was brought by night from Jerusalem, when sent by the captain of the temple to Felix (Acts xxii. 31). The only remains are of military works, and in their construction they much resemble those of Cæsarea. A few miles further is the plain of Arsouf, where the Saracens were most severely defeated by the Crusaders in 1191, and at the distance of thirty miles from Jaffa are the ruins of Cæsarea, once the capital of Palestine, and one of the finest cities of the East. It was originally called the town of Strato, from being built around a fortification called Strato's Tower, erected by one of the Seleucidæ, but which afterwards came into the hands of the Asmonean princes. Herod greatly enlarged it, erected many edifices in the Grecian style, and gave it the name of Cæsarea. He also added a safe harbour, by the construction of a magnificent mole, and the city became afterwards the seat of the Roman proconsul.

Cæsarea is connected with several important events in the early history of the Gospel. Here Cornelius was converted by St. Peter, here resided Philip the evangelist, and here St. Paul pronounced his noble oration before King Agrippa, and Festus, the Roman Governor. In this city, too, was the impious Herod struck by the hand of death, as related in the Acts of the Apostles. At present very little remains of the edifices constructed by Herod, as they have long served as a kind of quarry to the inhabitants of Acre, and it is known that Baldwin I. of Jerusalem, when he took the city by storm, in 1100, made great havoc. The site is now enclosed by a wall of the era of the later Crusades, and there is also a castle, as well as several churches in a ruinous condition, which have evidently been constructed from the materials of former edifices, among which are fragments of marble and granite pillars with sculptured capitals; the castle also appears to occupy the site of an ancient amphitheatre, if not to be erected upon its foundations. Ten miles beyond Cæsarea is the small town of Tortura, the ancient Dor, taken by the tribe of Manasseh, (Judges i. 27,) and afterwards known as Dora, in which Tryphon, the usurper of the Syrian throne, was besieged by Antiochus Sidetes, (B.c. 138). It was at one time possessed by Herod, and was long

the see of a Christian bishop, but its present inhabitants are wholly Mohammedan. A few miles further is a ruined castle, evidently once a magnificent edifice, standing upon a rocky peninsula with a small bay to the south. This is the ancient Sycaminon, but it is now called by navigators Castel Pellegrino, and a small village close by, constructed within the wall of the ancient city, bears the name of Athlete.

The coast, which begins to assume a bold character at Tortura, continues to rise, and at length terminates in the noble promontory of Mount Carmel, crowned by a Christian monastery, situated on the spot assigned by tradition as the scene of the miracle of Elijah (1 Kings xvii.) The mountain forms the southern boundary of the bay of Acre, a recess of considerable magnitude, and almost the only place deserving the name of a port along the whole line of coast. The central part is encumbered by sandbanks, but there is convenient anchorage for shipping at Haypha, a village on the south side, while on its northern shore stands Akka, the most important maritime town of Syria. This place, the Accho of Scripture, the Ptolemais of antiquity, and the Acre of the Crusades, has been several times reduced to ruin, but its natural advantages have attracted attention alike in modern as in ancient days, though it now doubtless presents but a faint image of its former splendour. The present town, which is mainly constructed of materials from the ruins of Cæsarea, may be said to owe its origin and its commercial importance to Sheik Daher, who, early in the eighteenth century, established himself on this point, and long defied the utmost efforts of the Sultan to displace him, but fell at last through treachery. Considerable quantities of corn and cotton raised in the neighbourhood are exported, the imports mainly consisting of European and colonial produce. The town, which has a population of 20,000 persons, makes a noble appearance from the sea, and has a mosque and baths of great elegance; it has also an arsenal, and has of late been strongly fortified. It, as well as its predecessors, has been the scene of some memorable events, a brief sketch of which will form a portion of a future paper.

I.

THERE are many buildings in London which, when the circumstances connected with their original establishment are duly inquired into, afford much valuable historical information: they carry us back to times when the ecclesiastical, the legislative, and the social policy of England was such as we now no longer recognise; and thus they furnish a link to .connect past and present times. Many such buildings have been described in former volumes of the Saturday Magazine; and we now propose to introduce another, viz., CHRIST'S HOSPITAL (commonly known as the "Blue Coat School"), to the notice of our readers. It will be seen that a mere notice of the founding of this excellent institution by King Edward the Sixth, followed by details of its subsequent history, would go but little way in demonstrating the necessity for its establishment, since this necessity arose out of the peculiar texture of English society long before that amiable monarch existed. It will be incumbent on us to show that the monastic institutions which, previous to the time of Henry the Eighth, were so numerous in England, were intimately connected with the circumstances out of which the necessity for Christ's Hospital arose.

