would have been its principal treasure, the curious and valuable manuscripts collected by Nichon during his supremacy, are now, I believe, in the Emperor's possession. None are here. Two relics were shewn to us; one, a history of the world written in the Patriarch's own hand, and the other a copy of the sacred Scriptures with his revisions and remarks. We saw several large portraits of this extraordinary man; but from the style, I doubt their being likenesses. Our hospitable conductor now led us into his own apartments, where we took refreshments of coffee, &c. before he attended us to the interior and environs of the building. We passed out at a little gothic gate, and shaped our course along the foot of the embattled walls, and through a romantic wood, gradually descending the hill on which the New Jerusalem towered above us. We soon found ourselves on an extensive plain beautifully enriched with trees, and watered by the Jordan and Euphrates. To be sure the latter river has made rather a jump from the plains of Babylon to meet the Judean flood under the walls of this monastery. But if its Patriarch could bring the Jordan from its native springs so far, it required very little more stretch of power to transport the Euphrates also; and he was very right to fulfil all his wishes while he was about it. Here then flowed the two famous rivers of Palestine and Assyria; and though in miniature, the effect was fine and solemn. The convent rose majestically amidst the thick umbrage of the wood; and its golden domes and high minarets shone in religious magnificence from that commanding spot. My sketch will give you a slight idea of its bold and interesting situation and for your sake, as well as my own, I cannot but lament that I have not the pencil of a Loutherbourgh or a Wilson, more sublimely to pourtray the grand objects of this country. |