In the next letter, the Rev. W. Harris writes to Mrs. Harris thus:--

'I met Mr. Handel a few days since in the street, and

stopped and put him in mind who I was; upon which, I am

sure it would have diverted you to have seen his antic

motions. He seemed highly pleased, and was full of inquiry

after you. I told him I was very confident that you

expected a visit from him this summer (at Salisbury). He

talked much of his precarious state of health, yet he looks

well enough.'

Handel recovered from the mental affection; and five years later (1750)

we find the Earl of Shaftesbury writing of him as follows:--

'I have seen Handel several times since I came hither (to

London), and I think I never saw him so cool and well. He

is quite easy in his behaviour, and has been pleasing

himself in the purchase of several fine pictures,

particularly a large Rembrandt, which is indeed excellent.

We have scarce talked at all about musical subjects, though

enough to find that his performances will go off

incomparably.'

Music appears to have held a more prominent place in public amusements a

century ago than is generally imagined; and when Giardini undertook the

management of the Opera 'at the great house in the Haymarket' in 1764,

Mrs. Harris opines that he will meet with no small difficulty, because

the 'greatest part of the orchestra, and almost all the dancers, are

engaged at the _play-houses_.' Giardini--a Piedmontese violinist and

composer, who, after residing thirty years in England, went to Russia,

where he died in 1793--came to grief in this operatic venture, and

afterwards started an Opera in 'Mrs. Cornely's' rooms. Indeed, the

Haymarket house, great as its celebrity became in the present century,

was by no means a famous place in those times. In the same year (1764)

we read in one of the letters, 'Almack is going to build some most

magnificent rooms behind his house--one much larger than that at

Carlisle House,' _i.e._, Mrs. Cornely's. This latter was the favourite

place of resort at that time, and for many years afterwards. It was a

place where subscription-concerts were held (one series mentioned in

1764, consisted of twenty-one concerts, of Bach's music, Cocchi's, and

Abel's, for five guineas), where the Opera for some time had its seat;

and also where masquerade parties and other fashionable entertainments

were held. In 1770, we read of 'fifteen or sixteen young men of fashion

and fortune giving a masquerade at Cornely's, to 800 people;' and in the

following year we have a full account of a masquerade given at the same

place by 'the gentlemen of the Tuesday Nights' Club.' Mrs. Harris,

writing to her son (the future Earl) at Madrid, says: 'Mr. Charles Fox

has offered to supply us with tickets. Your sisters and I mean to go;

'tis the only masquerade I wish them to go to. I shall try my utmost to

persuade Mr. Harris (her husband) to accompany us. One difficulty is in

the way; that is, no gentlemen are admitted in dominos.' Mr. Harris

could not be persuaded to join the fashionable assembly, but Mr.

Fox--who had just commenced his official career, as a Lord of the

Admiralty--was, at that time, more at home in such parties than in

Parliament. Mrs. Harris was greatly delighted with it. The following is

part of her account of it:--

'Gertrude (Miss Harris) was dressed as the Pythian, that

is, priestess to the temple of Apollo, a dress which she

wore in one of the private plays. Louisa was an Indian

Princess; Mr. Cambridge borrowed a dress for her which was

pretty and fine--the habit, muslin with green and gold

sprigs, with a turban and veil. I never saw anybody enter

so strongly into the spirit of a masquerade as she did. She

talked to numbers all in French, and had disguised her

voice so well that even some of her friends did not

discover her. Towards the end, she said she was frightened

by the Devil speaking to her sister. Mine was a white

domino, with a Mary Queen of Scots cap and ruff.

'Lord Edgecombe was a shepherdess, with a little lamb under

his arm, and a most excellent figure he was. Mr. Banbury

was a most excellent _friseur_; Lord Berkeley, a charlatan.

Mrs. Crewe[9] looked beautiful as a nun with a yellow veil.

Several gentlemen in women's clothes, not as old women....

'On the whole we are greatly entertained, for it was the

first masked ball I ever saw. We supped soon after one; and

then everybody unmasked, and a number of acquaintances we

found, though we had found out many before. We got home

soon after five; and, old as I may be, I never left a

public place with more regret.'

Mrs. Cornely's rooms soon became the object of a jealous, and let us

hope unfounded, attack. Giardini had opened an Opera there, which was

'greatly injuring that of Mr. Hobart's in the Haymarket;' and the latter

gentleman 'informed against them' as an unlicensed house. There was a

strong party on either side, 'harmoniacs' and 'anti-harmoniacs,' and the

latter party brought forward scandalous charges. Only a week after the

above-mentioned masquerade, Mrs. Harris writes thus:--

'The Harmoniac is over, and, what is worse, they threaten

hard to indict Mrs. Cornely's as a house of ill-fame, and

say that forty beds are made and unmade every day, which is

hard, for a friend of ours says it is never more than

_twenty_. But, joking apart, if they choose to demolish

Mrs. Cornely, all elegance and spectacle will end in this

town; for she never yet had her equal in these things, and

I believe got but little, as all she undertakes is clever

to a degree.'

There is a wonderful want of logical sequence in these few lines; and as

to whether the scandalous charge was true or false, Mrs. Harris apparently

was as little in a position to judge as we are now. Mrs. Cornely was

originally Mademoiselle Pompeiati, a singer. She hired Carlisle House,

in Soho-square, and established balls and assemblies by subscription.

This place of fashionable resort, however, as well as its mistress,

quickly thereafter declined in reputation. In 1774, we find Mrs. Harris

writing:--'I went to Carlysle House, which Bach has taken for his

concerts; the furniture, like Mrs. Cornely, is much on the decline; but,

in my opinion, the place is better for the concert than Almack's.' Bach

soon left these rooms, and opened a place of his own, splendidly fitted

up. But even he was not allowed to carry on his performances without

opposition, although of a different kind from that which proved fatal to

Mrs. Cornely. 'Lord Hillsborough, Sir James Porter, and some others

(writes Mrs. Harris) have entered into a subscription to prosecute Bach

for a nuisance, and I was told the jury had found a bill against him.

One would scarce imagine his house could molest either of these men, for

Bach's is at the corner of Hanover-street.'

Amateur theatrical performances were in those days in great vogue among

the upper classes, and usually took place in the country residences of

the nobility and gentry in the winter months--during the Parliamentary

recess, when even members of the Ministry (notably Mr. Fox) took part in

them. Winterslow House was the famous place for these amateur

performances. The ordinary audience consisted of the servants of the

house and the neighbouring townspeople, as well as a select circle of

visitors, which on one occasion included the Duke and Duchess of

Queensberry, the Duchess of Bedford, Lord and Lady Pembroke, Lady

Charles and Lord Robert Spencer, Lord Dunkellin, Lady Louisa

Fitzpatrick, &c. At the close of one of those performances at Winterslow

House (in January, 1774), in which Mr. Fox and another member of his

family acted, a lamentable accident occurred, which destroyed the

greater part of the mansion. Mrs. Harris writes of it next day as

follows:--

'We got home in whole bones [an allusion apparently to the

bad roads] soon after one, and in high spirits; but our joy

is now turned to sorrow, for this morning, at five, a fire

broke out in the new building at Winterslow House, and

entirely consumed that and also the old house, except the

kitchen and laundry. Though the house was full of company,

fortunately no life was lost. The fire was discovered by

some Salisbury chairmen, who, for want of a bed, were

deposited on a carpet under the great stairs; they alarmed

the house, and probably, thereby, saved some lives. Lady

Pembroke, Lady Mary Fox and her children, were carried to

King's House; Miss Herbert, Mrs. Hodges, and the other

ladies stayed in the laundry; all the gentlemen stood by.

As they had no engines, and little or no water but violent

rain, they in a manner gave up all hopes of the house; but

their object was to save the furniture, in which they have

succeeded, though 'tis greatly damaged by dirt and rain.

'Tis thought, but not certain, that the fire was owing to

some timber near a chimney in the new building. I think of

the contrast: we left that house this morning between

twelve and one, all mirth and jollity, and by seven it was

consumed; it really hurts me when I think how many

agreeable days I have spent in those rooms.

'Some say that, during the flames, Stephen and Charles Fox

and Fitzpatrick got to a proper distance, and laid bets as

to which beam would fall in first. The friends of the

house, who resort to Almack's and White's, say they are

sorry they were not at Winterslow that night, as "they

might have had an opportunity of seeing the family in a

_new light_. I could mention profane things uttered at the

very time, but they are too bad."

Amateur dramatic and operatic performances were a frequent amusement at

Mr. Harris's house in Salisbury. Miss Gertrude, the elder daughter, was

an adept in such performances, and, moreover, retained this taste

throughout the whole of her long life. This lady afterwards became the

wife of Mr. Robinson, younger son of Lord Grantham. She lived, in the

London world, to the age of eighty-five, preserving to the last her

faculties and cheerful character. She used to give private theatricals

at her house, in which Lord de Grey, Mr. F. Robinson, Hugh Elliott, and

Canning were the chief actors--Canning writing the prologues and

epilogues, which are still extant. In the letters we find frequent

allusions to the performances in Mr. Harris's family residence; but we

shall content ourselves with mentioning one of them, which aroused the

satirical ire of some provincial Juvenal, whose poetic outburst serves

to show the great, indeed too great, change between the notions on such

subjects then and now. Mrs. Harris, in a letter to her son, thus alludes

to a rehearsal of the piece, which a few days afterwards was performed,

as usual, to an audience of the townsfolk and the visitors at the

house:--

'I have but little to send from hence; we are so totally

taken up with our own theatrical business that nothing else

is thought of. The ladies acted last night in their dresses

to all their servants, and a most crowded house they had.

Although I was not admitted to the performance, I saw all

the ladies. Their dresses are fine and elegant. Miss

Townshend makes an excellent Spanish ambassador, a fine

figure and richly dressed; she had a prodigious long sword,

and not being accustomed to wear one, she contrived, as she

walked, to run it up through a scene, and damaged it

greatly. Louisa has taken a sword you left her [here?], and

manages it right well. She is very fine in a purple Spanish

dress, all the buttons Irish diamonds, a handsome button

and loop to her hat, and your King of Spain's picture

hanging from her neck. The Queen, Miss Hussey, was dressed

in blue and silver, with a number of diamonds; Miss

Wyndham, who is Elvira, in white, trimmed with pearls;

Gertrude, the Princess, in a black Spanish dress, trimmed

with red and silver, and a great quantity of diamonds; it

becomes her much.

'Lord Pembroke [the tenth Earl] sent a note to your father,

which was as follows:--"I can snuff candles, I can scrape

on the violoncello; if either of these sciences will

entitle me to a place in your theatre, I will perform

gratis. P.S. My wife says she can thrum the harpsichord or

viol-de-gamba."

'We have sent them and the Amesbury House tickets for

Saturday. Everybody is making interest to get in. The

ladies mean to perform five times, so I hope everybody will

see it.'

The satirical verses which this lady performance called forth appeared

in the _Bath Journal_ (Nov. 17, 1774), entitled 'On the Ladies at the

Close of Salisbury, now acting _Elvira_;' and Mrs. Harris opines that

'they were sent from some _vinegar_ merchant in Salisbury who could not

get admitted to the performance. The verses are as follows:--

'In good Queen Elizabeth's reign,

In a decent and virtuous age,

That they ne'er might give modesty pain,

No female appeared on the stage.

