_The Cross given by Richard I. to the Patriarch of Antioch._--The "hero
of Acre," Sir Sidney Smith, received from the hands of the Archbishop of
Cyprus, in the name of a grateful people, a cross of which the tradition
was, that it had been given by King Richard Coeur de Lion to the
Patriarch of Antioch, when he went to Palestine on the third Croisade.
This gift was preserved by Sir Sidney with the care due to a relique so
venerable in its associations; and it was bequeathed by him to the
Convent of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, at Paris, as successors
of the Templars, from whose Order it originally came. He directed that
it should be worn by the grand masters in perpetuity. In the
biographical memoirs of Sir Sidney Smith, published a few years ago, the
cross is stated to be preserved in the house of the Order at Paris.
Perhaps some member of the Order residing there would take the trouble
to give some description of this interesting relique, and would say
whether its style and character are consistent with the tradition of its
antiquity? I am not at all acquainted with the evidence on which the
tradition rests; but any particulars relating to such a relique must be
interesting to the countrymen of the illustrious admiral, and would much
oblige his godson,