i6 



Taylor resided either at Lisburn — then known as Lisnagarvey — or 

 at the old castle of Portmore, the country seat of his patron and 

 friend, Lord Conway. It was at Portmore that several of his 

 finest and best-known theological works were written, and notably 

 his ever-to-be-remembered " Liberty of Prophesying," a treatise 

 which may justly be said to have laid the foundation of that liberty 

 in religion which is the glory and pride of the British Constitution. 

 After a long sojourn at the seat of Lord Conway, Taylor continued 

 to make Portmore his residence, and he possessed a tenement with 

 a garden on an island in the Lough. This island, as well as that 

 on which the mansion of Lord Conway stood, has become part of 

 the mainland since the water level was lowered by the Lough 

 Neagh Drainage Commissioners. 



The castle or mansion of Lord Conway, originally erected from 

 a design by Inigo Jones, must have been of very great importance. 

 Very little of it now remains beyond the foundations. Some of the 

 chambers have been converted into a garden, and some converted 

 into farm offices ; and all are overgrown with every sort of rank 

 vegetation, which has obliterated the material structure, as its his- 

 tory has been covered by the growth of time. The present inhabi- 

 tants of the adjoining cottages do not seem to have caught the 

 spirit of Jeremy Taylor, or to have inherited much of the legendary 

 lore which might be expected to have lingered about the spot. 

 One old woman certainly heard of " one Mr. Taylor, a great man, 

 who lived there a long time ago ; " but who he was, or what was 

 his trade, or what business he followed, she had never heard. A 

 young lad pointed out Mr. Taylor's wine-cellars, " under yon bush," 

 as he pointed to a clump of marsh mallow forcing its way through 

 the rank weeds below it. He said, too, there was a dark passage 

 into them, which nobody could ever find. He seemed, however, 

 to be much more familiar with fairy lore than with the traditions of this 

 eminent divine, and gravely related some of the doings of " the 

 good people." " Every year," he said, " when the banes is ripe, a 

 wee woman, with a white hat and a cotton dress, comes and takes 

 three banes away with her." He saw her once himself. Although 

 the party had no local guide, they could satisfy themselves that they 



