JERUSALEM* 
333 
pilgrims. Captain Culverhouse, in whose mind the ideas of 
religion and of patriotism were inseparable, with firmer emo¬ 
tion, drew from its scabbard the sword he had so often wielded 
in the defence of his country, and placed it upon the tomb. 
Humbler comers heaped the memorials of an accomplished 
pilgrimage; and while their sighs alone interrupted the silence 
of the sanctuary, a solemn service w as begun. Thus ended our 
visit to the Sepulchre. 
If the reader has caught a single spark of this enthusiasm, 
it were perhaps sacrilegious to dissipate the illusion. But 
mud) remains untold. Every thing beneath this building 
seems discordant, not only '■with history, but with common 
sense. It is altogether such a work as might naturally be 
conjectured to arise from the infatuated superstition of such an 
old woman as was Helena, subsequently enlarged by ignorant 
priests. Forty paces from the Sepulchre, beneath the roof of 
the same church, and upon the same level, are shown two 
rooms, one above the other. Close by the entrance to the 
lower chamber, or chapel, are the Tombs of Godfrey of Bou¬ 
logne, and of Bald win, kings of Jerusalem, with inscriptions 
in Latin, in the old Gothic character. These have been copied 
into almost every book of travels, from the time of Sandys, # 
to the present day. At the extremity of this chapel they ex¬ 
hibit a fissure or cleft in the natural rock; and this, they say, 
happened at the crucifixion. Who shall presume to contra¬ 
dict Hire tale? But to complete the ncii'vele of the tradition, it 
is also added, that the head of Adam was found within 
the fissure. Then, if the traveller has not already heard 
and seen enough to make him regret his wasted time, he may 
ascend by a few steps into a room above. There they wilt 
show him the*same crack again; and immediately in front of 
it, a modern altar. This they venerate as Mount Calvary, 
the piace of crucifixion ; exhibiting upon this contracted piece 
of masonry the marks, or holes, of the three crosses, without 
the smallest regard to the space necessary for their erection* 
After this he may be conducted through such a farrago of ab¬ 
surdities, that it is wonderful the learned men, who have de¬ 
scribed Jerusalem, should have filled their pages with any seri¬ 
ous detail of them. Nothing, however, can surpass the fidel¬ 
ity with which Sandys has particularized every circumstance 
of all this trumpery ; and his rude cuts are characterized by 
*■ See Sandy’s travels, p. 1G3. Lond 1837. Doubdan Voyage de la f. S. p: 7. 
fails, lf.57, &c &c 
