ing resided in this house, and used the very room in which we stood as a kitchen, has nothing at all of improbability in it; and, as excavated dwellings in the side of a steep hill like this would be more secure, and even more comfortable than fabricated ones, it is quite as probable that might have really been the residence of the Holy Family as of any other, since it is here, in the midst of Nazareth of Galilee, where Joseph and Mary are admitted to have dwelt, and the child Jesus to have been brought up.

"The church erected over this sacred spot is large, and well furnished with some few tolerable paintings, but still more gaudy ones. It has also a double flight of marble steps, and a gilt iron rail-way, leading up on each side of the grotto, which is left open, and faces the entrance to the church, producing an impressive effect. Below, in the grotto itself, is an altar of white marble, very finely executed, and a painting of the Annunciation, of great merit, as far as could be judged in this obscure depth, except that its effect is lessened by a diadem of gold and precious stones on the head of the Virgin. "Among all the pictures I observed a departure from costume and propriety, which could only be accounted for by religious zeal. Joseph, the carpenter, was arrayed in purple and scarlet; Mary, beautiful, and dressed in the richest robes. If the painters could have taken their models from among the same class of people at Nazareth now, they would, perhaps, have approached nearer to truth; as these are, probably, still very similar in person, complexion and apparel, to those described in the history of those times. In Europe, remote from the scenes themselves, Scriptural subjects may be treated in any way that best displays the talent of the painter; but it is impossible to witness certain delineations of country and costume upon the spot where the scene itself is laid, without being forcibly impressed with their want of even general resemblance.

"There is an organ, which is played by one of the friars; an abundance of fonts, and altars, and candlesticks; a fine sacristy, or dressing-room, for the

priests; and store-rooms for the moveables of the church, consisting of flags, tapers, silken curtains, silver crosses, incense-pots, &c. &c. exhibited on festival-days."

After accomplishing the ascent of Mount Tabor, they passed on to Caypha, distant about three leagues from Accho.

"Here (says Mr. Buckingham) we visited the monastery which stands on the summit of Mount Carmel, near the spot where Elias offered up his sacrifice, and which gave rise to, and remained for a long period the headquarters of, the order of Carmelite Friars. It appears to have been a fine building, but it is now entirely abandoned, and the monk who has charge of it lives in the town of Caypha below. During the campaign of the French in Syria, the monastery was made an hospital for their sick, for which its retired and healthy situation, as well as its interior structure, admirably adapted it."

Done Cesarea and Jaffa were subsequently visited. We quote Mr. Buckingham's account of Buonaparte's massacre of the citizens of this place :

"The fact of Buonaparte's having murdered his prisoners in cold blood had been doubted, from the mere circumstances of the consul having omitted to mention it; though he had not been once questioned as to the point. This, however, I was resolved to do; and, in reply, we were assured by this same consul's son, Damiani, himself an old man of 60, and a spectator of all that passed here during the French invasion, that such massacre did really take place, and twenty mouths were opened at once to confirm the tale.

"It was related to us that Buonaparte had issued a decree, ordering, that no one should be permitted to pass freely without having a written protection bearing his signature; but publishing, at the same time, an assurance that this should be granted to all who would apply for it on a given day. The multitude confided in the promise, and were collected on the appointed day, without the ci y, to the number of ten or twelve hundred persons, including men, women, and children. They were then ordered on an eminence, and there ar

rayed in battalion, under pretence of counting them one by one. When all was ready, the troops were ordered to fire upon them, and only a few escaped their destructive volleys. A similar scene was transacted on the bed of the rocks before the port, where about three hundred persons were either shot or driven to perish in the sea, as if to renew the deed of treacherous murder which the men of Joppe had of old practised on the Jews, and which their heroic defender had so amply avenged."

Our traveller next journeyed to Ramlah, and through the mountains of Jerusalem, and visited Bethlehem, and the cave of the Nativity.

"The principal sanctuary of Bethlehem is the grotto of the Nativity, the descent to which is by twenty or thirty steps, all below the general level of the church. These lead down narrow and winding passages, so as to render it altogether certain that this could never have been the stable of an inn, without some material alterations in its construction; since, at the present moment, it is difficult even for men to descend into it, and cattle could not do so at all by any passage that I could perceive.