But lo, what a change time affords!

The ladies, 'mong many strange things,

Call for helmets, for breeches and swords,

And act Senators, Hervos, and Kings.'

If the anonymous 'vinegar merchant' could have been transported into the

present time, how much more would he have been shocked by the 'change

which time affords!' Could he now take a trip to London (so serious a

matter a century ago, but made so quickly and cheaply now by means of a

return ticket by rail), what would he think of the state of matters in

our theatres? It was only in private theatricals that ladies donned the

male costume a century ago, and they were always draped with the

strictest propriety. But what do we see in London theatres now? Not only

in the so-called 'burlesques' does the main 'fun,' such as it is,

consist in the transposition of the sexes--men taking female

characters, and women the part of males--but the costumes of the female

performers, rich and picturesque as they usually are, are devised

expressly to make a prodigal display of the person, a minimum of clothes

apparently being the acme of perfection kept in view by the theatrical

costumiers, and by the ladies themselves. The female figure is now so

prodigally displayed that a handsome girl, especially if she has

well-turned legs, is sought after on that account alone. 'My _shape_ is

my fortune, sir, she said!' would now be the burden of the song of these

demi-nude demoiselles of the stage. To such a pitch has this new method

of attracting audiences been carried, that this class of performances,

or rather exhibitions, are now known in theatrical parlance as

'leg-pieces.' It is impossible not to see what a demoralising influence

such performances must have upon the rising generation, indeed upon the

whole audience. It is a lamentable sign of the times: it is a symptom of

degeneration, of corruption, of a fatal laxity of manners. The relation

between the sexes is becoming seriously deteriorated; and woman, instead

of being peculiarly an object of respectful regard or chivalrous

admiration, tends to become simply an object of pleasure, seeking to

please at any cost. Most rightly did the Lord Chamberlain recently issue

his fiat against the short skirts of the ballet-dancers: but the fiat

has been vain, as all such injunctions in this 'free' country must be

when public opinion refuses to support it, or at last allows itself to

be overpowered by the crowd of playgoers who delight in such spectacles.

A gangrene of selfish and demoralising pleasure is now eating into the

heart of this country; and we fear the social malady will not be checked

save by the advent of some terrible national calamity--let us hope not

so terrible as that by which our neighbour France is now being purged as

by fire.

Before quitting the lighter and gossipy items to be found in these

letters, let us say a word or two about the rich Court costumes of the

period. We need not speak of the dresses of the ladies; for although the

fashion of those dresses has changed, indeed is ceaselessly changing, in

richness and costliness female attire at the present time is quite on a

par with what it was when George the Second was king. But a notable

change has taken place in the full dress of the men. Probably only a

minority of our readers can remember the time when colour disappeared

from the evening costume of gentlemen: it is nearly forty years since

coloured coats, with white or coloured silk or velvet waistcoats

vanished from the private dinner-party and ball-room--though the taste

for colour is now reviving. Warren, in _Ten Thousand a Year_, dresses

his hero Gammon for the evening in blue coat with metal buttons, white

waistcoat, and black trousers--and such was a quiet evening dress of

that time. In the long interval since then, there has been a monotonous

reign of simple black cloth. The change in the Court or gala dress has

been still more striking. Apropos of this change, a philosophic writer

has remarked, that whenever any class abandons its distinctive costume,

it is a sign of decadence and coming extinction. There is some truth in

the remark, but it is partial truth only. It ignores the fact that the

peculiar source of distinction for each class, and especially with the

nobility, who are or ought to be the leaders of the nation, varies from

age to age with the spirit of the times. It might as well be said that

our nobility verged on extinction three centuries ago, when they ceased

to wear mail and to lead their retainers to the field. No doubt the

French Revolution, with its levelling doctrines, and the principle of

social equality (not new in this country), tended to abolish the

'bravery' of dress previously distinctive of the nobility; but the

change was far more due to the gravity of the times, the sober spirit

natural during a most critical period of the country, and of the economy

rendered necessary throughout the community at large by the heavy costs

of the great war with France. Indeed, the fact that a corresponding

change took place in the gala dress of the middle classes serves to show

that there was nothing exceptional or peculiar in the diminished finery

of the aristocratic costume. All classes alike felt the sobering

influence of the time, and then, as in all such cases, a corresponding

change took place in costume.

Firstly, then, as to the gala costume of the Prince of Wales, afterwards

George III., who certainly cannot be suspected of too great a devotion

to fashion or the frivolities of dress. In a Drawing-room in St. James's

in 1745, the Prince of Wales wore a light-blue velvet coat, laced with

silver, and the sleeves of it brocade--as was also his waistcoat. On

another occasion he 'had on a crimson damask laced with silver, very

rich and handsome.' Again, the Countess of Shaftesbury, writing to her

cousin, Mr. Harris, in December, 1754, 'enlivening her epistle with a

detail of the birthday finery' at Court, says: 'The Prince of Wales

looked as blooming as his clothes; they were a blossom-coloured velvet,

with gold and lace down before; the waistcoat and cuffs a rich

white-and-gold stuff. Prince Edward's was a yellow and silver velvet,

with a silver lace before, turned up with white and silver cuffs, and

the waistcoat the same.' She adds: 'My lord's clothes and mine were both

admired. His was a very rich scarlet and gold velvet coat--waistcoat and

breeches the same; and mine a gold stuff with purple spots on the

ground, and coloured sprigs of flowers that looked like embroidery.' On

a similar occasion, 'Lord Kildare was unexceptionably the finest of any

gentleman there: his coat was a light-blue silk, embroidered all over

with gold and silver in a very curious manner, turned up with white

satin, embroidered as the other; the waistcoat the same as his sleeves.'

His Majesty (George II.), however, by no means set the fashion in gala

dress. Even at Drawing-rooms, we read, 'he dressed in his usual way,

without aiming at finery of any sort;' his usual costume being a

deep-blue cloth coat, trimmed with silver lace, and waistcoat the same.

At another Birthday Drawing-room, 'the King was dressed in black velvet;

the sleeves of his coat and his waistcoat were red, embroidered with

gold.' The last time his Majesty's costume at Drawing-rooms is mentioned

is in 1754, six years before his death, when we find the following

curious statement, that 'his Majesty had told Mr. Shutz [the fashionable

German tailor of the day] he would have him bespeak him a very handsome

suit, but not to make a boy or a fop of him;' and as the result of this

consultation with his tailor, his Majesty appeared in brown, very richly

laced with silver, and turned up with a blue cuff laced, and a blue and

silver waistcoat.' We read of 'very mortifying disasters' happening at

some of these Birthday Drawing-rooms. On one such occasion, the Countess

of Salisbury writes:--

'Miss Young, in making her curtsey to his Majesty,

entangled the heel of her shoe [there were high heels in

those days] in her train, so that she fell quite backwards,

with her legs up. The laugh was so general that nobody

thought of helping the poor young creature, until his

Majesty, though as well diverted as the rest, said he would

go himself; but, as you may imagine, was prevented. Lady

Young was not in less confusion than her daughter.

'The second hustle was about Miss Corke, whose hoop, in

climbing over the Foreigner's box, caught in such a manner

that all her petticoats flew up, to the undermost flannel.

Lady Arvon, in endeavouring to help her, was caught in the

hoop, which pulled off her fine diamond sprig and

head-dress.'

As might be expected, there were flirtations, runaway matches, and

_mésalliances_ in those days, as they are still. One of the beauties

immortalized by the pencil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and whose portrait

is preserved at Holland House, gave rise to much gossip by marrying a

'player:'--

'The Court and assembly's talk yesterday was all of the

match of Lady Susan Strangeways and O'Brien, the player. It

is said she went out on Saturday with a servant, whom,

under pretext of having forgotten something, she sent back,

and said she would wait in the street till her return.

O'Brien was waiting in a hackney coach, which she got into;

and they went to Covent Garden Church, and were married.

'Tis a most surprising event, as Lady Susan was everything

that was good and amiable; and how she ever got acquainted

with this man is not to be accounted for. They say she sent

him £200 a little time since. She is of age.'

Gretna Green, on the Scottish borders, although it has now relapsed into

the obscurity natural to such a poor little hamlet (although it still

gives name to a railway station), was a famous place in those days in

connection with runaway matches; indeed, it was so even within the

memory of the present generation. A century ago, we often read of lovers

having 'gone to Scotland.' Among others--

'Lady Jane Tollemache, daughter to Lord Dysart, is gone to

Scotland with a Captain Halliday of the Light Horse: his

father is a man of fortune. The captain was just going to

to be married to Miss Byron; the coach and clothes were

bought; but he saw Lady Jane twice at the Richmond

assembly, was captivated, wrote a letter to Miss Byron, to

inform her he had changed his mind, and had set out for

Scotland.' [The gay captain would have had to pay heavy

damages for so cavalier a proceeding now-a-days.]

Whatever amount of what is commonly called 'scandal,' and which merits a

worse name, there may have been in our aristocratic circles in the

latter half of last century, there is but little trace of it to be found

in these letters. But in one of Mrs. Harris's letters to her son, giving

him the talk and gossip of the town, there is a mysterious-looking

allusion to some such matrimonial scandal, which reads as

follows:--'Lady S---- B---- is in lodgings at Knightsbridge. She says

her husband [whom doubtless she had deserted] is a most angelic man; but

her attachment for the other is so great, she must live with him.'

What was the 'Pantheon' in those days? Whatever else it was, it appears

to have been a sort of assembly-rooms for balls and dances; and, though

frequented by persons of rank and of the highest respectability, its

doors were not impregnable against the entrance of 'soiled doves' and

doubtful reputations--whose presence, however, was against the rules of

the place, for, as the following embarrassing incident to one of Mrs.

Harris's daughters shows, they were liable to be turned out. Mrs. Harris

thus writes of it to her son:--

'Wednesday your two sisters, Molly Cambridge, and I, went

to the Pantheon. It is undoubtedly the finest and most

complete thing ever seen in England. Such mixture of

company never assembled before under the same roof. Lord

Mansfield, Mrs. Baddeley, Lord Chief Baron Parker, Mrs.

Abbingdon, Sir James Porter, Madlle. Heinell, Lords Hyde

and Camden, with many other serious men, and most of the

gay ladies in town, and ladies of the best rank and

character--and, by appearance, some very low people. Louisa

is thought very like Mrs. Baddeley [one of the gay ladies];

and Gertrude and I had our doubts whether our characters

might not suffer by walking with her [_i.e._, Louisa]; but

had they offered to turn her out, we depended upon Mr.

Hanger's protection. [George Hanger, of the Guards, was one

of the great beaux of his day.] None of the fashion dance

country-dances or minuets in the great room, though there

were a number of minuets and a large set of dancers. I saw

Miss Wilks dance a minuet; some young ladies danced

cotillons in the cotillon gallery.... The spectacle at

first strikes one greatly, but then it becomes stupid.'