From the time of St. Augustine, who, towards the end of the sixth century, was sent by Pope Gregory to convert King Ethelbert and his Saxon subjects to Christianity, the establishment of monastic institutions spread gradually over England. Augustine himself belonged to the Benedictines, whereby that order gained a supremacy over all others in England. During the subsequent contests between the Danes and Saxons, and afterwards between the Saxons and Normans, the monasteries suffered frequently and severely; but the pious zeal of the sovereigus, spurred on by the overwhelming power of the popes, restored these establishments, and added to their number. VOL. XVII.

So

They

great was this increase, that, by the time of King Henry the Third, there were in England no fewer than five hundred monastic establishments. had in fact gained power and wealth too rapidly, and became objects of dislike to all parties. The sovereign was dissatisfied with the opposition which, under the sanction of the papal see, they frequently showed to his authority as a monarch; the nobles were jealous of the immense wealth of the monks; the parochial clergy were indignant at the gradual usurpation of their privileges and possessions by the monks; and the people were discontented with the rigorous authority which the monks exerted over them.

Such circumstances tended to foster a desire to curtail the power of these monks; and an opportunity soon arrived for so doing, by the appearance in England of some mendicant monks; a sect which differed from the regular orders in the following points:that, while the latter had great possessions, the former were bound by their rule to remain unpossessed of fixed revenues; to live entirely by alms, and in voluntary poverty: they would hear confessions and grant absolution at a cheaper rate than the regular monks, and thereby furnish the people with an excuse for deserting them. The Mendicants belonged chiefly to four orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians; but of these four the Franciscans alone are those to whom we need further allude. They derived their appellation from St. Francis, who, about the year 1200, made a vow to devote himself entirely to religious mortification, and founded an order of monks, whom he bound by a rule inculcating absolute poverty as the germ of all religion. From their humility, (real or affected,) they termed themselves Friars Minor; and, from the colour of their dress, Grey Friars, being thus distinguished from the Dominicans, who were termed Black Friars.

In the year 1224, nine of these Franciscans or 38

Grey Friars, arrived in England, with a letter of recommendation from the pope. They first resided at a Benedictine priory in Canterbury; then at a Dominican friary in Oldbourne (Holborn); then at the house of John Travers, sheriff of London; and, lastly, in a convent built expressly for them in the ward of Farringdon, nearly "on the spot where Christ's Hospital now stands. The erection of this convent was entirely the result of individual munificence: one person presented the ground on which the convent was to be built; another built the choir of the church; a third built the nave; a fourth the chapter-house; a fifth the vestry; a sixth the dormitories; a seventh the refectory; and others supplied furniture and fittings-up, besides funds for other purposes.

There were nuns, as well as monks or friars, belong. ing to most of the orders. Those professing the rule of St. Francis had a convent near Aldgate; they were called Minoresses, (the friars being Minors,) and their house was called the Minories, a name which was afterwards applied to the street in which it was situated. The foundress of the order was St. Clare, a cotemporary and imitator of St. Francis; and the sisters were often termed poor Clares.

The establishment of the new convent took place in the ninth year of Henry the Third's reign, and from that time its revenues or endowments were continually augmenting by private donations. Queen Margaret, wife of Edward the First, was a munificent benefac tress, advancing, in addition to other gifts, 2000 marks towards the erection of a new chapel. This chapel appears to have been a splendid and costly structure, and is said to have been 300 feet long, 90 in width, and 74 in height: every part was erected and adorned at the voluntary expense of individuals; and so far did this subdivision of expense go, that the thirty-six windows of the chapel were glazed at the charge of an equal number of persons.

Benefactions continued to pour into the convent from all quarters; among which one of the most useful was that of a library of books, and a receptacle in which to deposit them, from the famous Sir Richard Whittington, in 1421. Such was the reputation which these friars obtained, that popes, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and nobles were registered in the chronicles of the order; but one of the most remarkable evidences of this admiration, and one illustrative of the state of religious feeling in those days, was that the great and noble deemed their chance of future happiness greater if they were buried within the precincts of the convent, clothed in the humble garb of the friars. To this superstition (for such we, acting on a purer creed, must assuredly call it) we must attribute the fact, that within the convent were buried four queens, four duchesses, four count esses, one duke, two earls, eight barons, and thirtyfive knights.