"Here, however, we were shown a cave, very splendidly ornamented with a marble pavement, recesses decorated with sculpture and painting, and a double row of massy silver lamps, of exquisite workmanship, furnished by the patrons of whoever may share the possession of the altars. Among the paintings, a concert of angels, celebrating the birth of Jesus, seemed to possess great merit; though there was something strange to my eye in observing one of these angels, whose wings were expanded, seated on a cloud, with a huge violincello between his legs, and the bow in his right-hand. Another of the Eastern Magi, adoring the infant Saviour, and angels bearing censers of incense, was equally beautiful. Beneath this last is a marble altar, and stile below it, a semicircular recess, ornamented at the back with some fine sculpture on white marble, and hung around with large silver lamps kept constantly burning. Here is shown,

upon the pavement, an inlaid star, which is said to mark the spot of the Saviour's birth, and to lie immediately underneath the point of the Heavens where the Star of the East became fixed in its course, to direct the Wise Men to the object of their search.

"The facts of this grotto having been a stable, and the place in which the star is seen a manger, seem improbable, chiefly from the difficulty of access to it in its present state; but, if the means of entrance were formerly more open and enlarged, the subterraneous excavation might as easily have been attached to an inn as to any other kind of building. As such, it might have been occasionally appropriated to the reception of guests; particularly on an occasion like that described by St. Luke, who says of Mary, And she brought forth her first son, and wrapped him in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn.'

"The possession of this spot, once so mean and insignificant, is now disputed by contending sects of Christians, with the same rage and animosity as that which marks their struggle for the command of the Holy Sepulchre. During the last Christmas only, at the celebration of the Feast of Nativity, at which Mr. Bankes was present, a battle took place, in which several of the combatants were wounded, and others severely beaten; and on the preceding year, the privilege of saying mass at the altar, on a particular day, had been foug! t for, at the door of the sanctuary itself, with drawn swords."

We regret that we must break off here at the most interesting portion of the volume; for, as we have already remarked, the latter half of the work, containing the account of Bashan and Gilead, and the country beyond the Jordan, is most valuable, because the subject has never been touched upon before. Our next notice will contain Mr. Buckingham's visit to Calvary, and the tomb of Christ.

[As an appropriate appendage to this article, we copy from the Monthly Magazine for Nov. 1821, Sir Sydney Smith's late translation of the Saracen capitulation of the Holy City.]

-Though my mind's not

Hoodwink'd with rustic marvels, I do think
There are more things in the grove, the air, the flood,
Yea, and the chai nell'd earth, than what wise man,
Who walks so proud as if his form alone
Fill'd the wide temple of the universe,
Will let a frail maid say. I'd write i' the creed
O'the sagest head alive, that fearful forms,
Holy or reprobate, do page men's heels;

That shades, too horrid for our gaze, stand o'er
The murderer's dust, and for revenge glare up,
Even till the stars weep fire for very pity.

ALONG the coast of Solway, ro

mantic on the Scottish side, with its woodlands, and bays, and cliffs, and headlands; and interesting on the English side, with its many beautiful towns with their shadows on the wa

ter, rich pastures, safe harbours, and numerous ships; there still linger many traditional stories of a maritime nature, most of them connected with superstitions singularly wild and unusual. To the curious these tales afford a rich fund of entertainment, from the many diversities of the same story; some dry and barren, and stripped of all the embellishments of poetry; others dressed out in all the riches of a superstitious belief and haunted imagination. In this they resemble the inland traditions of the peasants; but many of the oral treasures of the Galwegian or the Cumbrian coast have the stamp of the Dane and the Norsemen upon them, and claim but a remote or faint affinity with the legitimate legends of Caledonia. Something like a rude prosaic outline of several of the most noted of the northern ballads, the adventures and depredations of the old ocean kings, still lends life to the even ing tale; and, among others, the story of the Haunted Ships is still popular among the maritime peasantry.

One fine harvest evening I went on board the shallop of Richard Faulder, of Allanbay; and, committing our selves to the waters, we allowed a gentle wind from the east to waft us at its pleasure towards the Scottish coast.

