From Jerusalem to Bethlehem is but two hours' travel. The country through which the road lies is the valley of Rephaim, as may be gathered from Josephus[580], a valley so famous for being the theatre of David's victories against the Philistines[581]. In the road you meet with these following remarkable places: first, a place said to be the house of Simeon, that venerable old prophet who, taking our blessed Saviour in his arms, sung his nunc dimittis in the temple; secondly, the famous turpentine tree, in the shade of which the blessed Virgin is said to have reposed when she was carrying Christ in her arms to present him to the Lord at Jerusalem; thirdly, a convent dedicated to St. Elias, the impress of whose body the Greek monks residing here pretend to show in a hard stone, which was wont to serve him for his bed. Near this convent also is a well, where you are told it was that the star appeared to the eastern magi to their exceeding joy. Fourthly, Rachel's tomb. This may probably be the true place of her interment, mentioned in Gen. xxxv. 19; but the present sepulchral monument can be none of that which Jacob erected; for it appears plainly to be a modern and Turkish structure. Near this monument is a little piece of ground, in which are picked up a little sort of small, round stones, exactly resembling peas, concerning which they have a tradition here that they were once truly what they now seem to be; but that the blessed Virgin petrified them by a miracle, in punishment to a surly rustic, who denied her the charity of a handful of them to relieve her hunger.
Being arrived at Bethlehem, we immediately made a circular visit to all the holy places belonging to it, as namely, the place where it is said our blessed Lord was born; the manger in which it is said he was laid; the chapel of St. Joseph, his supposed father; that of the Innocents; those of St. Jerom, of St. Paula and Eustochium, and of Eusebius of Cremona; and lastly, the school of St. Jerom; all which places it shall suffice just to name.
From the top of the church we had a large prospect of the adjacent country. The most remarkable places in view were Tekoah, situate on the side of a hill about nine miles distant to the southward; Engedi, distant about three miles eastward; and somewhat farther off, the same way, a high, sharp hill called the mountain of the Franks, because defended by a party of the crusaders forty years after the loss of Jerusalem.
April 1.—This morning we went to see some remarkable places in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem. The first place that we directed our course to was those famous fountains, pools, and gardens, about one hour and a quarter distant from Bethlehem southward, said to have been the contrivance and delight of king Solomon. To these works and places of pleasure that great prince is supposed to allude[582] where, amongst the other instances of his magnificence, he reckons up his gardens, and vineyards, and pools.
As for the pools, they are three in number, lying in a row above each other, being so disposed that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular. The breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces. In their length there is some difference between them, the first being about one hundred and sixty paces long, the second two hundred, the third two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with wall, and plastered, and contain a great depth of water.
Close by the pools is a pleasant castle of a modern structure; and at about the distance of one hundred and forty paces from them is the fountain from which, principally, they derive their waters. This the friars will have to be that "sealed fountain" to which the holy spouse is compared[583]; and, in confirmation of this opinion, they pretend a tradition that king Solomon shut up these springs, and kept the door of them sealed with his signet, to the end that he might preserve the waters for his own drinking in their natural freshness and purity. Nor was it difficult thus to secure them, they rising under ground, and having no avenue to them but by a little hole like to the mouth of a narrow well. Through this hole you descend directly down, but not without some difficulty, for about four yards, and then arrive in a vaulted room fifteen paces long and eight broad. Joining to this is another room of the same fashion, but somewhat less. Both these rooms are covered with handsome stone arches, very ancient, and perhaps the work of Solomon himself.
You find here four places at which the water rises. From those separate sources it is conveyed, by little rivulets, into a kind of basin; and from thence is carried, by a large subterraneous passage, down into the pools. In the way, before it arrives at the pools, there is an aqueduct of brick pipes, which receives part of the stream, and carries it, by many turnings and windings about the mountains, to Jerusalem.
Below the pools there runs down a narrow, rocky valley, inclosed on both sides with high mountains. This the friars will have to be the inclosed garden alluded to in the same place of the Canticles before cited: "A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." What truth there may be in this conjecture I cannot absolutely pronounce. As to the pools, it is probable enough they may be the same with Solomon's, there not being the like store of excellent spring water to be met with any where else throughout all Palestine; but for the gardens, one may safely affirm that, if Solomon made them in the rocky ground which is now assigned for them, he demonstrated greater power and wealth in finishing his design than he did wisdom in choosing the place for it.
From these memorials of Solomon we returned towards Bethlehem again, in order to visit some places nearer home. The places we saw were, the field where it is said the shepherds were watching their flocks when they received the glad tidings of the birth of Christ; and, not far from the field, the village where they dwelt; and a little on the right hand of the village, an old desolate nunnery built by St. Paula, and made the more memorable by her dying in it. These places are all within about half a mile of the convent, eastward; and with these we finished this morning's work.
Having seen what is usually visited on the south and east of Bethlehem, we walked out after dinner to the westward, to see what was remarkable on that side. The first place we were guided to was the well of David, so called because held to be the same that David so passionately thirsted after[584]. It is a well (or rather a cistern) supplied only with rain, without any natural excellency in its waters to make them desirable; but it seems David's spirit had a farther aim.