corpulent than any of his companions. In all the convents I had ever visited (and these are not few in number,) I had never beheld such friars as the Franciscans of St. Salvador. The figures sometimes brought upon the stage, to burlesque the monasterial character, may convey some notion of their appearance. The guardians of the Holy Sepulchre, or, according to the name they bear, the Terra-Santa friars, are confined to the walls of their comfortable convent, which, when compared with the usual accommodations of the Holy Land, is like a sumptuous and well furnished hotel, open to all comers whom curiosity or devotion may bring to this mansion of rest and refreshment.

After being regaled with coffee and some delicious lemonade, we were shown to our apartments to repose ourselves until supper. The room allotted to our English party we found to be the same which many travellers have before described. It was clean, and its walls were whitewashed. The beds also had a cleanly appearance; although a few bugs warned us to spread our hammocks upon the floor, where we slept for once unmolested. Upon the substantial door of this chamber, whose roof was of vaulted stone, the names of many English travellers had been carved. Among others we had the satisfaction to notice that of Thomas Shaw, the most learned writer who has yet appeared in descriptions of the Levant. Dr. Shaw had slept in the same apartment seventy-nine years before our coming.

A plentiful supper was served in a large room called the Pilgrim's Chamber. Almost all the monks, together with

their superior, were present. These men did not eat with us; having their meals private. After we had supped, and retired to the dormitory, one of the friars, an Italian, in the dress worn by the Franciscans, came into our apartment, and, giving us a wink, took some bottles of Noyau from his bosom, desiring us to taste it: he said that he could supply us with any quantity or quality of the best liqueurs, either for our consumption while we staid, or for our journey. We asked him whence it was obtained; and he informed us that he made it; explaining the nature of his situation in the monastery, by saying that he was a confectioner; that the monks employed him in works of ornament suited to profession; but that his principal employment was t manufacture of liqueurs.*

A large part of this convent, surrounding an elevated open court or terrace, is appropriated to the reception of pilgrims; for whose maintenance the monks have considerable funds, the result of donations from Catholics of all ranks, but especially from Catholic princes. These contributions are sometimes made in cash, and often in effects, in merchandise, and stores for the convent. We mention, by way of example, one article equally rare and grateful to weary English travellers in the Levant; namely, tea. Of this they had an immense provision, and of the finest quality. Knowing from long habit in waiting upon pilgrims, the taste of different nations, they most hospitably entertain their comers

*Perhaps for sale among the Mahometans; who will make any sacrifice to obtain drams of this nature.

according to the notions they have acquired. If a table be provided for Englishmen or for Dutchmen, they supply it copiously with tea. This pleasing and refreshing beverage was served every morning and evening while we remained, in large bowls, and we drank it out of pewter porringers. For this salutary gift the monks positively refused to accept our offers of compensation, at a time when a few drachms of any kind of tea could with difficulty be procured, from the English ships in the Mediterranean, at the most enormous prices.

Persons who have not travelled in these latitudes will perhaps not readily conceive the importance of such an acquisition. The exhausted traveller, reduced by continual fever, and worn by incessant toil, without a hope of any comfortable repose, experiences in this infusion the most cooling and balsamic virtues: the heat of his blood abates; his spirits revive; his parched skin relaxes; his strength is renovated. As almost all the disorders of the country, and particularly those to which a traveller is most liable, originate in obstructed perspiration, the medicinal properties of tea in this country may perhaps explain the cause of its long celebrity in China. Jerusalem is in the same latitude with Nankin, and it is eight degrees farther to the south than Pekin; the influence of climate and of medicine, in disorders of the body, may therefore perhaps be similar. Certain it is, that travellers in China, so long ago as the ninth century, mention an infusion made from the leaves of a certain

herb, named Sah, as a cure for all diseases; which is proved to be the same now called tea by European nations.

Next day we descended from the monastery to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, attended by several pilgrims, bearing with them rosaries and crucifixes for consecration in the tomb of Jesus Christ. We came to a goodly structure, whose external appearance resembled that of an ordinary Roman Catholic church. Over the door we observed a basrelief, executed in a style of sculpture meriting more attention than it has hitherto received. At first sight it seemed of higher antiquity than the existence of any place of Christian worship; but upon a nearer view, we recognised the history of the Messiah's entry into Jerusalem - the multitude strewing palm branches before him. The figures were very numerous. Perhaps it may be considered as offering an example of the first work in which Pagan sculptors represented a Christian theme.

Entering the church, the first thing they showed to us was a slab of white marble in the pavement, surrounded by a rail. It seemed like one of the grave-stones in the floor of our English churches. This, they told us, was the spot where our Saviour's body was anointed by Joseph of Arimathea. We next advanced towards a dusty fabric, standing, like a huge pepper-box, in the midst of the principal aisle, and beneath the main dome. This rested upon a building, partly circular, and partly oblong, as upon a pedestal. The interior of this strange fabric is divided into two parts.

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JERUSALEM AND THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.

Having entered the first part, which is a kind of antechapel, they show you, before the mouth of what is called the Sepulchre, the stone whereon the angel sat: this is a block of white marble, neither corresponding with the mouth of the Sepulchre, nor with the substance from which it must have been hewn: for the rocks of Jerusalem are all of common compact limestone.* Shaw, speaking of the Holy Sepulchre, says, that all the surrounding rocks were cut away, to form the level of the church; so that now it is 'a grotto above ground;' but even this is not true: there are no remains whatsoever of any ancient known sepulchre, that, with the most attentive and scrupulous examination, we could possibly discover. The sides consist of thick slabs of that beautiful breccia, vulgarly called Verde-antique marble; and over the entrance, which is rugged and broken, owing to the pieces carried off as relics, the substance is of the same nature. All that can, therefore, now be affirmed with any shadow of reason is, that if Helena had reason to believe she could identify the spot where the Sepulchre was, she took especial care to remove every existing trace of it, in order to introduce the fanciful and modern work which now remains.

The place may be the same pointed out to her; but not a remnant of the original Sepulchre can now be ascertained. Yet, with all our skeptical feelings thus awakened, it may

* According to some, however, the stone belonging to the mouth of the Sepulchre is preserved elsewhere; and this is said to be a part of the tomb, placed to receive the kisses of the pilgrims.