We passed the sharp promontory of

-Siddick;

2T

and skirting the 'and within

ATHENEUM VOL. 10.

a stone cast, lided along the shore till we came within sight of the ruined The green Abbey of Sweetheart. mountain of Criffell ascended beside us; and the bleat of the flocks from its summit, together with the winding of the evening horn of the reapers, came softened into something like music over land and sea. We pushed our shallop into a deep and wooded bay, and sat silently looking on the serene beauty of the place. The moon glimmered in her rising through the tall shafts of the pines of Caerlaverock, and the sky, with scarce a cloud, showered down on wood, and headland, and bay, the twinkling beams of a thousand The tide too was coming with that stars, rendering every object visible. swift and silent swell observable when the wind is gentle; the woody curves along the land were filling with the of the drooping trees; while in the cen flood till it touched the green branches tre current the roll and the plunge of a thousand pellocks told to the experienced fisherman that salmon were abundant. As we looked, we saw an old man emerging from a path that winded to the shore through a grove of doddered hazel; he carried a halve-net on his back, while behind him came a which the fishers are remarkably dexgirl, bearing a small harpoon with terous in striking their prey. The senior seated himself on a large grey aside his bonnet, and submitted his stone which overlooked the bay, laid bosom and neck to the refreshing sea his attendant, sat with the gravity and breeze; and taking his harpoon from composure of a spirit of the flood, with his ministering nymph behind im. We pushed our shallop to the shore, old Mark Macmoran, the mariner, with and soon stood at their side. "This is his grand-daughter Barbara," said Richard Faulder, in a whisper that had something of fear in it; "he knows every creek, and cavern, and quick

sand, in Solway,-has seen the Spectre Hound that haunts the Isle of Man;

has heard him bark, and at every bark has seen a ship sink; and he has seen, too, the Haunted Ships in full sail; and, if all tales be true, he has sailed in them himself;—he's an awful person." Though I perceived in the communication of my friend something of the superstition of the sailor, I could not help thinking that common rumour had made a happy choice in singling out old Mark to maintain her intercourse with the invisible world. His hair, which seemed to have refused all intercourse with the comb, hung matted upon his shoulders; a kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned with a wooden skewer round his neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing all his nether garments as far as a pair of hose, darned with yarn of all conceivable colours, and a pair of shoes, patched and repaired till nothing of the original structure remained, and clasped on his feet with two massy silver buckles. If the dress of the old man was rude and sordid, that of his grand daughter was gay, and even rich. She wore a boddice of fine wool, wrought round the bosom "with alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric, which, almost touching her white and delicate ancle, showed her snowy feet so fairy light and round that they scarcely seemed to touch the grass where she stood. Her hair, a natural ornament which woman seeks much to improve, was of bright glossy brown, and encumbered rather than adorned with a snood, set thick with marine productions, among which the small clear pearl found in the Solway was conspicuous. Nature had not trusted to a handsome shape, and a sylph like air, for young Barbara's influence over the heart of man; but had bestowed a pair of large bright blue eyes, swimming in liquid light, so full of love, and gentleness, and joy, that all the sailors from Annanwater to far Saint Bees acknowledged their power, and sung songs about the bonnie lass of Mark Macmoran. She stood holding a small gaff hook of polished steel in her hand, and seemed not dissatisfied with the glances I bestowed on her from time to time, and which I held more than requited by a single

glance of those eyes which retained so many capricious hearts in subjection.

The tide, though rapidly augmenting, had not yet filled the bay at our feet. The moon now streamed fairly over the tops of Caerlaverock pines, and showed the expanse of ocean dimp ling and swelling, on which sloops and shallops came dancing, and displaying at every turn their extent of white sail against the beam of the moon. I looked on old Mark the mariner, who, seated motionless on his grey stone, kept his eye fixed on the increasing waters with a look of seriousness and sorrow in which I saw little of the calculating spirit of a mere fisherman. Though he looked on the coming tide, his eyes seemed to dwell particularly on the black and decayed hulls of two vessels, which, half immersed in the quicksand, still addressed to every heart a tale of shipwreck and desolation. The tide wheeled and foamed around them; and creeping inch by inch up the side, at last fairly threw its waters over the top, and a long and hollow eddy showed the resistance which the liquid element received. The moment they were fairly buried in the water the old man clasped his hands together, and said, "Blessed be the tide that will break over and bury ye for ever! Sad to mariners, and sorrowful to maids and mothers, has the time been you have choked up this deep and bonnie bay. For evil were you sent, and for evil have you continued. Every season finds from you its song of sorrow and wail, its funeral processions, and its shrouded corses. Woe to the land where the wood grew that made ye! Cursed be the axe that hewed ye on the mountains, the hands that joined ye together, the bay that ye first swam in, and the wind that wafted ye here! Seven times have ye put my life in peril, three fair sons have ye swept from my side, and two bonnie grandbairns; and now, even now, your waters foam and flash for my destruction, did I venture my infirm limbs in quest of food in your deadly bay. I see by that ripple and that foam, and hear by the sound and singing of your surge, that ye yearn for another victim, but it