m2. 
CLARKE^ TRAVEL! 
relative situation of Mount Calvary and the Prcetorimn, wilk 
regard to this gate; Simon being described* as u coming out 
ef the country/ 5 and therefore, of course, entering by that 
gate of the city contiguous to “ the dolorous way,” It were. 
Indeed, a rash undertaking to attempt any refutation of opin¬ 
ions so long entertaiaed, concerning what are called u the 
Holy Places ” of tin's memorable city. “ Never,” says the 
author now cited,f was subject less known to modern readers, 
and never was subject more completely exhausted.” Men 
entitled to the highest consideration, unto whose authority 
even reverence is due,J have written for its illustration; and 
some of the ablest modern geographers, quitting more exten¬ 
sive investigations, have applied all their ingenuity, talents, 
and information, to the topography of Jerusalem.§ It would 
therefore seem like wanton temerity, to dispute the identity of 
places whose situation has he’en so ably discussed and so gener¬ 
ally admitted, where there not this observation to urge, that the 
descriptions of Jerusalem since the crusades have principally 
issued from men who had no ocular evidence concerning the 
places they describe. Like Thevenot, writing an account of 
scenes in Asia without ever having quitted Europe, they have 
proved the possibility of giving to a fiction an air of so much 
reality, that it has been cited, even by historians, as authori¬ 
ty.|| If, as spectators upon the spot, we confessed ourselves 
dissatisfied- with the supposed identity of certain points of oh- 
identity 
servation in Jerusalem, it is because we refused to tradition 
alone, what appeared contradictory to the evidence of our 
senses. Of this it will be proper to expatiate more fully ip 
the sequel. It is now only necessary to admonish the reader, 
that he will not find in these pages a renewal of the state¬ 
ments made by Sandys, and Maundrell, and Pococke, with a 
host of Greek and Latin pilgrims from the age of Phocas 
down to Breindenbach and (Juaresmius* We should ho 
more think of enumerating all the absurdities to which the 
Franciscan friars direct the attention of travellers, than hi 
& “ As they ted him away, they lard hold upon one Simon a Gyreniatn coming 0 . 1 V 
®.f the country.” Luke xxiii. 26. 
r Chateaubriand’s Travels, vol. II. p. 2. Lond. 1811. 
i Eusebius, Epiphanius, Hieronymus, Sic 
\ § See particularly the Dissertation of D’Anville, in the Appendix to. Moos. Ch;*- 
teaubriand’s interesting account of his Travels, vol. IX. p. 3091.of the edition by Fre¬ 
deric, Schoberl. Land, 1811. . * ‘ ^ 
|| “ The accurate Thevenot,” shys Mr. Gibbon (Hist. vol. 111. p. 14.. Lond 
1807.) “ walked, in one hour and three ^uarters, round two of the side^ of the tri¬ 
angle,” &c. He is speaking of Constantinople. Assuredly. Thevenot never set Lfv 
the country. 
