CHAP.
VII.

a remnant of the original sepulchre can now be
ascertained. Yet, with our sceptical feelings
thus awakened, it may prove how powerful the
effect of sympathy is, if we confess that, when
we entered into the supposed sepulchre, and
beheld, by the light of lamps, there continually
burning, the venerable figure of an aged monk,
with streaming eyes, and a long white beard,
pointing to the place "where the body of our
Lord was," and calling upon us "to kneel and
experience pardon for our sins".
-we did
kneel, and we participated in the feelings of
more credulous pilgrims. Captain Culverhouse,
in whose mind the ideas of religion and of
patriotism were inseparable, with firmer emo-
tion, drew from its scabbard the sword he had
so often wielded in the defence of his country,
and placed it upon the tomb. Humbler comers
heaped the memorials of an accomplished pil-
grimage; and while their sighs alone inter-
rupted the silence of the sanctuary, a solemn
service was begun. Thus ended our visit to the
Sepulchre.

If the reader have caught a single spark of this enthusiasm, it were perhaps sacrilegious to dissipate the illusion. But much remains untold. Every thing beneath this building seems

common sense.

discordant, not only with history, but with It is altogether such a work as might naturally be expected from the infatuated superstition of an old woman, as was Helena, subsequently enlarged by ignorant priests. Forty paces from the Sepulchre, beneath the roof of the same church, and upon the same level, are shewn two rooms, one above another. Close by the entrance to the lower chamber, or chapel, are the Tombs of Godfrey of Boulogne, and of Baldwin, kings of Jerusalem, with inscriptions in Latin, in the old Gothic character. These have been copied into almost every book of Travels, from the time of Sandys' to the present day. At the extremity of this chapel they exhibit a fissure or cleft in the natural rock; and this, they say, happened at the Crucifixion. Who shall presume to contradict the tale? but, to complete the naïveté of the tradition, it is also added, that THE HEAD OF ADAM WAS FOUND WITHIN THE FISSURE. Then, if the traveller have not already heard and seen enough to make him regret his wasted time, he may ascend, by a few steps, into a

CHAP.
VII.

(1) See Sandys' Travels, p. 163. Lond. 1637. Doubdan Voyage de la T. S. p. 71. Paris, 1657, &c. &c.

CHAP.
VII.

room above. There they will shew him the same crack again; and immediately in front of it, a modern altar. This altar they venerate as Mount Calvary, the place of crucifixion; exhibiting upon this contracted piece of masonry the marks, or holes, of the three crosses, without the smallest regard to the space necessary for their erection. Afterwards he may be conducted through such a farrago of absurdities, that it is wonderful the learned men, who have described Jerusalem, should have filled their pages with any serious detail of them. Nothing, however, can surpass the fidelity with which Sandys has particularized every circumstance of all this trumpery; and his rude cuts are characterized by equal exactness'. Among others, should be mentioned the place where the Cross was found ; because the identity of the timber, which has since supplied all Christendom with its relics, was confirmed by a miracle,-proof equally infallible

(1) These designs were first cut for Cotovicus, in brass; and re-engraved, on the same metal, for Sandys.

(2) "Another time he was telling of an old sign-post that belonged to his father, with nails and timber enough in it to build sixteen large men of war." Tale of a Tub. See Swift's Works, vol. I. p. 79. Edinb. 1761.

(3) The Jews, being tortured, by the doting old Empress and her priests, to make known, three hundred years after the Crucifixion, the

situation

VII.

with that afforded by the eagle at the tomb of CHAP. Theseus, in the isle of Scyra, when Cimon the Athenian sought the bones of the son of Ægeus.

the Survey

It is time to quit these degrading fallacies; to break from our Monkish instructors; and, instead of viewing Jerusalem as pilgrims, to examine it by the light of History, with the Bible in our hands. We shall thus find many interesting objects of contemplation. If Mount Plan for Calvary have sunk beneath the overwhelming of the City. influence of superstition, studiously endeavouring, during so many ages, to modify and to disfigure it; if the situation of Mount Sion yet remain to be ascertained; the Mount of Olives, undisguised by fanatical labours, exhibits the appearance it presented in all the periods of its history. From its elevated summit almost all the principal features of the city may be discerned and the changes that eighteen

crosses.

situation of our Saviour's cross, contrived at last to produce three
This caused a woful dilemma, as it was not easy to ascertain
which of those three belonged to our SAVIOUR. Macarius, bishop of
Jerusalem, soon decided this point, by touching the body of a woman
who had "an incurable disorder" with these crosses. Her miraculous
cure made known " the true cross." See Sandys, p. 169. Lond. 1637.
(4) Plutarch, in Thes.

(5) See Reland. Palæst. Illust. tom. II. pp. 845, 846, et seq. Traj. Bat. 1714.

CHAP.
VII.

centuries have
have wrought in its topography
may perhaps be ascertained.

The features of Nature continue the same, although works of art have been done away: the beautiful Gate of the Temple is no more; but Siloa's fountain haply flows, and Kedron sometimes murmurs in the Valley of Jehosaphat'.

It was this resolve, and the determination of using our own eyes, instead of peering through the spectacles of priests, that led to the discovery of antiquities undescribed by any author: and marvellous it is, considering their magnitude, and the scrutinizing inquiry which has been so often directed to every object of the place, that these antiquities have hitherto escaped notice. It is possible that their position, and their inscriptions, may serve to throw new light upon the situation of SION, and the topography of the antient city. This, however, will be a subject for the investigation of future travellers. We must content ourselves with

(1) "Torrens hic est verò nomine, quum æstivo tempore flumen esse desinat, et vallis nomen habeat, adeoque sicco pede transeatur." Relandi Pal. Illust. tom. I. p. 294. lib. i. cap. 45.

(2) Perhaps Sandys alludes to them in his brief notice of "divers Sepulchres," &c. following his description of ACELDAMA. See p. 187. Lond 1637.