ther it is composed of the same species of stone, as the rocks which adjoin the city: the opinion, therefore, which a writer in one of the periodical journals has adopted, in reference to this part of the subject, seems scarcely entitled to any particular attention.-His subsequent observations may be perused with much interest:

"The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews expressly affirms, that as the bodies of the beasts sacrificed under the law, were burned without the camp, so Jesus suffered without the gate; and he intimates that a degree of ignominy was attached to his being cast out of the holy city. The manner in which the Evangelists also describe his being 'led away,' and 'going forth,' would authorize a similar conclusion as to 'the place' being without the walls of Jerusalem, even if St. John had not added, that 'the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city,' which is decisive as to its not being within it. That it was on a mount, is no where affirmed in the sacred records: it is equally probable, that it was upon an open space, adapted to the assembling of a great concourse of people, and abandoned to the purposes of judicial executions and of public burial. In like manner, when St. Stephen was stoned, the Jews were first careful to cast him out of the city. It is by no means improbable, that the proto-martyr sealed his testimony in the very place' in which his Lord had recently suffered. In this wild waste, however, there was a garden, enclosed as it should seem by the proprietor, as a private cemetery; and in this garden was a sepulchre, formed, as Dr. Clarke with great plausibility conjectures, by excavating the lateral surface of a lofty rock. Of such sepulchres or soroi, he witnessed numerous specimens. And to the door of this sepulchre was rolled a great stone; which answers to this idea of its structure. The watch set by the Jews, in order to prevent the body from being stolen, was evidently at a sufficient distance from Jerusalem to allow of an interview taking

place between our Lord and his disciples, before some of the watch came back into the city, to inform the chief priests of what had occurred, (Matth. xxviii. 11.) What now bears the name of mount Calvary, appears in no one respect to answer to these indications of the locality. Is it not very possible, that the original structure was designed rather to commemorate the transaction than to mark the identity of the spot?that it was simply dedicated in the first instance to the Holy Sepulchre?—that the name of the place where our Lord suffered, was subsequently transferred to the mount which the Empress Helena chose to pitch upon for the purpose of the edifice?-and that the block of white marble now shewn as the actual tomb of our Saviour, and what Dr. Clarke terms the huge pepperbox,' represented in the frontispiece to the present volume, had an origin similar to that of the other undoubted relics, which constitute the holy wealth of monasteries and churches? Cases analogous to the one we are supposing, are by no means of rare occurrence in the annals of the Romish Church. Many an abbey or cathedral has owed its erection to a relic, or some other ingenious invention for rendering a chosen locality productive to its possessors by its reputed sanctity. The present volume supplies numerous instances of like absurdities: e. g. About two miles from Jerusalem is a cavern near the way side, used as a reservoir for water. 'From thence,' said the conductor of our travellers, arose the luminous spark, which guided the eastern sages to the place of the nativity!!' We need not remark on the obvious expediency of bringing all the 'holy places' as much as possible within the city, notwithstanding any trifling deviations from historical or geographical accuracy. Had the church of the Holy Sepulchre been erected out of Jerusalem, it would not have survived the fury of Mahommedan invaders. Nor would it have been so prudentially placed, as regards the convenience of the holy brotherhood, its guardians; nor would it have been so completely

under the watchful superintendance of the Turkish Government, who, turning to good account the curiosity or zeal of the pilgrim, compel every person not subject to the Porte, who visits the shrine of Jesus Christ, to pay a tax of twenty-five sequins.' These considerations may serve to strengthen the conjecture, that historical verity would not be the only thing to determine the original discoverers and consecrators of the places marked out by tradition for the veneration of the faithful."

ECLECTIC REVIEW, February, 1820.
Art. V. Letters from Palestine.

LETTER XIV.

To SIR G. E

-T, BART.

Jerusalem.

MY DEAR CHevalier,

A MARRIAGE was celebrated in the convent this morning at a very early hour. The ceremony began with the first blush of the dawn, and its conclusion was announced by a burst of joyous exultation from the friends of the bridegroom, who rushed through the galleries and public areas of the monastery shouting and singing, in a tone rather less musical than the chimes of a cathedral, but infinitely surpassing them in violence.

The ecclesiastical proceedings observed on this occasion were precisely those of the Catholic church as exhibited in Europe. You shall not, therefore, be wearied by any detail on such subject; I will only add a few observations on the bride's dress.

The female costume of Palestine is not particularly graceful. The outward robe consists of a loose gown, the skirts of which appear as if hanging from the shoulder-blades; the arms, wrists, and ankles, are bound with broad metal rings, and the waist is encircled by a belt, profusely studded with some shining substance, intended, probably, to resemble precious stones: but the bosom, "that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps most beautiful," is so entirely neglected as to be suffered to fall nearly to the stomach. The crown of the head is covered with a compact sort of net-work, interwrought with plates of gold and silver, so arranged as to conceal a part only of the hair, which flows in profuse ringlets over the neck and shoulders; yet even this natural ornament is much injured by a custom, very prevalent, of interweaving the extremities with silk ribbons, that descend in twisted folds to the feet. The supplemental tresses would inevitably trail on the ground, were it not for the high clogs, or rather stilts, on which women of condition are always raised, when they appear in public: many of these are of an extravagant altitude, and if the decorations of the head were of correspondent dimensions, a lady's face would seem as if fixed