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THE METROPOLITAN.

No. XCIX.

JULY, 1839.

SKETCHES OF JERUSALEM.

BY C. G. ADDISON, ESQ., OF THE INNER TEMPLE. First appearance of Jerusalem-the Latin Convent -The Armenian Church-The Sepulchres of the Kings-The Church of the Holy SepulchrePilgrims-the Brook Cedron-The Sepulchre of the Virgin-Garden of Gethsemane-The Sa

cred Olive trees-The Mount of Olives.

Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,
Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge.
Ecco da mille voci unitamente
Gerusalemme salutar si sente.- Tasso,

in the prophetic language of Jeremiah, "I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heaven were fled."

We toiled, a long and slowly moving cavalcade, over a rough road, amid jagged masses of rock, against which the horses and mules were constantly tumbling. A few olive trees, scattered along the sides of some distant hills, were the only symptoms of vegetation, except the few dried-up herbs and scattered clumps of camel thorn, which here and there found a scanty subsistence upon the rocky sterile soil. We ascended a lofty hill, and saw in the distance the long ridge of mountains bounding the great desert, and skirting the edge of the plain of Jericho. Through an opening in the barren eminences over which we rode, we caught for a short time, a glimpse of a distant plain, which, from the blue mists that were hovering over it, presented an exact resemblance to a large lake.

The bright sunny weather we had so long enjoyed had now left us; dark, driving clouds flitted across the heavens, the wind blew cold, and howled fearfully among the rocks, and we approached Jerusalem through one of the wildest, gloomiest scenes of desolation I ever witnessed.

NOVEMBER 20.-An hour before sunrise I left the poor and almost deserted village of Bir, and, accompanied by the Greek Pappas, the Damascus merchant, the Moslem women, and the humble pilgrims, I struck into the narrow, rocky, bridle-path leading to Jerusalem. It was a dark and gloomy morning; and the surrounding country, dimly seen by the faint twilight, presented a wild and solitary aspect. When the sun rose, we were in the midst of a bare, arid, treeless landscape. There was no water, and no vegetation; and the whole country, far and near, presented a desolate surface of rock, or a succession of undulating hills covered with After riding for nearly three hours through loose, jagged, dark stones. The prophecies the same dreary and solitary country, and predictions of the olden time appear, in- throughout which the dwelling of man was deed, to have been wonderfully and fearful- nowhere visible, we ascended a slight emily brought to pass; all things are "utterly nence, and the landscape then began to unconsumed from off the land, man and beast, bend and relax a little of its stern and barand the fowls of heaven." The desert be- ren aspect. Olive woods were seen in front, tween Damascus and Palmyra was cheerful and above a short screen of refreshing foby comparison, for there the little burrowing liage appeared a white cupola, which was d'jerboas, or an occasional herd of gazelles, enliven the solitude of the wilderness; but here, within a short distance of Jerusalem, no animated object was any where to be seen over the wide-extended landscape; and truly

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immediately hailed as El Khobbs! Jerusalem! Pushing our horses onwards to the summit of the neighbouring hill, behind which, in our advance, the small portion of the city had disappeared, we suddenly

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came upon a scene, imposing from its contrast with the country we had lately traversed, and certainly one of the most interesting in the world. Above the olive woods in front, seated on an eminence, appeared a line of houses, domes and minarets, conspicuous among which, and high above all, were the white cupola of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the dark dome of the mosque of Omar. To the left of these rose the Mount of Olives, a lofty, picturesque hill, scattered over with olive trees, and crowned with a mosque and a Christian church.