The domain of personal incident crops up richly and interestingly

throughout these volumes, and comes freshly and truthfully upon us in

the correspondence of the hour. Whether we read of Lady ----, who ran

away with her footman John, and sent back her fine clothes, 'because she

would no longer have any need for them;' or of the deep gambling and

other queer affairs of Charles Fox in his dissipated youth; or of the

sayings and doings of the notorious Wilkes, who so shocked society, or

of his duel, in which he bore himself so honourably, the epistolary

narrative is full of _naïveté_ and interest. The second marriage of Lord

Coventry (whose first wife was the elder of the beautiful Miss Gunnings)

must have been what is now called 'good fun.' The marriage party was all

assembled in stately magnificence; but his Grace of Canterbury was from

home, and the licence did not arrive! But the party was equal to the

emergency--'so it was agreed that they should eat the dinner, rather

than it should be spoiled. So to dinner they went [at the early hour

then in fashion], and sat all the afternoon, dressed in their white and

silver, expecting every moment the express from Lambeth, but nothing

came. The same reason held good for eating a supper as for eating the

dinner; and in short they supped and sat till after two, and then, by

mutual consent, dismissed the parson, and all retired.' Two hours

afterwards (4 a.m.) the express with the licence arrived, and the

ceremony went off with due _éclat_ in the forenoon. We may remark that

it is comforting to find in these letters of the day a guarantee for the

genuineness of many of the excellent bonmots and repartees which have

taken their place in our anecdotical literature in connection with the

more or less famous men of that period, and which sparkle pleasantly

across the pages of these volumes.

But quitting the domain of purely personal incident, let us glance at

some passages in the letters which throw curious light upon the England

of our forefathers in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Here is

a picture of Cambridgeshire which looks strange now, and which indeed

startled the writer thereof, Mrs. Harris, when she and her husband went

on a visit to their friend the Dean of Sarum's parsonage in that

locality. She says that the country is the most disagreeable she ever

saw; and talking of the Fens, says that the herds of cattle which feed

on them in the summer months are up to their bellies in water even in

the dry season:--

'The natives dry the cowdung for firing in the winter; so

'tis kept in heaps about the fields, as is also the dung of

their yards; so when you walk, the stink is inconceivable.

Mr. Harris took a ride to survey these fens, and he says

nothing can be so detestable. He talked with the natives,

who told him that during the winter the water was

constantly above the ancles in their houses.'

'The Dean's parsonage is surrounded with fens, and you are

teased beyond expression by the gnats. When we got here,

the Dean's butler came to your father with a pair of

leather stockings [the dress of that day was breeches and

silk stockings] to draw on so as to protect his legs, which

in hot weather [it was the month of June] is dreadful.

Besides this, the beds have a machine covered with a silk

net, which lets down after you are in bed, and covers you

all over. Without this, there could be no sleeping; for,

notwithstanding these precautions, we were most miserably

stung.'

Were anyone to light upon this passage in an isolated form nowadays, he

would conclude without hesitation that it was an extract from some

Indian diary--the use of the word 'natives' completing the resemblance.

Here we have the Indian plague of mosquitoes existing in full severity

in England, and also the use of mosquito-nets around the beds at night,

exactly as in India. Nay, there is still another point of

resemblance--namely, in the use which the Cambridgeshire 'natives' made

of the cow-dung: drying and using it as fuel, as is the common practice

of the natives of our Eastern Empire.

In the letters which relate to the events of the Rebellion of 1745, and

the march of the rebels into the heart of England, we have ample proof

alike of the general ignorance of places now well known to every one,

and of a want of the means of information in regard even to the great

events taking place in other parts of the kingdom, which read strangely

in these times when every morning we can know from the newspapers the

very way the wind is blowing in every quarter of our island. The

Highland army marches to and fro in its daring enterprise, although

several separate armies (Wade's, Ligonier's, the Duke of Cumberland's,

&c.) are on foot to meet or catch them: indeed, as we read in these

letters, 'more troops are in England than ever was known before,' yet

notwithstanding, the hardy light-moving Highlanders get through them all

into the heart of England, and quite as easily back again. We cannot

help thinking that the English generals had not much stomach for their

work. They were astonished and something more by the sudden and total

rout of Sir John Cope's army, and by the daring and marvellous rapidity

of the rebels' march; and it must be allowed that even in their retreat,

the Highlanders gave a good account of any force that tried to bar their

passage. As the noble editor incidentally observes, General Wade (who

was posted in the north of England to stop the southward march of the

rebels) only became famous after the rebellion was over; and his

marching and counter-marching to catch the rebels was of a very helpless

character indeed.

Smuggling, as well as rebellion, profited greatly by the roadless

character of England in those days. Mr. and Mrs. Harris, on returning

home one night from Heron Court, then the property of their friend Mr.

Hooper, had great difficulty in getting over Ringwood Heath, an

adjoining waste land, about five miles in length--'the vile heath,' as

Mrs. Harris calls it--even with 'the assistance of two servants riding

before.' Heron Court now belongs to the Malmesbury family; and the

editor, in a foot-note, states that until the beginning of the present

century there were no roads but smugglers' tracks across those heaths.

They were a favourite place for contraband transit from the south coast;

and he mentions that all classes aided in carrying on this traffic. 'The

farmers lent their teams and labourers, and the gentry openly connived

at the practice, and dealt with the smugglers. The cargoes, chiefly of

brandy, were easily concealed in the furze bushes, that extended from

Ringwood to Poole, and in the New Forest for thirty miles.' We suspect

that the impossibility of carrying on such operations nowadays has had

much more to do with their cessation than the improvement in the

morality of the age. Look at the customary frauds in making returns to

the income-tax, and then say whether the middle-classes are a whit more

honest in fiscal matters now than they used to be when smuggling was

rife.

How vastly London has changed and grown since the last century need not

be said, and the contrast between then and now, meets one almost in

every page of these lively letters. There was no Rotten-row, or the

fashionable rides in the Park, which make so gay a sight now in the

summer afternoons; and the whole district north of the Park knew nothing

of the noble streets and terraces which now occupy the space. Mrs.

Harris speaks with delight, almost rapture, of the sweet rural beauty of

a 'ride to Paddington of a July morning.' But with all our knowledge of

the change which has come over the British metropolis since that time,

it is startling to find that some nameless Dick Turpin or Claude Duval

could ply his trade with impunity even within the courtly precincts of

St. James's. In February, 1773, Mrs. Harris writes that 'a most

audacious fellow robbed Sir Francis Holburne and his sisters in their

coach, in St. James's Square, coming from the Opera. He was on

horseback, and held a pistol close to the breast of one of the Miss

Holburnes for a considerable time. She had left her purse at home--which

he would not believe. He has since robbed a coach in Park Lane.' In

these letters, too, there is the earliest mention which we have met with

of the tiny member of the finny tribe which now confers a greater

popular renown upon Greenwich than even its world-famous Observatory or

its magnificent Hospital, and which for a generation has caused that

place to be the honoured scene of the annual Ministerial banquet at

which our rulers meet together to congratulate one another upon the

approaching close of the Parliamentary session,--the famous 'whitebait

dinner,' which within the last two years has fallen into abeyance,

perhaps never to be revived. Mr. Harris, the founder of the family and

father of the first Earl Malmesbury, was then (1763) a Lord of the

Admiralty; and Mrs. Harris describes a 'most agreeable expedition on the

Thames,' which she had with a party in the 'Admiralty barge.' After

seeing Woolwich and all its military wonders, the lady says:--

'We got back to Greenwich to dine. We had the smallest fish

I ever saw, called whitebait: they are only to be eat at

Greenwich, and are held in high estimation by the

epicures; they are not so large as the smallest of minnows,

but are really very good eating. We dined in a charming

place in the open air, which commanded a fine view of the

Thames; but were obliged to leave it at six o'clock, as the

tide was so cruel as not to stay for us--and they never

venture to shoot the bridge [old London bridge] with the

Admiralty barge at low water. We had a beastly walk through

the Borough after we landed.'

Let us now quit old England for a moment to take a passing glance at the

Continent. As we have already said, the 'Diaries and Correspondence' of

the first Earl of Malmesbury are a rich mine of political information

and personal anecdote concerning the leading Courts of Europe; but we

must here confine our few gleanings of this kind from the newly

published 'Letters,' and content ourselves with some sketches of the

state of matters in France, in the period of decay and rottenness which

preceded the outburst of the terrible but life-reviving Revolution.

Young Mr. Harris (afterwards the first Earl), then only in his

twenty-second year, is passing through Paris in November, 1768, on his

way to assume a diplomatic post at Madrid, and thus he writes of the

French capital:--

'I see no new improvements since I was last here; and,

except a few new fashions for caps and muffs, I believe

nothing has changed materially. On such subjects alone do

this lively people exercise their inventive faculties,

since the decease of Louis le Grand. They have now no

capital painters, few good sculptors, and still fewer good

authors; for the modern set of French writers are either

totally devoid of talents, or else employ them in such a

manner, and on such subjects, as to render their works of

very little use to the community. To pass for an _esprit

fort_ is all their ambition; and when a man has written

down all religions, without distinction, they cry, "_Pardi!

c'est un grand homme: il pense hardiment!_"'

Turning from fashion and infidelity, the young diplomatist in another

letter describes the political aspect of affairs; remarking, _inter

alia_, that the Government 'are now expending the revenues of the year

1771 [three years in advance!] at the same time that the people are

labouring under the greatest necessity; garden stuff and bread, the

chief nourishment of the lower class in this country, being raised in

price one-third since last winter, and the greatest appearance also that

there will not be a sufficient quantity of either to supply the winter.'

But Court life and pageantry went on _quand même_. Seven years later,

a Dr. Jean takes up the correspondence from Paris. Speaking of the

Anglomania then prevalent, and which mingled with the Court gaieties, he

writes that the 'young Queen' (Marie Antoinette) has made herself

unpopular by 'a little misunderstanding in etiquette' between her and

the princes of the blood, and also by her great predilection for

everything that is English. And he describes a horse race, 'which is now

become a very frequent and frequented amusement.' Most of the cavaliers

in the concourse were 'badly imitating the English mode of riding;' also

'ladies of fashion, clad in boots and leather breeches, _astride_ on

their horses!' The Queen, with all her court, were upon the stand at the

starting post; and the race was 'managed by English grooms (_jackés_ as

they call them) and English horses.' The same correspondent also gives a

description of a _bal paré_ in 'the most decorated room perhaps in the

world,' the Opera House at Versailles. He says that Lord Clive, who was

present, 'declared that Asiatic display of riches appeared but as tinsel

to the brilliancy of the French court on that occasion.' 'The room,'

says Dr. Jean 'was filled by between three and four thousand people,

dressed in the richest, and at the same time the most fancied, taste

imaginable. The show which French ladies always make above those of

other nations added much to the spectacle. The ornaments of their

head-dress, and their robes, so disposed and varied, composed a most

beautiful _tout ensemble_. In regard to their persons, to be sure, they

seemed to be almost all of the same family, from the similarity of their

_complexions_, and the unity of their dress. It appeared to me an

assembly of houris.' He describes the Queen as 'very majestic, and at a

distance very handsome,' also with a remarkably fine hand and arm; and

he adds that she gives life to almost all public amusements, and 'is

very familiar with those who are in favour,'--an amiable though perhaps

not dignified _trait_ which brought her sad woe in the end, in

consequence of the calumnies set on foot against her by her base and

contemptible relative, the Duke of Orleans, _Philippe Egalité_.

