Fremont weekly freeman. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1850-1853, 1852-12-23
The First View of Jer usal en-.

Bayard Taylor, in his last letter publish
ed in the New York Tribune, gives the fol
lowing account of his first impression of the
Holy city:
But when climbed the last ridge, and
looked ahead with sort Of painful suspense
Jerusalem did not appear. We were 1000
feet above the Mediterranean, whose blue we
could distinctly see far tn the west, through
notches in the chain of hills. To the month
the mountains were gray, desulate and awful
Not a shrub or tree relieved their frightful
barenness. An upland tract, covered with
white volcanic rock. lay before US. We met
peasants with asses " ho looked, Ito my eyes)
as ifthey had just left Jerusalem. Still for
ward we urged our horses, and reached a
ruined garden, surrounded with hedge of cac =
tus, over which | saw domes and walls in the
distance. | drew long breath and looked
at Francois He was jogging along without
turning his head; he could not have been So
Indifferent if that was really the city. Pre-
senlly we reached another slight rise in the
rocky plain. He began to urge his painting
horse, and at the same instant we both lash
ed the spirit into ours, dashed ON at a break
neck gallup. round the corner of an old wall
on the top of the hill. and 10! the Holy City!
| Our Greek jerked both pistols from his
holsters, and fired them into the air, as reined
up on the steep.
From the description of travellers, l had
expected to see in Jerusalem an ordinary
modern Turkish town; but that before me,
with its wall, iortrtsses and domes, was it
not still the City of David2 saw the Jeru-
salem of the New Testament, as had ina
gined it. Long lines of walls crowned with
ii notched parapet, and strengthened by tow
ers; few domes and spires above them;
clusters of cypress here and there;-this was
all that was visible of the city. OR either side
the soil slope down to two deep valleys over
which it hangs. On the east, the Mount Of
o lives crowned with chapel and mosque,
rose high and Steep but directly over
that city, the sight fell far away upon the lofty
mountains of Moab. beyond the Dead Sra.--
The scene was grand in il simplicity. The
prominent colors were the purple Of those
distant mountains, and the hoary gray of the
nearer hills. The walls were of the dull yell
low of weather stained marble, and the only
trees the dark cypress and monnlit olive
Since we arrived, have looked down upon
the city from the Mount of Olives, and up to
it from the valley Of Jehosaphat; but | can
not restore the illusions of the first view
We allowed our horses 10 walk slowly
down the remaining half mile to the ,IatfA gate.
An Englshman. with red silk shawl over
his head sketching the city, while an
he'd an umbrella over him. Inside the gate
we stumbled upon an Italian shop with an
Italian sign, and after threading number OF
intricate passages under dark archways, and
being turned Oft from hutrl which was
full of travellers, reached another, kept BY a
converted German jew, here We found DR..
Robinson and Ely Smith, who both arrived
yesterday. 1t sounds strange TO talk of a
hotel in Jerusalem, but the world is progress
sing, and there are already three.