t courted the acquaintance of fir William it Lifïé, as a means of gaining greater iritimacy with the Icings houfehold. On the Friday, • we rode out together, and ' on the road I afked if he had accompanied the king on his expedition to Ireland, tie faid he had. I then afked if there were any fbundation in truth for what was faid of Saint Pa-trick's hole*. He replied there was ; and that he and ' * 9 Nothing has rendered this county (Donegal) fo famous as the cave discovered by the patron (aim of Ireland, or his namefake, abbot of Nevers, about four hundred fmts after, in which the holy monk obtained a confiant exhibition • of the torments of the wicked, for the edification of the Irifh. But that it could not be Saint Patrick who firft invented it, is plain from his filence about it in his book / de tribus habitacolis,f Jteaven, earth and hell. • Henry or Hagh, monk of Sal trey, in Huntingdonmire, was the firft who wrote about it, and what one Owen or Tyadal, a foldier^had feen there. It was about itxteen feet and a half long, by two feet one inch wide, built of free ftone, covered with broad flags, and green turf laid over them, and was fo low and narrow, that a taU man could hardly fit, much lefs ftand in it. In the fide was a window juft wide enough to admit a faint ray of light : in the floor a cavity capable of containing a man it his length ; and, under a large ftane at the end of the pavement, a deep pit, which had optfnôd at the prayers of the faint. The bottom of the cave was originally much below the furface oF the ground* It flood m the emft fide of the church, in the church-yard, en* compafifcd with a wail, and furrounded by circles or cells, called the btds, fcarcely three feet high, denominated from fe-deral faints. The penitents, who vifited this ifland, after fat-ing ott bread and water for nine days, and making proceffions round thefe holy ftatioas thrice- a-day barefoot, for the iff (even days, and fix times on the eighth, waihing their weary lino* each light in the adjoining lake, on tttr ninth enter the cave 136