A romantic incident connected with the French Revolution happened to

Lord Malmesbury in 1793, when the French nobility and clergy were flying

from the sanguinary proscriptions of the Reign of Terror. He was walking

one day on the pier at Brighton (not then the scene of gaiety and

fashion which it is now), when a French fishing-boat approached the

pier, and one of the crew jumped out with a baby in his arms, and

addressed him. The poor fisherman said that a lady, known and beloved

by himself and his comrades, had thrown the baby into their boat,

entreating them to save its life by carrying it to England, whither, she

said, if she were spared, she would follow it. They had accordingly

stood over for Brighton, to entrust the infant, as the lady desired, to

the first Englishman they met. Lord Malmesbury at once took charge of

the helpless little exile, and had it conveyed to Lady Malmesbury at his

house. In a few weeks, the mother, after many hair-breadth escapes,

found her way to England, and knowing where the child had been landed,

soon discovered its place of refuge. The baby became a handsome and

fascinating woman, and, as Madame Alfred de Noailles, was for many years

a leader of fashion in the first circles of Paris. When Lady Malmesbury

was at Paris in 1816, we find her writing of Madame Alfred as 'our

daughter;' and his quondam _protégé_, in all her letters to Lord

Malmesbury, used to sign herself 'Leontine Harris.'

Although tempted to linger longer over these interesting letters, our

narrowing limits warn us that we must leave untrod a large portion of

the field which they present, alike for gossiping and for sage

historical reflection. But ere we close, we must say a few words as to

the leading members of the family whose correspondence has now been

given to the world. Of Mr. James Harris, who, though not himself

ennobled, may justly be regarded as the founder of the Malmesbury

family, we have already spoken. He was a literary man of fine tastes, a

member of Parliament, and a subordinate member of several

Administrations. He does not appear to have had the brilliant abilities

of his son, the first Earl; but he had a pleasant and healthy

temperament, a perfect rectitude of nature, and a sound sagacity, which

qualities have since been hereditary in the family. There are only a few

letters of his in this collection, but in almost every one of these,

brief though they are, there is some remark or other which shows his

shrewd and healthy common sense, whether in great matters or little

ones. When a motion was made in the House (1770), to restrain revenue

officers from voting at elections (a disfranchisement only recently

removed), Mr. Harris writes that it was 'a rather tedious debate, full

of that patriotic commonplace which nobody believes that talks it, nor

anyone else but a few dupes in the provinces.' When we were on the eve

of war with Spain, in 1770, about the Falkland Islands, he writes:--'It

moves me to indignation that two respectable nations, naturally made for

friends, should take to cutting one another's throats for a paltry

island, not better than Bagshot Heath, and which if it were merged in

the ocean, would be no loss to either. Let it be with nations as with

individuals: if ye _can_ help it, don't quarrel at all--'tis more

conformant to your social nature; but if ye _must_ quarrel, for heaven's

sake let it not be for trifles, for objects of the lowest contempt.' But

when this Spanish difficulty was happily got over, to the general

satisfaction of the country, which, he says, 'does not wish a war,

whatever wicked patriots may endeavour;' he adds, 'None make such

audacious use of the word _people_ as these do--a word which often means

no more than themselves, and their ignorant or interested followers.'

His son, the first Earl of Malmesbury, was perhaps the ablest

diplomatist whom England has produced; certainly he was second to none

in the long roll of distinguished men who have served the State as

ambassadors and ministers in foreign countries. There is an anecdote of

his boyhood, narrated by his relative Lord Shaftesbury, which perhaps

may be taken as an indication of the courage and self-reliance which the

youth was afterwards to display in a very different form. As his mother

was walking one day with some friends before her house in the Close at

Salisbury, she descried some one climbing up the spire of the cathedral;

and having obtained a glass the better to observe so perilous a feat,

she immediately dropped it, exclaiming, 'Good heavens! it is James!' The

astonished lady had discovered her only son upon the apex of the tallest

steeple in Great Britain. Of his life at Oxford, he himself (taking a

retrospect in 1800) gives a poor account, either as regards learning or

amusements. He says that the set of men with whom he lived were very

pleasant, but very idle fellows. 'Our life was an imitation of high life

in London: luckily, drinking was not the fashion; but what we did drink

was claret, and we had our regular round of evening card parties, to the

great annoyance of our finances. It has often been a matter of surprise

to me how so many of us [Charles Fox, Lord Auckland, Bishop North, and

others] made our way so well in the world, and so creditably.' From

Oxford he went to the University of Leyden; and as he became a favourite

with our Minister at the Hague, young Harris had ample opportunities of

mingling in the court life, and also of studying carefully the political

affairs of Holland--a knowledge which he was afterwards destined to turn

to most valuable account. In the following year (1767) he made a journey

to Prussia, Poland, and Paris; and in 1768, although only in his

twenty-second year, he was appointed secretary of embassy at the Court

of Madrid. In this post, an opportunity arising, the youth greatly

distinguished himself; for, having been temporarily left chargé

d'affaires, he undertook upon his own responsibility the critical affair

of the Falkland Islands, which he conducted so admirably as to win the

praise of both political parties at home; and the issue, so honourable

to England, at once established his diplomatic reputation, and obtained

for him in the following year the post of Minister at Berlin, where

Frederick the Great, although past his prime, reigned in the full vigour

of his tyrannical and eccentric genius. Next, after a few months in

England in 1776, when he married, he was sent to St. Petersburg as our

minister at the Court of the Empress Catherine, whose shameless passion

for 'favourites' affected even her policy, and where he had a hard

battle to fight, owing to the Empress's ill-will to England, although

his _esprit_ and remarkable conversational talents made him personally

much more liked by the Empress than any of his diplomatic rivals. It

appears to have been a costly office, and diplomatic salaries at that

time were so inadequate that on leaving Russia he had diminished his

private fortune to the extent of £20,000.

The severe climate of Russia broke down his health, and he returned to

England in 1782, having previously received from the King the Order of

the Bath, in acknowledgement of his services at the Russian Court. But

two years afterwards he was despatched to the Hague, at that moment the

scene of the most active political operations and manoeuvres; the

Stadtholder being then threatened with deposition, and Holland with

subjection to France. In this emergency, Sir James Harris matured a bold

plan of an Anglo-Prussian alliance and an intervention on behalf of

Holland; a project which Mirabeau, the French agent at Berlin, when he

got wind of it, scouted as absurd, _et seulement la conception

personelle de cet audacieux et rusé Harris_, but which completely

succeeded--freeing Holland from her peril, and winning high fame for its

bold projector, who was created Baron Malmesbury, and received honours

from the King of Prussia and the Stadtholder. Lord Malmesbury now

enjoyed the almost unbounded confidence of his Government in all matters

relating to foreign politics, and was entrusted with all the most

important missions. In 1793, he was sent to Berlin, and in 1796 and

again in the following year he was sent to France to endeavour to

negotiate a peace with the French Directory. We cannot do more than

simply mention those important missions; but we cannot refrain from

noticing a mission of a very different kind which befel him in 1794,

when he received orders 'to ask of the Duke of Brunswick his daughter in

marriage for the Prince of Wales.' Lord Malmesbury had little hope of

this union turning out well, but he had no discretionary power in the

matter, so he married her Royal Highness by proxy, and brought her over

to England. The Prince of Wales never forgave Lord Malmesbury for his

share in this affair, which was certainly hard upon his Lordship,

especially as he had no end of difficulties with the German princess, as

well as with some of the ladies of the Court, who had reasons of their

own for hating Prince George's _fiancée_. Here is his Lordship's account

of the first interview between the Princess and her royal betrothed:--

'I, according to the established etiquette, introduced (no

one else being in the room) the Princess Caroline to him.

She very properly, in consequence of my saying to her it

was the right mode of proceeding, attempted to kneel to

him. He raised her (gracefully enough), and embraced her,

said barely one word, turned round, retired to a distant

part of the apartment, and calling me to him said, "Harris,

I am not well, pray get me a glass of brandy." I said,

"Sir, had you not better have a glass of water?" upon which

he, much out of humour, said with an oath, "No!" and away

he went. The Princess, left during the short moment alone,

was in a state of astonishment, and on my joining her said,

"_Mon Dieu! est-ce que le Prince est toujours comme cela?

Je le trouve très gros, et nullement aussi beau que son

portrait._" I said His Royal Highness was naturally a good

deal affected and flurried at this first interview, but she

certainly would find him different at dinner.

'At dinner I was far from satisfied with the Princess's

behaviour; it was flippant, rattling, affected raillery and

wit, and throwing out coarse vulgar hints about Lady ----,

who was present, and, though mute, _le diable n'en perdait

rien_. The Prince was evidently disgusted. And this

unfortunate dinner fixed his dislike, which, when, left to

herself, the Princess had not the talent to remove, but, by

still observing the same giddy manners and attempts at

cleverness and coarse sarcasm, increased it till it became

positive hatred.'

Soon after the Earl's last diplomatic mission to France, in 1797, he was

seriously attacked by deafness, in consequence of which infirmity he

thought it right to decline all further State employment either in the

Cabinet or abroad; but during the lives of Mr. Pitt and the Duke of

Portland, he remained in the most intimate political confidence of those

Ministers and their principal colleagues. Indeed, during the greater

part of the war with Napoleon, every scrap of important news received at

the Foreign Office appears to have been forwarded to him; and in 1814

he was consulted by Lord Liverpool's Government on the readjustment of

Europe, and the arrangements relating to Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg,

and Prussia, were principally suggested and settled by him. During the

closing years of his life (he died in 1820, at the age of seventy-five),

he passed most of his time in London and at Parkplace, his seat near

Henley, receiving at his house constantly, and with the same pleasure,

the rising generation of statesmen and literary men, as he had shown

formerly in associating with his own distinguished contemporaries. He

early appreciated the high talents of Mr. Canning, Lord Grenville, and

Lord Palmerston, and used his influence with the statesmen of the time

to draw special attention to those illustrious men who have now become

memorable in English history. He was the guardian of Lord Palmerston,

and by his influence obtained for him his first official appointment.

Two portraits of the Earl are given in these volumes: one taken in the

early part of his career when he was simple Mr. Harris, the other when

he was full of years and honours, at the age of seventy. Both are

handsome faces, but though the first has the advantage of youth, with a

look of _esprit_ and lively courage, the second is really the finer and

nobler head--a phenomenon only observable in rare cases, where high

intellect is united with goodness of heart and a well-balanced

temperament. His grandson, who edits these works, and who--in consonance

with the principles of life so wisely and admirably laid down by the

first Earl, with special reference to the nobility, but whose beautiful

precepts are applicable to all spheres of life--has devoted himself from

youth to the public service, and has twice been the Foreign Minister of

England, appends some true remarks as to the difference in the work and

responsibilities of diplomatists which has been created by the progress

of civilization and the great change in the political condition of the

nations of Europe. But the result of those changes has been to lessen

the responsibility and lighten the labour of our Ministers abroad, and

the contrast serves only to heighten the well-won reputation of the

diplomatist whose 'Letters and Correspondence' have supplied materials

for this article. The cynical but pre-eminently sagacious Talleyrand,

speaking simply of Lord Malmesbury's intellectual powers and knowledge

of human nature, apart from those high personal qualities by which he

was distinguished, said, _Je crois que Lord Malmesbury était le plus

habile Ministre que vous aviez de son temps. C'était inutile de le

devancer, il fallait le suivre de près. Si on lui laissait le dernier

mot, il avait toujours raison._ And as is shown alike by his official

career, and by his private correspondence, we may well apply to the

first Lord Malmesbury the epithet by which M. Thiers has so truly

characterized Mr. Pitt--'ce pur Anglais.'

