MuKRAY — The Diivrij of Bonnirert, 1690. •S87 



see the Castle of Carriokfergus, which is a strong place ; we took it last year, 

 and lost no great quantity of men. We landed at the White House, where 

 we saw on our arrival great numbers of poor people. The women are not 

 very shy of exposing to men's eyes those parts which are usual for the sex to 

 hide.^ We went that night to Belfast, which is a large and pretty town, and 

 all along the road you see an arm of the sea upon your left, and on the right 

 great high rocky mountains, which tops are often hidden by the clouds, and 

 at the bottom a very pleasant wood, and very full of simples^ of all sorts. 



The town is a sea port. There is in it the king's custom house, and you 

 see hard by it a very long stone bridge, which is not yet finished. The town 

 is compassed round about it with hills. The people very civil, and there is 

 also a great house belonging to my Lord Donegal,' Lord Chief Justice, with 

 very fine gardens, and groves of ash trees. The inhabitants speak very good 

 English. We stayed there two days and three nights, and we went from 

 thence on Tuesday, being the 23rd of June, to Lisburn, where there is a great 

 house and good gardens belonging now to my Lady Mulgrave ;* it was left 

 her with the whole estate, which amounts to £14,000 per annum, by my 

 Lord Conway ; the house is out of repair. There is a market kept there on 

 that day, Wednesday, the 24th, we set forth betimes in the morning, 

 resolving to join our army, which was then encamped at Lough bricl; land. 

 We passed by Hillsborough, a great house belonging to the king, standing on 

 a hill on the lefthand of the road, and from thence we went to Dromore, 

 hard by that place is the Bishop's house. The success answered our expecta- 

 tion, though we had a very hard and troublesome day's work. At our arrival 

 our friends shewed joy in their faces to see us come amongst them, and each 

 of us went to his respective tent. 



Thursday, the 28th of June, we marched at two of the clock in the 

 morning, and went over the high hills to Newry. It is not to be imagined 

 how strong naturally many passages are that way ; and besides that, many 

 strong though small forts made by King James, which made me a,dmire many 



1 John Stevens records in 1690 that " tlie women were so suitable to the times Ihat they rather 

 enticed men to lewdness than canied the least face of modesty, in so much that in every coiner of 

 the town might he said to he a public stew. In fine, Dublin seemed to be a seminary of vice, an 

 academy of luxury, or rather a sink of corruption and living emblem of Sodom." Cf. Murray's 

 edition of ■' The Journal of John Stevens," p. 93. The testimony of Fynes Moryson agrees with 

 this account. Le Gouz records that " In this city (i.e., in Lireeiick) there are great numbers of 

 profligate women ; which I could not have believed on account of the climate." Macariae Excidium, 

 p. 41. The effects of the'Penal Laws were evil, but perhaps the sufferings they involved purified 

 morals. 



2 Simples are medicinal plants. Cf. Dampier, " V^oyages," ii, i, 126. 



In 1661 he was member of parliament for Dungannon, was attainted by the parliament of 

 1689 as an absentee, but sat in the parliament of 1692. 



* There are ample references to Lady Mulgrave and Lord Conway in the two volumes of the 

 old series of the Ormonde mss. and in the seven volumes of the new series. 