and very courteous. He inquired eagerly for news; wanted to know what the English House of Commons had been doing of late, and he informed me, with an air of consequence and satisfaction, that he was a British subject, being a Maltese. The monks insisted upon my swallowing some brandy and rosolio, which were handed round by one of the brotherhood in tiny glasses. A worthy and hospitable friar, with a bunch of keys in one hand and a basket in the other, then conducted me to a house called the "casa nuova," or the new. We descended to the olive groves, and, house, an edifice lately purchased by the after passing several sepulchral excavations convent for the reception of strangers and in the adjoining rocks, we came to a long pilgrims. Here I was accommodated with range of stone battlemented Saracenic walls, a square white-washed room, opening upon and entered the city of Jerusalem by a lofty a wooden gallery, and furnished with a Saracenic gateway, called the Bab el Scham, worm-eaten bedstead, a deal table, and or "the Damascus gate." We then travers- two chairs. ed a narrow street, between dark gloomy buildings of stone, which were furnished with a few narrow windows, with pointed arches stuck here and there without any order or arrangement. The dullness of the day, and the gloomy silence and desertion of the streets, presented a most saddening and me lancholy spectacle. The rain began to pat ter upon the stones, and the clouds, chased along by the wind, threw a mournful obscurity over every object. A few Arab women, shrouding themselves under the porch of a mosque, and here and there a solitary Turk gathering his scanty garment tight about his meagre person, and seeking shelter from the blast, were the only objects visible in the silent and deserted city.

A lively, talkative Frenchman, a guest at the convent, dressed in a pea-green jacket, blue striped trousers, and a cocked hat, offered himself to me as a cicerone, and finding him intelligent, I agreed to avail myself of his services immediately after breakfast.

At eleven o'clock, accompanied by the Frenchman, I sallied forth into the town; the wind blew in gusts, and showers of rain were continually falling. We passed through some deserted and gloomy streets, and then traversed a wretched bazaar, canopied over head with strips of tattered canvass, and bordered on either side by paltry shops, some of which exposed a few. roots and withered vegetables, shrivelled figs, or musty beans, for sale; and others,

"How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people? how is she become as a wi-tawdry cottons, or soiled second-hand dow; she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary?"

"How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel?"

"The Lord hath caused the solemn fasts and the sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest.'

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clothes. The rain beat through my umbrella, and in dirt and discomfort we trudged up and down hill, through scenes of poverty and wretchedness, over stones, and through mud, until we at last arrived at the Armenian church, situated upon Mount Zion. We crossed a paved court, and putting aside a warm crimson silk curtain, which hung down before an arched doorway, great was my astonishment to find myself suddenly transported "All that pass by clap their hands at thee, from the mean miserable streets of Jerusasaying, Is this the city that men call the per- lem, into the richest and most gorgeously fection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" ornamented building I had seen since leavTruly we may now reply-"The Lord hath ing the cathedral church of St. John at done that which he devised; he hath fulfill-Malta. The walls were surrounded by ed his word that he commanded in the days pictures, the floor was covered with rich of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not warm Turkey carpets, and the vaulted pitied; and he hath caused thine enemy to ceiling was supported by square pillars, rejoice over thee." covered with Dutch tiles, painted blue, and After traversing various dark and nar-inscribed with crosses and holy devices. row streets, we arrived at the Latin Con- From this ceiling, suspended by cords, vent, where I was introduced to a venera-hung numerous large ostrich eggs, stained ble monk, with a long beard and a shaven with different colours; and around the crown, and was conducted by him through edifice extended richly adorned marble various long white-washed passages to the altar-pieces, and small chapels hung with apartment of the superior, a handsome lamps, and richly decorated with tortoiseroom wainscoted with Spanish oak. In an shell inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Numearm-chair, surrounded by a group of rous reverend old Armenians, with long monks, sat the venerable chief of the con-white flowing beards, were kneeling bare. vent, a jolly lively old man, very agreeable foot around the altars, and the gloom of the