ART. IV.--_The Explorations in Palestine. Publications of the Palestine

Exploration Fund, viz._--

(1.) _Report of Preliminary Meeting, 1865._

(2.) _Captain Wilson's Expedition, 1866._

(3.) _Meeting at Cambridge, 1867._

(4.) _Annual Meeting, with Lieutenant Warren's Report, 1868._

(5.) _Statement of Progress, January 1st, 1869._

(6.) _Lieutenant Warren's Letters and Reports, with Lithographed Plans._

(7.) _Lieutenant Warren's Notes on the Valley of the Jordan, and

Excavations at Ain es Sultan (Jericho.)_

(8.) _Dean Stanley's Sermon on the Exploration of Palestine._

(9--15.) _Quarterly Statements_ I. _to_ VII., _April, 1869, to October,

1870._

(16.) _The Recovery of Jerusalem._ Edited by the Honorary Officers of

the Palestine Exploration Fund. With Fifty Illustrations. Richard

Bentley.

The Palestine Exploration Society was established in 1865, for the

accurate and systematic investigation of the archeology, topography,

geology, physical geography, and manners and customs of the Holy Land,

for Biblical illustration. The universality of interest belonging to

Palestine, and the inefficiency of individual efforts at exploration,

made the step advisable; while the success of the Ordnance Survey of

Jerusalem in 1864 at once suggested the scheme and gave encouragement to

its promoters. In the original prospectus of the Society it was proposed

to excavate at Jerusalem for the purpose of ascertaining the extent of

the Temple enclosure, the position of the tombs of the kings, the site

of the Tower of Antonia, &c; to examine other important sites, such as

Gerizim, Samaria, Jiljilieh (probably Gilgal) and the mounds at Jericho;

to collect materials for a work on manners and customs comparable to Mr.

Lane's 'Modern Egyptians;' to effect an accurate survey of the Holy

Land; to determine levels and sites and the course of ancient roads; to

investigate the geology of the country, especially in the Valley of

Jordan and basin of the Dead Sea; and lastly, to apply the same energy

and ability to the study of the botany, zoology, and meteorology of

Palestine, which naturalists have given to those of the forests of South

America and the rivers of Africa. The time is come when we may ask how

much of this programme has been carried out, and what amount of light,

if any, is being thrown on the Scriptural history. Three years ago, we

touched upon the subject;[10] but the Society was then in its infancy,

its work only just begun, and the publication of results confined to

one or two small pamphlets. We now have at least enough reports to make

a thick octavo volume, and these so packed with technical details that

they will have to be spread out into three volumes more before their

information can be grasped by the ordinary reader. We have, moreover,

now before us the book called the 'Recovery of Jerusalem,' which is

partly such an expansion and partly a comment on the work, with a trifle

of new material.

The active work of the Society commenced in December, 1865, when Captain

Wilson, E.E., and Lieutenant Anderson, E.E., with Corporal Phillips, as

photographer, landed at Beyrout, to probe the country from north to

south. Captain Wilson was the intelligent officer who had surveyed

Jerusalem the previous year, and given us a map of that city, as

accurate and reliable in every particular as any map to be had to-day of

the city of London. This first expedition, in the course of six months,

traversed Palestine from Damascus to Hebron, constructing a series of

maps of the entire backbone of the country, excavating at Tel Salhiyeh

(near Damascus), at Kedes (Kadesh Naphtali), and Mount Gerizim;

examining remains of ancient synagogues, copying old inscriptions,

collecting materials for about fifty plans, with detailed drawings of

churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and tombs, and tracing the

ancient system of irrigation of the Plain of Gennesareth. The report of

this tentative expedition was in favour of Jerusalem as the headquarters

of any future exploring party, since that city promised to prove the

greatest mine of discoveries, and to yield the quickest results.

Accordingly, in November, 1866, we find Lieutenant Warren, R.E., at work

in Palestine, at first with only Sergeant Birtles for his assistant, but

afterwards with several corporals as well, and with permission to engage

a number of native labourers, according to the amount of excavation

going on. Lieutenant Warren spent two months in survey-work east and

west of Jordan, and then concentrated his energies on Jerusalem, where

he laboured at shafts and galleries almost incessantly, till he was

invalided home, in May of the year 1870.

Although the operations at Jerusalem, besides being the more extensive,

are also the more interesting in character, it may be well to look,

first, at the results of Captain Wilson's expedition, and in connection

with that officer's work, to consider the later labours of Warren, where

they are of the same kind. First, with regard to the survey-work: it is

marvellous that we have never yet had a decently correct map of the land

in which all Christians are so much interested. The Admiralty have given

us correct charts of the coast-line, but in the interior of the country

hundreds of sites remain to be verified, and hundreds to be discovered;

while the east of Jordan is almost a _terra incognita_, and the maps of

it scarcely more than creations of the fancy. It is as though in England

we were acquainted with but the line of the Great Northern Railway and

the towns within a little distance of it on either side, and in Wales

knew only the position of three or four of the principal towns. The

Wilson exploring party fixed for the first time the exact latitude and

longitude of nearly seventy places between Damascus and Jerusalem,

determined many sites, ascertained heights, and recorded the features of

the ground along which they passed. Lieutenant Warren has obtained the

latitude and longitude of many scores of places, fixed the height of

some hundreds, and surveyed so much ground that the committee are able

to announce the map of Palestine, on the scale of one inch to the mile,

as 'now approaching completion.' Much of this work was done in the

dangerous country east of Jordan, where life is not safe without an

escort, and the sheikh who bargains to protect you is ready to sell you

to the next chieftain who thinks your friends can pay a ransom.

Connected with the surveying is the settlement of topographical

questions. We have seen an old book which professed to give the latitude

and longitude of every place visited by the Scriptural kings, prophets

and apostles, with their relative positions and distances from one

another in miles. Such information, if reliable, would be of great

value, for there is so close a connection between history and geography

that in some cases the first cannot be understood without a knowledge of

the second; and in most cases the geographical or topographical

knowledge will at least assist us to realise the history.

In this department our knowledge is still scanty, though good service

has been rendered by the explorers. The site of Capernaum, which has

been fixed in three different places by Egmont, Robinson, and De Saulcy,

and which Dean Stanley regarded as utterly lost, has been fixed by

Wilson with very small chance of error, where Soewulf placed it in the

beginning of the twelfth century, viz., at Tel Hum,[11] on the

north-western corner of the lake. The determining circumstance was the

discovery of the irrigation of the plain of Gennesareth, as described by

Josephus,[12] and its connection with the Tabighah Fountain, whereas

attention had previously been fixed on the Round Fountain. It is

confirmatory of Wilson's view, that while at the Round Fountain there

are no ruins, except some small foundations which may have been

anything, Tel Hum possesses extensive ruins, including those of a

synagogue. Two miles north of Tel Hum--at Kerazeh, a spot indicated by

the Rev. G. Williams, in 1842, and indeed by Pococke, as early as

1740--Lieutenant Anderson identified Chorazin, by the presence of

extensive remains, including those of a synagogue. Of no less interest

is the discovery of the scene of the destruction of the herd of swine.

Lord Lindsay, Mr. Elliott, and others had been on the eastern shores of

the lake, but their accounts were mutually contradictory; and Dean

Stanley, after rewriting his note on the place again and again, had been

obliged to scratch it out altogether. It now appears that there is only

one place--namely, Khersa, about half way between Wady Fîk and Wady

Semakh--which fulfils all the conditions required by the Biblical

narrative. The hills which everywhere else on the eastern side receded

from a half to three-quarters of a mile from the water's edge, here

approach within forty feet of it; not, indeed, terminating abruptly, but

presenting a steep, even slope. The 'Dictionary of the Bible' places the

scene at Gadara, now Um Keis, a place from which the swine would have

had a hard gallop of two hours before reaching the lake.

We have also in these publications an admirable paper by Captain Wilson,

'On the site of Ai and the position of the Altar which Abram built

between Bethel and Ai;' and another by the Rev. Dr. Zeller, Protestant

clergyman at Nazareth, on 'Kefr Kenna.' As the old Hebrew names of

places commonly cling to the spot under some Arabic disguise--the hill

of Dan, for instance, being now Tel el-Kadi (both Kadi in Arabic, and

Dan in Hebrew, being equivalent to 'judge' in English)--it is doing

good service to collect Arabic names. Great care, however, is needed in

this work, for the same _wady_ may have different names in different

parts; two or three hills, a fountain, and several ruins may all have

one name--that of the district; and the traveller may misunderstand the

Arabic answers to his questions. Mr. Layard tells a story of a

traveller, who published, for the benefit of those who might follow in

his footsteps, a little vocabulary, but whose own ignorance of the

language is shown by the fact that several places on his map are marked

with the word _Mabarafsh_. The fact was, that when the traveller asked

his guide the name of a place the man answered _Mabarafsh_--'I don't

know,' and down went this name on the map. In the same traveller's

vocabulary 'nose' is put down as _snuff_; for when he wanted the word

for nose he had probably raised his hand, and the Arab supposed he

wanted 'snuff.' Under these circumstances, it must have been very

satisfactory to Lieutenant Warren, after making a list of 150 places

visited or seen on the east of Jordan, to find that wherever Robinson

had been before him there was substantial agreement in the spelling.

Lieutenant Warren and Dr. Chaplin, of Jerusalem, also obtained many

names in the course of a tour from Jisr Damieh to Jisr Mejamia and back;

and the former has given us a list of thirty-four Tels in the Jordan

valley. More work of the same kind will have to be done, as there is

much confusion in the spelling of names; besides which there exist many

unnamed cities and ruins on both sides of the Jordan. South of Ammân

(the ancient Rabbath-Amman, and afterwards Philadelphia, 2 Sam. xi. and

xii.), Lieutenant Warren came upon a piece of elevated country, about

four miles square, literally covered with ruins of temples and houses.

The synagogue at Capernaum was only one out of nine synagogues examined

in the district north of the Sea of Galilee, and the investigation was

so thorough that the plan of the building was made out, and careful

drawings made and measurements taken. The result has been to dissipate

the idea that the synagogues were barn-like structures, and to prove

that they had considerable architectural pretensions.

'They all lie north and south, have three gateways in the

southern end, the interior divided into five aisles, by

four rows of columns, and the two northern corners formed

by double engaged columns. The style of decoration does not

always appear to have been the same. At Tel Hum (the

strongest claimant for the site of Capernaum) and Kerazeh

(Chorazin), Corinthian capitals were found; at Irbid, a

mixture of Corinthian and Ionic; whilst Kefr Birim, Meiron,

Um el-Amud have capitals of a peculiar character. The faces

of the lintels over the gateway are usually ornamented with

some device; at Nebartein there is an inscription and

representation of the seven-branched candlestick; at Kefr

Birim the ornament appears to have been intended for the

Paschal lamb; and at Tel Hum there are the pot of manna and

lamb. A scroll of vine leaves, with bunches of grapes, is

one of the most frequent ornaments. The investigator cannot

fail to be struck by their resemblance in plan--accidental

or otherwise--to the palaces of Persepolis and to the House

of the Forest of Lebanon, built by Solomon.'

