the Chapel of the Division of the Vestments; and the south-eastern (34), the Chapel of the Mocking; in the latter of which is preserved under the Altar a column reported to have been brought from the house of Pilate, and upon which the soldiers seated the Saviour when they crowned him with thorns and derided him1. Of the four doors above-mentioned, the first on the north (24) was formerly the passage from the Church to the Dormitory and Convent of the Canons in the time of the Crusaders. The second (26), in its original state, was probably a window. The third (28) leads by a descending stair to the Chapel of St Helena. And the fourth, the last (35) on the south, to an ascending stair which conducts to the apartments occupied by the Greeks.

But to return to the third door. This conducts by a long descending stair of thirty steps in a narrow passage partly formed in the rock, to the large Chapel dedicated to St Helena, the floor of which is fifteen feet nine inches below that of the Rotunda2. It is nearly square, being forty-three feet in width, and fiftyone in length from the foot of the stairs to the spring of the apse, which apse is six feet deep. The Chapel is divided into three aisles by two columns on each

church called "S. Croce in Gierusalemme." Quaresmius, T. II. p. 397. Longinus is the name given in the spurious Gospel of Nicodemus to the soldier who pierced the side of our Saviour, and is accepted by the Romish Church.

1 Sæwulf, in 1102, enumerates the locus where the Cross was found, the marble column of Flagellation, the locus where the Lord was stripped of his garments, the locus where the purple robe and crown of thorns were put on, and

where the soldiers cast lots for the vestments. As this passage was written before the Crusaders' Church was commenced, it appears that these loci are local, probably Syrian, traditions, and were accommodated by the Crusaders in the Plan of their apse, as explained above. They are not mentioned, however, by any other writers until the sixteenth century, as far as I have examined them.

2 On the authority of Mr Scoles.

side. These carry pointed arches and a stone vault, but the central compartment rises into a cupola, having a low tambour and four windows, which are the only sources of light to the Chapel. There is an admirable view of the interior in Roberts' Palestine, which may be compared with one engraved in the "Univers." From these it seems that the architecture of this Chapel is massive, rude, and crypt-like, the columns of a dwarfish proportion, with capitals apparently of early Byzantine character, having the peculiar hemispherical form and reticulated ornament, surmounted by leaves, that often appears in that style. It was not affected by the fire of 1808.

This Chapel, in every respect in its plan, resembles a small Greek Church, having a narthex or vestibule at the west end separated from the rest of the Church by square cruciform piers, a cupola in the middle resting on four round pillars, and eastern apses (29, 30), which are in this case confined to two in number, on account of the steps (32) which descend to the Chapel of the Invention occupying the place usually assigned to the southern apse. Amongst Greek Churches many of a similar plan may be seen, as for example, La Martorana in Palermo, the Church of Kapnicarea at Athens, (Couchaud. Pl. 15), the Church of the Theotocos at Constantinople, and many others. The vaulting is, however, differently managed, and may have been reconstructed by the Crusaders. But I am of opinion that they found this Church in existence, and merely repaired and adapted it to their new building.

The want of symmetrical position with respect to the Crusaders' apse, and the intrusion of the stairs into

the narthex', also shew that this Chapel was in existence before the apse of the great Church was planned.

The central altar is dedicated to St Helena, and the northern altar to the Good Thief, or to his cross?. On the North (31) side is a patriarchal chair of marble, usually said to be that in which Helena sat while they were digging in search of the Cross.

The southern aisle of the Chapel, in lieu of an apse, has a descending stair (32) of twelve steps, and a doorway which leads to an irregularly-shaped apartment (33), about twenty feet across, excavated in the rock3, the floor of which is eleven feet below that of the Chapel of St Helena. The sides are disposed in the form of an irregular pentagon, and the low roof is partly artificial and partly formed by the overhanging rock. Quaresmius describes it as appearing to have been a reservoir of water. This is the place where the three Crosses, the crown of thorns and the nails, the title, &c. are supposed to have been found when the rubbish which had