day, the dim soft light shed around from terranean portico adorned with some anthe silver lamps, the low chant of the cient architectural decorations. This porpriest, and the moaning of the wind through tico opens on a series of subterranean some broken casements, produced a most chambers, which, from their elegance, powerful and imposing effect. magnitude, and extent, have been called We crossed the carpeted floor, and "the sepulchres of the kings," and are arrived at a beautiful little marble chapel, supposed to be the royal caves mentioned the doors of which were covered with by Josephus. Our guides produced and tortoise-shell inlaid with mother-of-pearl, lighted several wax candles, and we then worked into patterns of flowers of exquis- groped our way along a narrow subterraite beauty, taste, and gracefulness. In a nean passage, over stones and sand, to the small recess, lined with marble, and hung first chamber, which is about seven yards with massive silver lamps, all burning, a square, and most exactly proportioned small circle of inlaid tortoise-shell and Beyond this first room are six others, to mother-of-pearl on the marble floor was some of which we descended by several pointed out by the credulous Armenians steps. In most of these rooms are sepulas the identical spot where St. James was chral niches, and in the niches are fragbeheaded: and my Greek servant, kneel-ments of the stone sarcophagi which once ing down, crossed himself, and kissed it contained the dead bodies. Among them most reverently and devoutly! Above I observed some pieces of white marble hung a picture representing the head of sculptured with leaves and flowers. These the martyr. There are three altars in this sepulchral chambers were originally closed beautiful little sanctuary, gorgeously orna- with stone doors, similar to those seen in mented, and furnished with sacred vessels the baths and in the court of the Temple of of gold and silver, for sacrifice. the Sun at Palmyra. They are of one solid block of stone cut into wainscot com. partments, and turn on stone pivots grooved in the rock. The last of these sepulchral chambers is the handsomest of all; the corners of the rooms are adorned with pilasters, and the walls are sculptured with the leaves and branches of the vine, as are also the stone sarcophagi contained within it.

On entering another small side chapel, we were shown a much esteemed picture, representing the Day of Judgment, and the sad fate of the damned, who were rolling in a sea of fire, poked and stirred by legions of devils. The floor under the carpets is of rich mosaic, the walls are covered with Dutch tiles, and the richness and magnificence of the building were astonishing. It is remarkable that the In the absence of any authentic account Christians, the most despised race of all, concerning these sepulchres, they have excepting the Jews, in this land of oppres-been dubbed by antiquity hunters "the sion and persecution, should be able to sepulchres of the kings," so often alluded preserve this wealth, this tortoise-shell, to in the Old Testament. silver, and mother-of-pearl, from the hands of the avaricious rulers of the country. All the pillars, the sacristy, the portals of the doors, and great portions of the walls, are covered with blue porcelain tiles. this church they exhibit three stones regarded as most holy and sacred relics. One they affirm to be the identical stone on which Moses broke the tables of the law; another, the stone on which Jesus stood in the river Jordan, when he was baptized by St. John; and the third, they say, is a stone brought from the holy mountain of the Transfiguration !

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"Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings."

"So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers, in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings."

"And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem; but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel."

"And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David."-Chron. passim.

As these are the most extensive and the most richly adorned of all the countless sepulchral excavations about Jerusalem, there is good reason for giving them the appellation they have received; and if that appellation be correct, the last room, which contains so great a number of receptacles for dead bodies, and is adorned with so many elegantly carved decorations, is undoubtedly the "chiefest of the sepulchres," and the one in which king Hezekiah was buried.

When the rain ceased, we passed along some dull streets, and went out of the city, by the Damascus gate, to visit the sepulchres of the kings. We passed through a grove of thinly-scattered olive trees, and over a stony district covered with small square fragments of Mosaic pavement, the debris of the ancient city. Jerusalem appears to have extended for near a mile to the northward of the present walls, and near the extremity of this mile are numerous ancient sepulchral excavations, which seem to have been placed on the outskirts of the ancient town. After passing several On our way back to the city we picked of these, we descended by a narrow path-up quantities of small fragments of mosaic way into a hollow excavated in the rock, pavement, of the same kind as that I have at the upper end of which was a long sub-found on the sites of all the old Roman

towns. On the outskirts of the olive grove carved date stones and mother-of-pearl I was shown a subterranean ancient tomb, crucifixes of all sizes, mother-of-pearl which had for a long time been inhabited shells neatly carved, and representing the by a sick and infirm old man, and by the crucifixion, the birth of our Saviour, the side of a vaulted subterranean passage I annunciation to the Virgin, and other sa observed a white marble sarcophagus, cred subjects, well executed in bas-relief. which was very handsomely sculptured. It was a complete auction, and the greatest As we drew near the Bab el Scham, or noise, bustle, and confusion prevailed "Damascus gate," a small grot was pointed out near the walls of the city, as the dungeon in which Jeremiah was imprisoned by order of Zedekiah, king of Judah, and from whence he was released by Ebed Melech, the Ethiopian, "who drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon."-Jer. xxxviii.