For particular description and measurements our architectural readers

must be referred to Captain Wilson's paper in Quarterly Statement No.

II. These synagogues date either from the Christian era or the centuries

immediately following. Mr. R. Phené Spiers, M.R.I.B.A., says, from the

third to the sixth centuries, inclusive. The Rev. George Williams, of

Cambridge, assigns them to a period prior to the destruction of

Jerusalem, both because the depopulation of the country after that event

made it almost impossible that they should have been built subsequently,

and because the style of ornament so much resembled that of the tombs of

the kings (so-called) at Jerusalem. In that case they may have been

trodden by the feet of Christ; and the ruins of Capernaum may be remains

of the very building concerning which the Jewish elders said, the

centurion is worthy--'for he loveth our nation, and hath built us the

synagogue.' Yet Dr. Robinson, whose ears and eyes seemed to be open to

hear and see all that was really to be heard and seen in connection with

sacred topography, did not mention these various ruins till his second

journey in 1852, giving then only a brief account of them, while

previous to that year there had been no account of them at all.

Another admirable paper of Wilson's, also illustrated with plans, is 'On

the Remains of Tombs in Palestine.' Rock-hewn tombs appear to be the

earliest in date, and are the tombs most commonly met with, the softer

strata of limestone, especially the white chalk in some districts, being

well adapted for excavation. Sometimes a natural cavern is made use of,

sometimes a square or oblong chamber is cut in the rock, while in a

third class one entrance leads into a number of sepulchral chambers; and

in all these cases _loculi_ or resting-places for the bodies are either

sunk in the surface of the rock much after the manner of a modern grave,

or driven into the rock-face like a small tunnel or pigeon-hole. In the

so-called tomb of Joshua at Tibneh, after passing through a chamber with

fourteen _loculi_, a smaller one is reached which has only one _loculus_

at its extreme end, an arrangement not noticed elsewhere; the face and

sides of the porch are nearly covered with niches for lamps, and round

the door are traces of plaster. The tombs of the kings at Jerusalem come

into this class, and are described, as well as the tombs of the

prophets, the tombs of the Judges, and a large tomb discovered by Lieut.

Warren in the Kedron valley. Masonry tombs, which constitute the second

class, are few in number, and confined to the northern portion of the

country. It is possible that at Tel Hum, where the (basaltic) rock is so

hard as to make excavation difficult, this form of tomb was commonly

used. If the tombs in which the demoniac lived were of this description,

their disappearance is not at all surprising. Besides these two classes

of tombs, and their subdivisions, sarcophagi are sometimes found, those

at Kedes (Kadesh Naphtali, the city of refuge in the midst of Canaanite

strongholds) being the most elaborately ornamented. The material is hard

white limestone, almost marble, and the workmanship is excellent: the

usual design on the sides is a garland held up in two or more loops by

nude figures, with some device over each end and a bunch of grapes

hanging from the bottom. Two sarcophagi have been shipped to England by

Lieut. Warren, and were exhibited, with other articles, at the Dudley

Gallery in the summer of last year.

A paper in these Quarterly Statements, which has greatly pleased the

architects is that on the ruined temples of Coele-Syria. In the summer

of 1869, _Captain_ Warren (we are glad to notice his promotion) was

obliged to take his party to the Lebanon in consequence of their having

suffered severely from fever in Jerusalem. While there they occupied

themselves in investigating the ruined temples of Coele-Syria and

Mount Hermon, and the exhaustive manner in which the work was done,

places us in possession of so much information that we may be said to

have previously known nothing at all on the subject. The extremely

careful tracings (fifteen in number) sent home by Captain Warren are to

be seen at the office of the Fund; but two of them, selected by the

advice of Mr. Fergusson, are given to subscribers with Captain Warren's

complete and detailed account of the temples in Quarterly Statement No.

V. The temples of Coele-Syria date from Roman times, and the

inscriptions found on them are mostly Greek. The small temples about

Mount Hermon appear to be somewhat more ancient, their architecture

being of the Ionic order. On the summit of Hermon stands the ruins of a

sacellum, _i.e._, a rectangular building without a roof, which has

nothing in its construction in common with the temples on the west

below, and which probably had to do with a different and more ancient

form of worship. Captain Warren's investigations led him into a

discussion of the question of the orientation of heathen temples. It had

been surmised by Dr. Robinson and several other writers that the temples

about Hermon were turned towards it as to a kibleh, so that the

worshippers might face it when they prayed; but now that the directions

and angles are taken, it is found that they all have their entrances

more or less towards the _east_, and in no case does the entrance or any

side of the building face direct upon the summit of Hermon. The Jewish

tabernacle and afterwards the temple at Jerusalem faced the

east--according to Josephus--in order that when the sun arose it might

send its first rays upon it; according to some of the Jews of the

present day, in order that the priest might watch for the first dawn of

day in offering up the morning sacrifice.

The principle which accounts for the eastward aspect of the temple at

Jerusalem, accounts also for the southward aspect of the synagogues of

Galilee: as that was open to the east, so they were open to the temple.

It would be a crucial test of this theory to examine the remains of a

synagogue said to exist near Beersheba, the only ruin of the kind which

is not due north from Jerusalem.

The mention of temples reminds us that on Mount Gerizim numerous

excavations were made under the direction of Lieut. Anderson. Within the

ruins known as the 'Castle,' the foundations of an octagonal church were

laid bare, probably the church known to have been built there by

Justinian. On the eastern side of the church is an apse, on the northern

side the main entrance, and on each of the others, doors leading to

small side chapels. In the interior are the piers of a smaller octagon,

apparently intended to carry a dome. The church and castle were found to

be built on a rough platform of large stones laid together without

mortar, and of this--which may possibly be the platform on which the

Samaritan Temple stood--the 'twelve stones,' fabled to have been brought

up by the tribes from the bed of the Jordan, form a portion. No trace

of large foundations could be found on the southern portion of the small

plateau on which the castle stands. Close to the Holy Rock of the

Samaritans a number of human remains were dug up, but no clue could be

obtained to their age or nationality. The study of the synagogue remains

of Galilee, as well as the temples, mosques, churches, tombs,

inscriptions, aqueducts, castles, theatres, ruined cities and general

aspect of the country, is much facilitated by the series of 350

photographs taken by the two expeditions, which are most of them

beautifully executed and very many of them taken for the first time.

We must now follow Captain Warren to Jerusalem, where the longer course

of the operations supplies us with larger results for criticism; and the

_reason_ for the more extended labours is a reason for our devoting more

space to their consideration; it being simply the paramount interest of

Jerusalem and the richness of the field Scripturally, historically, and

archæologically. The ground on which the city of Jerusalem stands is

included in a fork between two ravines, whose point of union is to the

south-east of the city, near the Well of Joab, and which, if we trace

them backward, may be said to clasp the city, the one on the south and

west, the other on the east. The eastern ravine is known as the Valley

of Jehoshaphat or of the Kedron, the westernmost as the Valley of

Hinnom. On the north side they run up to the level of the northern part

of the city; so that Jerusalem is not an isolated hill, but the southern

tongue of a great plateau which stretches away northward. This

table-land is one of the highest in the country, and Jerusalem is about

2,500 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, while the Dead Sea,

only twelve miles to the east, is 1,300 feet below the same. Of the

cities of Palestine, Jerusalem alone is thus entrenched with deep

ravines--a mountain fastness, with natural defences on every side except

the north; and to this circumstance she owed in a great measure her

early strength and subsequent greatness. After Joshua's conquest, the

aboriginal inhabitants of Palestine, who elsewhere lingered only in the

plains, were, able here to maintain a position in the hills;[13] and

Joshua, Barak, Gideon, and Saul passed away without seeing the Jebusites

conquered. When David became king of all Israel, it was necessary to fix

his capital farther north than Hebron, and no city appeared so suitable

as Jebus, both on account of its strength and its central position, and

perhaps also from the circumstance that it was partly in the tribe of

Judah, to which David belonged, and partly in Benjamin, the tribe of

Saul. So strong was the citadel that the blind and the lame were thought

sufficient to defend the walls; but the steep ascent was climbed by

Joab, and David 'took the stronghold of Zion.' Before David's time the

men of Judah and the men of Benjamin had gained some partial successes

at Jerusalem, and perhaps before the Israelitish invasion the city had

experienced varied fortunes in the wars of the aboriginal tribes among

themselves. But in the 3,000 years since David's time, how eventful has

been its history! From David to Nebuchadnezzar, from Nebuchadnezzar to

Pompey and Titus, from Titus to the Crusaders, from Saladin to Sultan

Suliman, who built the present walls in 1542, the sieges have been no

fewer than twenty; while the city has been four or five times sacked or

utterly destroyed.

It is very much in consequence of the repeated destruction of its walls

and buildings that its topography has become so much obscured. This

could hardly have been the case with any other city of which we had such

full descriptions, nor with Jerusalem if ravines had not run _through_

the city as well as round it; the _débris_ has found its way into these

intramural valleys, from which its removal was difficult and perhaps

inadvisable. The description which Josephus gives of the city is as

follows:--

'The city was built upon two hills, which are opposite to

one another and have a valley to divide them asunder; at

which valley the corresponding rows of houses on both hills

end. Of these hills that which contains the upper city is

much higher, and in length more direct. Accordingly it was

called the citadel by king David (he was the father of that

Solomon who built this temple at the first); but it is by

us called the Upper Market Place. But the other hill, which

was called Akra, and sustains the lower city, is of the

shape of a crescent moon. Over against this was a third

hill, but naturally lower than Akra, and parted formerly

from the other by a broad valley. However, in those times

when the Asamoneans reigned, they filled up that valley

with earth and had a mind to join the city to the temple.

They then took off part of the height of Akra and reduced

it to be of less elevation than it was before, that the

temple might be superior to it. Now, the valley of the

cheesemakers, as it was called, being that which we told

you before distinguished the hill of the upper city from

that of the lower, extended as far as Siloam; for that is

the name of a fountain which hath sweet water in it, and

that in great plenty also. But on the outsides these hills

are surrounded by deep valleys, and by reason of the

precipices to them belonging on both sides, they are

everywhere unpassable.[14]

'In section 2 of the same chapter, he says, "It was Agrippa

who encompassed the parts added to the old city with this

[third] wall, which had been all naked before; for as the

city grew more populous it gradually crept beyond its old

limits, and those parts of it that stood northward of the

temple and joined that hill to the city, made it

considerably larger, and occasioned that hill, which is in

number the fourth, and is called Bezetha, to be inhabited

also."'