1According to the minute Fabri, the sides of the passage, in which the descending staircase is placed, are cut in the rock, the surface of which still forms the walls thereof. But the steps themselves are of stone; also the walls of the chapel itself are rock. "Hæc capella est satis magna, alias parietes non habens nisi petras, in quibus est incisa; sicut et ipsi gradus de superiori ecclesia inter parietes petrarum descendunt," (p. 293.) He had just stated that this descent was by “gradus lapideos." | Quaresmius (p. 408) makes them 29 steps, ex dolata marmore elaborati." In fact, the site of the chapel is a rect

angular, dry cistern, as it were, sunk in the rock, and the passage formed in an artificial cleft, cut into the western side of this cistern. In the original construction, I imagine the stairs were set farther west in this cleft, so as to leave the narthex free. Now, the steps are driven so far east by the Crusaders' apse, that they occupy the whole of the center of the narthex.

2 Quaresmius, p. 423.

3 Richardson describes it as a low rocky vault and a murky den, large enough to contain thirty or forty persons wedged in close array. Vol. 11. p. 325.

The

accumulated in this cavern was cleared out under the superintendence of St Helena A.D. 326 or 327. apartment is accordingly named the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross; and in the North-eastern corner an altar is placed in a rude apse upon the spot where the supposed Cross lay hid for three centuries.

On the North side of the descent is a fissure of the rock, which is quoted by some as one of the rents that accompanied the Crucifixion, but which Quaresmius declares to be manifestly an artificial opening, and no other than the proper canal or conduit which belonged to the original employment of this cavern as a cistern. As another instance of the tendency to explain every appearance about this spot in miraculous connexion with the events commemorated there, the dew-drops that naturally hang on the surface of the damp walls and columns, were believed by the pilgrims to be tears shed by the very stones in sympathy with the events that took place on this spot.

The above description of the East end of the Church, with its chapels and appendages, may be compared with that given in Beugnot1, which explains admirably the arrangement of the Convent of the Canons.

"At the chevet or apse of the choir there was a door on the right hand, by which the Canons entered to

Assises de Jerusalem, Tome 11. p. 531. Schultz's Jerusalem, p. 109. "Aucheves dou cuer avoit une porte, par là où li chanoine entroient en leur offecines, à mein destre. Entre cele porte et mont de Calvaire avoit 1. mout parfont fossé, où en avaloit à degres. Là avoit une place que en apeloit Sainte Helaine. Là trouva Sainte Helainne la crois et les clous et le martel et la

courone.... Tout ainsi que li chanoine issoient dou sepulcre, à mein senestre estoit leur dortoirs, et à mein destre li refrotois et tenoit au mont de Calvarie. Entre ces 11. offices estoit leur clistres et leur preaus. En un lieu du peel avoit une grant ouverture, dont on veoit en la chambre Elaine qui dessous estoit, car autrement n'i veoit on goute."

their apartments. Between this door and Mount Calvary was a door or passage, excavated downwards to some depth, where there were steps, and at the bottom a place called of Sainte Helaine, and there S. Helaine found the cross, and the nails, and the hammer, and the crown. .... And when the Canons issued from the Sepulchre, on the left was their dortoir, and on the right their refectory, against the Mount of Calvary. Between these two offices was their cloister, with the preau or court in the midst. In one place of this building was a great opening, through which could be seen the chamber of Helaine below, and this was all that could be seen of it."

At present the space at the East end of the Church is occupied by a Coptic Convent, and, according to the description given me by Mr Williams of their buildings, I conjecture that they must contain the remains of the very dormitory and cloister above described; for to this day their court is formed upon the roof of the chapel of St Helena, the cupola of which rises in the middle, and through its windows a view may be had of the chapel below, as Beugnot describes. On the South side a wall with pointed arches must clearly be the ruins of the refectory; and on the North of that is a flourishing olive-tree, which is believed to be the very tree in which Abraham found a ram caught by the horns.

It will

But, to return to the interior of the Church. be remembered that the choir is placed under a central lantern cupola, and has a transept to the North and South. The North transept of the Church presents nothing remarkable, and I will therefore proceed to describe the parts that lie to the South of the choir. The South transept has several irregularities in its arrangement, which arise from the earlier buildings which