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JERUSALEM. 
Chapel OF Loretto, in Italy. 
This famous chapel, which is so much visited by pilgrims, was, 
according to the legend, originally a small house in Nazareth, inha- 
bited by the Virgin Mary, in which she was saluted by the angel, 
and where she brought forth- otir Saviour. After their death it was 
held in high veneration by all Christians, and at length metamorpho- 
sed into a chapel, and dedicated to the Virgin ; upon which occasion, 
St. Luke, according to the Catholics, made that identical image, 
which is still preserved here, and dignified with the name of our 
Lad y of Loretto. 
This sanctified edifice was allowed to sojourn in Galilee as long 
as that district w'as inhabited by Christians ; but w'heu the infidels 
got possession of the country, a band of atigels, to save it from pol- 
lution, took it in their arms, and conveyed it from Nazareth to a cas- 
tle in Dalmatia : but not having been entertained with suitable re- 
spect at this castle, the same indefatigable angels are said to have 
carried it over the sea, and placed it in a field belonging to a noble 
lady called Lauretta, from whom the chapel takes its name. This 
field happening to be frequented by highwaymen, the angels removed 
it to the top of a hill belonging to two brothers ; who, being equally 
enamoured of their new visitor, became jealous of each other, quar- 
relled, fought, and fell by mutual wounds. 
After this catastrophe, the angels finally removed the holy chapel 
to the place where it now stands, and has stood these four hundred 
years, having lost all relish for travelling’, so that the arrival of the 
French atheists could not stir it one foot. The sacred chapel stands 
due east and west, at the farther end of a large church, formed of the 
most durable stone of Istria, which has been built round it. The 
inside is of the choicest marble, after the plan of San Savino’s, and 
ornamented with basso-relievos, the workmanship of the best sculp- 
tors which Italy could furnish in the reign of Leo X. The subject of 
these basso-relievos are, the history of the blessed Virgin, and other 
parts of the Bible. The whole santacasa is about fifty feet in length, 
thirty in breadth, and thirty in height : but the real house itself 
is no more than thirty-two feet in length, fourteen in breadth, and, 
at the sides, about eighteen feet in height; the centre of the roof is 
four or five feet higher. The walls of this little holy chapel are com- 
posed of pieces of a reddish substance, of an oblong square shape, 
laid one upon another in the manner of brick. Before the late war, 
this chapel was the richest receptacle of the tributes of superstition, 
in Europe, and, to the devotees of the Roman Catholic persuasion, the 
most sublime object of pilgrimage. 
Jerusalem. 
Jerusalem, the holy city, has become a desert. Though at this 
time rebuilt, and to the approaching traveller presenting the semblance 
of a populous and flourishing city, no sooner does he enter it, than 
the delusion ceases. Every step he takes echoes on his ear ; a 
terrible silence prevails in every part: he meets with few persons in the 