It would be easy from these descriptions to trace an ideal map of

Jerusalem with its ancient hills and valleys; but such a map would not

correspond by a long way with Jerusalem as it is now. The city, as

enclosed by its walls to-day, approximates to the form of a

parallelogram whose eastern and western sides run north and south, but

whose western side as a whole stands more southerly than its eastern

side as a whole. From outside the Damascus Gate, near the middle of the

north wall, a very marked valley traverses the city, deepening as it

runs southward, and terminating by a junction with the Kedron valley

outside the south wall, near the Pool of Siloam. The half of the city to

the west of this valley is the higher of the two, and is itself highest

at its north-western part; the half of the city to the east consists of

the Haram esh-Sherêf--a raised platform about 1,500 feet from north to

south and 900 feet from east to west, and of about an equal space of

streets and houses. The Haram is the southern portion and is separately

enclosed with walls, though its entire east wall and two-thirds of the

south are coincident, so far, with the walls of the city. The one valley

from Damascus Gate gives us two hills within the city; but according to

Josephus there were four, and even if we suppose that Bezetha, the 'new

town,' last added to the city, was afterwards excluded from it by a

narrowing of the compass of the walls, we must still find a second

valley to give us a third hill. In the part of the city to the north of

the Haram area a valley runs down from Herod's Gate in the north wall

towards St. Stephen's Gate in the east wall; but the narrow ridge on the

north-east side of this valley is connected with the high ground outside

the city, and can hardly be of itself the third hill we are in search

of. There must have been a valley then which has become obliterated--in

fact, Josephus tells us that the Maccabees did fill up a valley, to

connect the city with the temple, in the second century B.C. But

inasmuch as the valley is not now apparent, it has to be supplied from

conjecture, and in consequence we have had a mass of topographical

controversy unequalled for its extent, its confusion, and its

bitterness. The valley from the Damascus Gate is usually identified with

Josephus's Tyropoeon valley or valley of the cheesemakers; but some

writers bring a valley across from the Jaffa Gate, which is near the

middle of the west wall, into this north-and-south valley, and call it

the Tyropoeon from Jaffa Gate to Siloam. The valley from Damascus

Gate, again, is often made to send off a branch to the east across the

Haram platform, cutting it sometimes near its northern wall and

sometimes farther south than the dome of the rock or Mosque of Omar,

which stands on a smaller platform near the centre of the larger. It is

disputed, also, which is the valley of Hinnom, which the valley of

Kedron, whether Hinnom was not on the east of the city, and whether

Gihon did not come down through the middle of the city.

The fate of the valleys determines the fate of the hills, and we are

perplexed to know which was Mount Zion, which Moriah, and which Akra,

nothing seeming to be certain except that the modern Zion (the western

hill) is not the ancient Zion, that the Temple (and therefore Moriah)

was somewhere within the Haram enclosure, and that the hill to the east

of the present Kedron valley is the Mount of Olives. The position of the

hills and valleys determines the course of the streams; for the brook

Kedron presumably followed the valley of that name, the Pools of Gihon

were in the valley of Gihon (if there was a valley of Gihon); and when

Hezekiah 'brought the upper watercourse of Gihon straight down to the

west side of the city of David,' the direction of the new channel

depends on the position assigned to 'the city of David, which is

Zion.'[15] On the position and contour of the hills, again, depends the

direction of the ancient walls; for these would in general follow the

brow of the hill, except on the north side, where the ground made no

descent, while Zion appears to have been separately enclosed, so as to

need a siege by itself. Until we know the direction of the walls, we

know not where to look for the gates and towers, nor for the sepulchres

of the kings, which were most of them within the city of David;[16] nor

for the Holy Sepulchre, which was _outside_ the gates. A grand point

also is the exact site of the temple, which carries with it that of

Antonia, which Josephus says was at the junction of the north and west

cloisters, and may also help us to find Solomon's palace, and to

determine the position of the king's gardens. It must be evident that,

while these points remain unsettled, the history of Jerusalem, from

David's age to that of Titus, must lack for us the definiteness and

vividness which are so essential to its complete understanding. Of

theories we have had enough--they are guesses not without a certain

value, but guesses almost in the dark--facts are wanted, to test and

correct the theories; and these facts the Palestine Exploration

Committee promised to supply.

Captain Warren saw that two courses were open to him, in his endeavours

to recover a first thread of the old topography--(1) to obtain the

contours of the ground as they existed in olden times; (2) to dig about

the supposed site of some remarkable building, in hopes of finding its

remains. Both these methods were adopted; and although excavation is not

allowed in the sacred places, and the work has been crippled elsewhere

for want of funds, enough has been ascertained to settle several

disputed points, and to alter the conditions of controversy for time to

come. First, as regards the hills and valleys, the Tyropoeon valley,

which it was conjectured might contain thirty or forty feet of _débris_,

is found, by excavation, to be filled up in some places to nearly one

hundred feet; and instead of presenting an even slope, its western side

is nearly level, the final descent being very steep, and the lowest

course of the valley being _inside_ the Haram, about sixty feet east of

the south-west angle. The Kedron valley is found to contain sixty or

eighty feet of loose stone chippings and other _débris_, forming a

sloping bank, with an inclination of about thirty degrees, and having

its base resting against the western slope of Olivet. One effect of this

accumulation has been to alter the bed of the stream, so far as there is

now any stream at all, pushing it forty feet to the east, and raising it

thirty-eight feet from its old level. At what must have been the ancient

bed of the brook the remains of a masonry wall were touched; between

that line and the east of the Haram several other walls were

encountered, and at last progress up the hill was stopped--at a point

fifty feet east of the Haram--by a massive masonry wall, into which

Warren drove a hole five feet, and then had to give up the business. A

contribution from M. Clermont Ganneau, of the French Consulate at

Jerusalem, affords Mr. Warren an argument in favour of the identity of

Kedron and Hinnom. There have always been several reasons for

considering the Virgin's Fount, in the Kedron, to be the same with En

Rogel, where Adonijah was saluted as king, though many place it at the

Well of Joab, lower down. Near to En Rogel was the stone of Zoheleth (1

Kings i. 9), and near to the Virgin's Fount M. Ganneau discovers a rock

called Ez Zehwele; so that the statements of Joshua xv. and xviii.,

which make the border between Judah and Benjamin to pass Zoheleth to En

Rogel, and thence up the valley of Hinnom, seem to identify Hinnom with

what is now called Kedron. As the Kedron has three names to-day in

different parts of its course, there would thus far be no objection to a

fourth, but the statements in Joshua seem to us to point to some valley

more westward than that now called Kedron. The principal reason for

tracing the Tyropoeon from the Jaffa Gate arises from Josephus's

description of the valley as an open space or depression within the

city, 'at which the corresponding rows of houses on both hills end.'

This was held to be more applicable to a valley running from the Jaffa

Gate than to that from the Damascus Gate when the slope is so gradual

that the rows of houses now run across it without interruption, besides

which it probably had formerly a wall on either side of it. Mr.

Lewin[17] speaks positively as to the Tyropoeon commencing at the

Jaffa Gate, and says it can be traced thence to the Haram by the _rise_

of ground which is still very perceptible on the right hand, as you walk

down the street from the gate to the Haram. He makes this valley the

boundary of the high town on the north, and puts his first wall on the

southern brow of it. It is difficult to see on this hypothesis how the

hill of the high town could be 'in length more direct' than the eastern

hill, as Josephus says it was; or how the corresponding rows of houses

could meet any more readily than near Damascus Gate. However, Mr.

Warren, after excavation, tells us that 'a very decided valley runs down

from the Jaffa Gate to the Tyropoeon, near Wilson's arch;' and he

found under the causeway leading westward from Wilson's arch, vaults and

chambers, and a secret passage, at a depth which serves to confirm his

view. There is no disputing facts, though it seems to us still

questionable whether this valley is any part of the Tyropoeon of

Josephus. The valley running south-east from Herod's Gate, in the

north-east part of the north wall, proves to be longer and deeper than

any theorist had imagined, running into the Kedron at a point between

the north-east angle of the Haram and the Golden Gate, and being filled

in with more than 100 feet of _débris_. The Pool of Bethesda, which is

360 feet in length, is imbedded in this valley, and stretches across it,

having its ends formed by the rocky sides of the valley, and its sides

built up of masonry; and since it is found lined with concrete, it must

have been a reservoir, and not the fosse of Antonia, which Robinson

supposed it to be.[18]

The valley which Simon Maccabeus filled up[19] is made by Mr. Lewin to

coincide with the northern half of what is usually called the

Tyropoeon--the part from Damascus Gate, down to near Wilson's arch.

Other writers identify it with a supposed branch of the Tyropoeon,

curving to the east across the Haram. Josephus tells us that when Pompey

beseiged Jerusalem he took up his position on the _north_ of the temple,

in the only part where an assault was practicable; and that even there

the temple was defended by high towers, and a trench, _and by a deep

ravine_. The position which various writers give to this ravine depends

upon their idea as to the site of the temple. Mr. Fergusson[20] thinks

that the valley of the Asamoneans was a 'tranverse cut, separating the

hill Bezetha from the Akra or citadel, on the temple hill.' Mr.

Thrupp[21] allows a valley on the north side of the temple, and reminds

us that traces of a valley debouching into the valley of Kedron, near

the middle of the eastern wall of the Haram, and which seemed to have

been artificially filled up, were detected by the late Dr. Shultz.

Shultz identifies these traces as those of the valley filled up by the

Asamoneans; but Thrupp holds him to be mistaken in doing so. Mr.

Sandie[22] puts forth the recognition of such a valley as the special

characteristic of his view of ancient Jerusalem; but he places it south

of the dome of the rock. He moreover identifies it with 'the ravine

called Kedron' ([Greek: tên Kedrôna kaloumenên pharanga]), which

Josephus tells us was overlooked by the north-east wall of the

temple,[23] and by which he does not mean the valley of Kedron, since he

always calls the latter 'Kedron' simply. Mr. Lewin, again, makes this

ravine to be 'the slip of ground between the temple and the city wall,

reaching from Bethesda on the north to Ophla on the south,' _i.e._, the

eastern side of the present Haram platform, which is, or was, the west

bank of the present Kedron valley. It is difficult to see how this

could have been a ravine at all; but Mr. Lewin translates '_so-called_

Kedron ravine,' and seems to think the expression implies that Josephus

did not consider the term 'ravine' quite legitimate. Even if this were

so, the illegitimacy of the designation might result from the

circumstance that what was once a ravine had since been filled up by the

Maccabeans and by Pompey.[24] But we must come to facts.

First of all, Captain Warren tells us that there was no ravine south

of the dome of the rock, for 'the crest of the rocky spur runs from the

north-west angle of the Dome-of-Rock platform in a south-east direction

to the triple gate in the south wall; and at these two points, and in

the line between them, the rock is at the surface.' Secondly, in

December, 1868, when the displacement of a stone by the rains enabled

Captain Warren to descend beneath the surface of the Haram, he found a

souterrain running east and west, in the line of the northern edge of

the Mosque platform, the southern side of it being scarped rock, on

which the wall supporting the northern edge of the Mosque platform is

built, but the rock itself appearing to 'shelve down rapidly to the

north.' In the following month Captain Warren ventured to suggest on

plan (lithographed plan 32) the possible course of a valley coming from

the Gate of the Inspector in the Tyropoeon, and running past the

north-western corner of the Dome-of-Rock, out eastward through the

Birket Israil (Pool of Bethesda). The souterrain may, as Captain Warren

observes, be claimed by one party as the ditch on the northern wall of

the temple, and by another as the northern ditch of Antonia; and the

valley--which owes its depth in one part of its course to what is

doubtingly called a 'natural or artificial ditch'--will of course be

claimed as that of the Asamoneans.