On my return home I was informed that at four o'clock one of the monks would call to conduct me to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and I employed the intermediate time in looking over some of the accounts which have been written to prove that the marble sarcophagus there shown, is really the tomb of our Lord-a fact which, in the estimation of the worthy monks, it is the height of impiety to deny, as they are, say they, in possession of docu. mentary evidence amounting to proof positive on the subject.

among the venders of the different wares and their customers, some of whom appeared to be quarrelling and fighting over their goods; and the scene generally was far from being in unison with the feelings one naturally experiences when about to enter for the first time the great christian church of Jerusalem.

The first object that I encountered in passing through the porch of the church was my old friend and fellow traveller, the Greek Pappas, who was now dressed in full canonicals, and was quite an imposing figure. In his hand he held a long staff, and a dark purple robe was wound round his person; his head was covered with a tall black priest's hat without any brims to it, and from his neck hung suspended a large silver crucifix. He was kneeling on the marble pavement with his hands clasped in prayer, and he occasionally stooped and kissed a large slab of marble, which I was informed was the identical stone whereon Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus placed the body of Jesus, when

spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury !"-John xix. At each end of this stone were placed three enormous silver candlesticks, which, with the candles they contained, appeared from ten to twelve feet in height. Numerous pilgrims, in long beards and in humble attire, were kneeling with devout reverence around the sacred stone, and seven massive silver lamps, hanging from above, shed a pale and softened light upon the interesting scene. It was quite a picture. From the wall behind projected two richly gilded balconies, and between them two large pictures were dimly seen, the one representing the anointing the body of our Saviour, and the other the taking down from the cross.

The tomb of our Saviour, according to the monkish authorities, was discovered and enclosed in a building by the primitive Christians, forty-six years after the destruction of the city by Titus. This build." they wound it in linen clothes with the ing was afterwards wrested from their hands and converted into a Temple of Venus by the Emperor Hadrian; but, on the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, the pious Empress Helena, his mother, on her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, erected a large church on the spot, and enclosed within it the identical marble sarcophagus alleged to be the tomb of Jesus Christ. There has been a world of discussion upon the subject, but unfortunately the minute identification of every place and thing by the monks and priests, down to the pots and pans mentioned in the gospel narrative, naturally predisposes the mind to be very credulous, and to listen with great doubt to all the priestly assertions and testimonies upon the subject. St. Mark simply tells us that Joseph laid the body of our Saviour "in a sepulchre which was hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone to the door of the sepulchre."

The reverend monk, now pointing to a door to the left of the vestibule, requested me to enter “the church of the Holy Sepulchre." We passed outwards into a vast circular hall, surrounded by a spaAt the appointed hour I proceeded with cious and lofty dome of a hundred and the worthy monk to the consecrated fifty feet in height, and fifty-eight feet in church, and after traversing some narrow diameter, surrounded by sixteen columns dark winding streets, up and down hill, we supporting a circular gallery. At the indescended some steps, and entered a stant of our entrance a fine organ and a large open court in front of a massive and full choir of voices pealed along the aisles venerable pile of buildings, flanked by a of the adjoining Catholic church, and the square bell tower, and surmounted by two solemn melody swelled with thrilling large domes of imposing appearance. Di- effect through the columns and along the rectly in front was a large doorway form vaulted roof of the spacious dome. We ing the principal entrance to the church, paused, and the reverend monk pointed in and the area in front of the building was a dignified and solemn manner to a little entirely filled with a motley collection of marble structure rising from the pavement individuals who were selling rosaries of under the centre of the dome, which he in

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