page_0041

OverviewVersionsHelp

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Page Status Transcribed

203

Our host supplied us with a supper shortly after our arrival, and
facilitated our eating of it by producing a couple of old rusty two
pronged forks and two rickety chairs. In the room where we sat
was a picture representing the Persian lion and a setting sun.
These I concluded to be his credentials as consular agent of that king-
dom. There was of course conversation with our host and, soon after
our meal, we spread our blankets on the floor and began our slumber.

In the morning we were up at day break when another
meal was ready for us, and then having bid the old gentleman
adieu and given a douceur to his man servant we were in the sad=
dle as the sun was rising above the horizon.

After an hour or more of progress the vale of Sharon began perceptibly
to be merged into a rocky and rising ground, and by the middle of the
day the road or bridle path was along the edge of a shallow ravine with
a small stream of water at its bottom. Wherever it was possible terraces
of earth had been made with a bordering of stone on the outside, in the
soil of which olive trees were scattered about and in the spring some
grain would be planted. There was nothing to detain us on the way
and as Jerusalem was twelve hours off, it was important for us to
hurry on, for if we reached it after sunset we would find its gates
closed. We were determined that this discomfort should not happen
to us, and we therefore urged our horses to a faster walk, arriving fi-
nally at the Jaffa gate an hour sooner than could be legitimately
demanded of our animals.

We had heard from persons who had been to Jerusalem of there being
there a half crazy American named Cresson originally from Phil-
adelphia. As we were told would be likely, he was outside of the Jaffa
gate when we approached, and recognising us as compatriots he came
forward and shook hands with us. He had been living there some
years, and had married a Jewess who was a descendant of a colony
of that religious faith who when they were expatriated by Ferdinand
and Isabella from Spain, had located in Palestine. She spoke a
corrupt Spanish, which her people have kept up for over 350 years.
As Hayes was also from Philadelphia a friendship immediately
sprang up between Cresson and himself, and the Sunday afternoon
that we spent there was enlivened by a concert of native music at
Cresson’s house, where we paid a sovereign a piece for the entertain-
ment - the principal performer being a brother of Mr Cresson.

There was still enough daylight for us to visit some of the impor-
tant places of the city after we had put up at a little lodging
house of modest pretensions. We therefore went first to the Court
in front of the entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, leaving
an examination of the interior to the next day, and afterwards
examined the wall surrounding the city.

This was interesting in consequence of its being in the mediaeval
style, preceding the heavy earthwork construction made necessary
by the use of artillery. It was about twenty feet high with a
crenelated top, and a platform on the inside about five feet from the

Notes and Questions

Nobody has written a note for this page yet

Please sign in to write a note for this page