It is thus, in our opinion, rendered probable that the ground to the

west of that valley which runs from Damascus Gate constituted the old

town, the [Greek: phrourion] of David's time, the upper market-place of

the days of Josephus; that the dome of the rock and the space to the

south of it represent the old Temple-hill; that to the north of this was

the valley of the Asamoneans; that between the latter and the valley

from Herod's Gate was the city of David, or Zion,[25] and that

north-east of the last-named valley was Bezetha. The name Zion got

transferred to the Temple-hill, or was made to include it, before or

during the times of the Maccabees, probably after the filling-up of the

intervening valley, and in the early centuries of the Christian era was

transferred to the western hill, which, after the Akra was cut down, was

the highest hill of the city.[26] Certainly there is still room for some

controversy on these points, and Captain Warren contributes something to

the discussion, in a long paper on the 'Comparative Holiness of Mounts

Zion and Moriah,' in which he argues that Zion was considered holy when

the ark was there, in David's time; that after the ark (and the

holiness) were transferred to Moriah, the name Zion got transferred

also, and that Josephus refrains from using the term Zion because he is

aware of this confusion.

If the Tyropoeon valley extended from Damascus Gate southward, and the

city of David was on the eastern side of it, north of the temple, then

the water which Hezekiah diverted from its course, and brought down to

the west side of the city of David (2 Chron. xxxii. 30), and yet _into_

the city of Jerusalem (2 Kings xx. 20) was probably brought in at

Damascus Gate, and ran towards the Kedron, either on the west side of

the temple, or by the Maccabean valley, on the northern side. In the

southern half of the Tyropoeon valley, outside the west wall of the

Haram, Captain Warren has found, at a depth of seventy or eighty feet, a

rock-cut aqueduct, twelve feet deep and six feet wide, with round

rock-cut pools at intervals, and shafts which indicate that pure water

was drawn from it. As Hezekiah brought the stream down from 'the upper

watercourse of Gihon,' this discovery has a direct bearing on the

question of the position of 'the upper pool,' and of 'Gihon, in the

valley,'where Solomon was anointed king; but as the upper part of the

Tyropoeon has not been excavated, it remains uncertain whether the

water came in by Damascus Gate or Jaffa Gate, and consequently what

position of Zion is favoured by the finding of this aqueduct.

The search for the old walls of the city has only been partially carried

out. Here, again, we have Josephus's explicit description, and the usual

differences among the commentators.

'The city of Jerusalem was fortified with three walls, on such parts as

were not encompassed with unpassable valleys; for in such places it had

but one wall.... The old wall began on the north at the tower called

Hippicus, and extended as far as the Xistus, a place so called, and

then, joining to the Council-house, ended at the west cloister of the

temple. But if we go the other way westward, it began at the same place,

and extended through a place called Bethso to the Gate of the Essenes;

and after that it went southward, having its bending above the fountain

Siloam, where it also bends again towards the east at Solomon's pool,

and reaches as far as a certain place which they called Ophlas, were it

was joined to the eastern cloister of the temple. The second wall took

its beginning from that gate which they call Gennath, which belonged to

the first wall; it only encompassed the northern quarter of the city,

and reached as far as the tower Antonia. The beginning of the third wall

was at the tower Hippicus, whence it readied as far as the north quarter

of the city, and the tower Psephinus, and then was so far extended till

it came over against the monuments of Helena (which Helena was Queen of

Adiabene, the daughter of Izates); it then extended farther to a great

length, and passed by the sepulchral caverns of the kings, and bent

again at the tower of the corner, at the monument which is called the

monument of the Fuller, and joined to the old wall at the ravine called

Kedron.'[27]

As many writers make the northern part of the first wall to have run

from the Jaffa Gate eastward, Captain Warren spent some time in

excavating in the Muristan, a large open space in the city, the old

burial-place of the Knights Hospitallers; but he found 'nothing but

confusion in the shape of old walls running at one another in all

directions.' At Wilson's arch, however, near the Haram wall, and nearly

due east from the Jaffa Gate, he discovered an old city gateway at a

great depth. If we could find traces of the tower Hippicus we should

come upon the first and third walls together, and similarly the gate

Gennath would put us on the line of the first and second walls. The

theories of some writers compel them to put Hippicus at the Jaffa Gate,

where they think they see its representative in the present Castle of

David. But we agree with Mr. Fergusson, that the remains called _Kasr

Jalud_ at the north-west corner of the city suit better with Josephus's

description. To this point Captain Warren has not yet been able to give

much attention; but the so-called Gennath Gate was examined both by

Wilson and by Warren, and pronounced by the former to be of

comparatively modern construction, by the latter to be ancient,

'especially as its style is Roman.' The gate rests in made earth.

The Damascus Gate is built of two very different styles of masonry, one

of them apparently very old; and it suits the views of several writers,

who differ as to the course of the first wall, that this gate and the

portion of wall immediately east of it should be part of the second wall

of the city.[28] At the Damascus Gate excavation brought to light 'a

very ancient wall ten feet six inches in thickness, built with bevelled

stones similar to those of the Jews' Wailing Place;' but the wall would

seem to be built out of old materials, since stones of more recent date

were found among them; and at the foot of the wall lay a stone with a

Templar's cross on it.

The third wall has probably almost or quite disappeared, for when

Hadrian was re-erecting the walls in A.D., 136, he would not think it

necessary to go out so far; the population had diminished, and to

construct armour without, so disproportionate to the shrunken body

within, would have been simply ridiculous. If any part of the third wall

remained, we might suppose it to be at the northern part of the present

east wall; but here excavation shows that there has been 'no destruction

of extensive buildings so far north as St. Stephen's Gate,' that the

wall itself is 'of no very ancient date,' and that 'of the city wall to

the east, the north-east angle of the Haram area is the first sign from

the northern end of anything ancient in appearance.'

Perhaps there is here a little room for error; for where the rock is

high, the absence of much _débris_ may not imply that there has been no

great destruction of buildings; but simply that the rubbish has found

its way to the valleys or was not suffered to accumulate.

South of the Haram wall, the hill, which is now chiefly occupied by

small vegetable gardens, in terraces of six to ten feet high, must have

been at one time covered with houses, for every shaft sunk brought to

light remains of buildings, drains, scarped and cut rock, and

antiquities of various dates. A cavern cut out of the rock, appears to

have been at first a dyer's shop and afterwards a stable, while early

Christian glass and pottery was found in a drain above it. Tradition

relates that St. James was cast over the outer wall of the temple

enclosure, and that 'a fuller took the club with which he pressed the

clothes, and brought it down on the head of the just one.' This hill is

frequently identified with Ophel, where Jotham and Manasseh built (2

Chron. xxvii. 3; xxxiii. 14; Neh, iii. 26, 27; xi. 21), though whether

Ophel referred to the whole of the swelling hill or to a tumour-like

tower in some part of it was not certain.[29] In this district Warren

has discovered a massive wall, from twelve to fourteen feet thick, which

abuts on the Haram wall (but does not bond into it) at a point twelve

feet six inches west of the south-east angle of the Haram, which runs

first of all sixty feet due south, and then takes a bend to the

south-west, in which direction it runs for 700 feet, and then ends

abruptly. The wall is still from forty to sixty feet in height, and the

rock is scarped for thirty feet below it, while solid towers of masonry

are found at intervals along its course. This discovery will have to be

taken into consideration by those who bring the south wall of the city

up from Siloam, and make it join the third wall at a point 600 feet from

the south-west angle of the present Haram, and therefore more than 300

feet from the point where this wall abuts. The curious rock-cut

connection which Warren found between the Virgin's Fount and a shaft

opening from Ophel, would seem to be a device for supplying the

inhabitants of this district with water, in a secret way; reminding us

of the work of Hezekiah, and possibly being of the same date.

A question of paramount interest is the site of the successive temples

of Solomon, Zerubabel and Herod. It is universally allowed that the

temple stood on that hill which we call Moriah, and within the present

sacred area; but while Josephus describes it as a square of 600 feet (1

stadium), in the side, the dimensions of the Haram are, according to

Catherwood, 1,520 feet on the east side, 1,617 feet on the west, 1,020

on the north, and 932 on the south. The way being thus open for

conjecture, we have had the usual differences of opinion, and the temple

has been variously placed at the south-west angle, the centre of the

area, the southern half of the area, the northern half, or has even been

made coincident with the entire Haram. A few shafts and galleries would

probably settle this question, and in showing us the foundations of the

temple, give us the key to most of the old topography; but unfortunately

the reservation made by the Turkish Government has compelled Captain

Warren to labour only outside the enclosure. Still, as there was reason

to think that one or more of the Haram walls or angles might coincide in

position with those of the temple, there was room for discovery by

exterior examination. The theory of Catherwood and of De Vogüé, that the

whole of the area belonged to the temple, may be dismissed as being

inconsistent with the measurements of Josephus. The discovery of the

transverse valley and of the prolongation of the valley from Herod's

Gate appear to be fatal to Williams's view, that the temple stood in the

northern half of the Haram and stretched all across it.

A favourite theory is that of Fergusson, Lewin, and others, that the

temple occupied the south-west angle of the area, its south and west

walls coinciding with those of the Haram for a distance of 600 feet from

the corner. The chief positive evidence for this view consists in the

fact that the south-west angle is the only right angle of the present

walls, that some of the stones existing in that part of the wall to-day

are so immense as to justify Josephus's description of stones 'immovable

for all time' and that the spring stones of an arch discovered by

Robinson in the western wall, commencing about forty feet from the

south-west angle, would be in the centre of the great Stoa Basilica of

the temple. This cloister, according to the Jewish historian, was on the

south wall, overhanging the valley, and communicated by steps with the

upper city.[30] The arch of Robinson was often assumed to be the first

of a series, and 'Robinson's bridge or viaduct' was attributed by Lewin

to Solomon, and identified as that which was broken away by the

followers of Aristobulus, in Pompey's time.[31] Signor Pierotti had

scratched up a few feet of earth, and not finding any trace of a pier,

declared that there could not have been a bridge. The excavations of

Capt. Warren have shown that the south-west angle of the Haram is buried

for about ninety feet, while in the Tyropoeon valley the rock from the

western side rather rises than falls until it is within 200 feet of the

sanctuary wall, and then shelves down very rapidly. The actual pier of

an arch has been discovered, with three courses of stones _in situ_,

twelve feet two inches in thickness, commencing at forty-one feet six

inches from the wall, within a few inches of the span assigned by

Robinson. The length of the spring-stones is given by Wilson as fifty

feet, and the pier is found to measure fifty-one feet six inches, and

has its northern end eighty-nine feet from the south-west angle, nearly

corresponding to the spring stones. The stones of the pier are precisely

similar to those of the south-west angle, and presumably of the same

age; but the inference that they are therefore of the age of Solomon is

checked by the next discovery. Stretching between the pier and the

sanctuary wall is a pavement, on which some of the fallen voussoirs of

the arch are resting, but underneath the pavement are twenty-three feet

of _débris_, covering two older voussoirs, which have crushed into the

arched roof of an aqueduct which may be older still--the aqueduct

previously spoken of in connexion with Hezekiah. These historical

_strata_ seem to yield evidence as follows:--