shore of Ireland a place horrible by its terrors was found by him and is generally called St Patrick's Purgatory. The fame of that place has been so scattered through European parts that it…
"Spirituum hic thermae, his Lethaea piacula : qui se Balneat hic, Stygii non timer amnis aquas / Here souls may bathe : Lethe's atonements here : And he who bathes, no Stygian flood need fear."
"In all, the pilgrims remain on the island nine days—they eat but once in the twenty-four hours, of oatmeal and water—they have liberty to refresh themselves with the water of the lake..."
“The island called St. Patrick's Purgatory is altogether rocky, and rather level : without the compass of the island, in the water towards the north east, about two yards from the shore stand certain rocks..."
