in relief. In most of these chambers, were also seen fragments of the stone doors which closed the innermost sepulchres. They were of the same stone as the excavation itself, a coarse yellowish marble; and were, in general, about the size of a common door in length and breadth, and three or four inches in thickness. They were pannelled by little mouldings, in two divisions, above and below, exactly in the way in which our modern doors are made in England; and are said, in this particular, to resemble the pair of stone doors still hanging in the Pantheon at Rome.

The whole of this monument, both within and without, displays great care in the execution, and a regularity not often observable in the more ancient excavations of this nature. For myself, I should not conceive it to be of very high antiquity, either from its interior plan, or from its exterior ornaments. The observation of Maundrell, that none of the kings either of Israel or Judah were buried here, is sufficiently well-founded to prevent this being considered as a work of the Jewish monarchy *; and the description of Hezekiah's interment has no local details from which one could safely infer that he was placed in this sepulchre, since the Chronicles say merely, " And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David and all Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, did him honour at his death. †

The reasoning of M. Chateaubriand to prove this monument the tomb of Herod the Tetrarch, appears to me by no means sufficiently borne out by the premises to decide certainly ‡thereon; and even the theories of Pococke §, and Clarke ||, are liable to some objections. Indeed, considering the changes of masters which Jerusalem has suffered, and the consequent variation in the taste of its possessors, it is at this moment a matter of extreme difficulty to separate the monuments of high antiquity from those

Maundrell, p. 102.
Vol. ii. p. 105.

§ Ibid, p. 20.

+ 2 Chronicles, xxxii. 33.
|| Ibid, p. 596.

of a more modern age, or to decide what parts of their remains preserve their original form, and what parts have been subsequently altered or ornamented by later hands. This, however, is certain, that among all the monuments which we had this day visited in the environs of Jerusalem, and of which this is by far the largest, the most expensive, and the most interesting, there is not one which can be called either "enormous" or " splendid," without the strangest abuse of these terms. *

As a proof that even those who are very pious may entertain contemptible opinions of the extent and riches of the Holy Land, a passage may be given here from an English pilgrim, who visited it about the year 1600. He concludes the account which he has given of the Holy City, with these words: "Thus have I described the city of Jerusalem as it is now built, with all the notable places therein, and near unto the same, and the country about it, by which comparisons you may well understand the situation of most of the places near unto it; and thereby you may perceive that it was but a small country, and a very little plot of ground which the Israelites possessed in the land of Canaan, which, as now, is a very barren country; for that within fifteen miles of Jerusalem, the country is wholly barren, and full of rocks, and stony; and unless it be about the plain of Jericho, I know not any part of the country at this present, that is fruitful." Thus far is a simple declaration of what the pilgrim witnessed. The reasons which he gives for the change, and the proofs which he adduces to show the utterly destitute state of its inhabitants through its barrenness, are too curious to be omitted. He continues: "What hath been in times past, I refer you to the declaration thereof made in the Holy Scriptures. My opinion is, that when it was fruitful, and a land that flowed with milk and honey, that then God blessed it, and that as then they followed his commandments; but now, being inhabited by infidels that profane the name of Christ, and live in all filthy and beastly manner, God curseth it, and so it is made barren; for it is so barren, that I could get no bread when I came near unto it; for that one night as I lodged short of Jerusalem, at a place called in the Arabian tongue, Cuda Chenaleb, I sent a Moor to the house (not far from where we had pitched our tents) to get some bread, and he brought me word that there was no bread there to be had, and that the man of that house did never eat bread in all his life, but only dried dates, nor any of his household; whereby you may partly perceive the barrenness of the country at this day, only, as I suppose, by the curse that God layeth upon the same. For that they use the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah very much in that country, whereby the poor Christians who inhabit therein are glad to marry their daughters at twelve years of age unto Christians, lest the Turks should ravish them. And, to conclude, there is not that sin in the world, but it is used there among those infidels that now inhabit therein; and yet it is called Terra Sancta, and, in the Arabian tongue, Cuthea, which is, the Holy Land, bearing the name only, and no more; for all holiness is clean banished from thence by those thieves, filthy Turks, and infidels, that inhabit the same."— Harleian Miscellany, vol. iii. p. 341.

E E

In almost every part of Upper Egypt, there are grottoes, scarcely visited from their comparative insignificance, which are superior in design, richer in ornament, and costing more labour in execution, than any ancient monument in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The hewing out and transportation of the two obelisks at Alexandria, mere specks amid the numerous and splendid embellishments of Egypt, would have required more time and expence than the excavation of any cavern near this city. The tombs in the mountains at Siout, an inconsiderable settlement, those still more numerous at Eliethias, the grottoes of El Kourno, and, in short, a hundred others that could be named as among the commonest monuments of that country, are all superior to those here. If such be the case, the pyramids of Memphis, the palace of Abydos, the sanctuary of Tentyra, the colossal statues and sphinxes, the tombs and temples of Thebes, and the less-known, but still more beautiful and surprising monuments of Nubia, with the gigantic grottoes of Girshé, Meshgarah, and Ipsamboul, so eclipse in splendour and in size the poor remains which are found around this far-famed capital of Judea, that, on comparing them together, one cannot help applying to the latter the terms of "paltry” and “ insignificant." All these ideas of beauty and of greatness, are, however, quite relative: what would be thought "superb" and "magnificent" in one age and country, would be scarcely esteemed in another; and what would be beheld with wonder by one person, a second would regard with indifference.

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On quitting these sepulchres of the kings, we continued to approach the city in a southerly direction, and after nearly half an hour's walk, came to an enclosure at the foot of a large quarry, in which is shown a grotto and a recess in the rock, said to have been the bed of the prophet Jeremiah. Within the same enclosure, there is a spot thought to be that on which he wrote his Lamentations over the Holy City. This place is in possession of the Turks, who hold it in extreme veneration; but, as it was shut up, we could only look down into it from above.

It was just sun-set when we reached the Damascus gate, to return to the convent; and having performed the whole of this day's excursion on foot, over the most rocky and rugged roads that could be trodden, besides crawling into all the grottoes we had seen, we were sufficiently fatigued to render repose exceedingly desirable.

JANUARY 22. Having procured Turkish dresses for myself and my servant, we to-day put off our European clothes, which were sent to the young Frenchman, whom I had seen in distress at Jaffa; and after these duties of the morning were passed through, I accompanied Mr. Bankes in returning a visit to the Abyssinian prince who had visited us two days before. We found him lodged in the Coptic Convent, which includes an assemblage of small rooms around a large paved court adjoining to the Holy