It may probably occur to the reader to inquire how far all this celebrity and these benefactions comported with the vow of poverty made by the Franciscans. A fair and rational interpretation of the Gospel will surely show us that a tempered cheerfulness is not only unopposed to Christianity, but forms one of its beautiful and, if we may use such a term, amiable features. The humility of the heart does not necessarily call for such personal mortifications, and even degradations, as the Franciscans, acting from a narrow view of a few passages in Scripture, imposed on themselves; and indeed it may well be doubted whether a coarse garment, and coarser food, contribute one whit to the purification of the heart that beats within, since that purification must emanate from a far different source, These truths appear to

have been partially felt by the Franciscans, for they gradually relaxed the austerity of their rule. This gave rise to a schism; and a new party sprang up, who, by adhering to the original and rigorous rule, deemed themselves entitled to the name of Friars Minims, the term minor not being humble enough. The Friars Minor, under their relaxed rule, continued to receive the support of kings and nobles, down to the memorable period when Henry the Eighth, influenced by sordid motives which he masked under a religious veil, suppressed all the monastic institutions in England. We cannot doubt for a moment that this suppression was a blessing to the country; for the enormous revenues possessed by these establishments became a source of evil in many ways, and the lives of the monks were too often disgraced by licentiousness: still, however, the whole manner in which Henry brought about the suppression, together with his mode of disposing of the revenues, prevent us from awarding him credit for the motives by which he was impelled. We have more than once had occasion to speak of the dissolution of monasteries; and shall therefore refrain from entering into the subject, further than to say that the convent of the Grey Friars shared the common ruin that fell on these establishments, by which ten thousand persons of both sexes were thrown on the world without the means of subsistence. On the 12th of November, 1539, the Grey Friars, headed by their warden, surrendered their convent to Henry, and were obliged to sign a deed, in which they were made to state that they "doo profoundly consider that the perfeccion of Christian liuyng dothe not conciste in dome ceremonies, weryng of a grey cootte, disgeasing our selffe aftyr straunge fassions, dokynge, nodyngs, and bekynge, in gurding our selffes wythe a gurdle full of knots, and other like papistical ceremonyes, wherein we haue byn most pryncipally practysed, and mysselyed in tymes past.'

When the friars had left their house, the church was converted into a storehouse; the consecrated vessels were sold; and the monuments were defaced and destroyed. Still, however, the buildings were not actually destroyed; and they became, some years afterwards, the seat of Christ's Hospital, on account of these circumstances:-There were no poor-laws in those days; neither were there any institutions analogous to the infirmaries and hospitals which now so honourably distinguish this country. When, therefore, the poor were in actual want or in sickness, there was no place for them to apply to but the monasteries; and it must in justice be mentioned, that, the doors of the monasteries were ever open to the relief of the humble and distressed: at many of them there was a daily portion of food distributed to the poor; and the monks were often capable of acting in a medical capacity, in accordance with the rude knowledge of those times. But when Henry's ruthless spoliation took place, and the revenues, instead of being applied to purposes of religion and charity, were appropriated to his own use, this source was cut off, and the poor soon began to suffer great misery, the loss of their former benefactors not being compensated by any new establishments. Education, too, rude as it had been by the monks, was now at a stand, for there were scarcely any schools.

This state of things excited the compassion of many benevolent persons in the city of London, among whom, Sir Richard Gresham, then Lord Mayor, petitioned the king to allow three hospitals, which had previously existed in London under the hands of the monks, to be made over to the city of London, in order that the revenues accruing there

from might be applied to the healing of the sick poor, the support of impotent persons unable to labour, and the occasional relief of distressed persons. This petition was left unheeded by the king, until his approaching death induced him to think more seriously on the state of his poorer subjects: in the year 1545, the king made over to the corporation of London the whole site of the Grey Friars' Convent, with all the buildings remaining on it, together with Bartholomew's Hospital in Smithfield: he also made certain alterations in the parochial divisions of that part of the city, and gave the name of CHRIST CHURCH to the conventual church lately belonging to the friars.

But this gift was, from different causes, suffered to lie dormant for several years; and it was not until the attention of the young Edward, son and successor to Henry the Eighth, had been drawn to the subject by Bishop Ridley, that any real good was effected. The king, after hearing a sermon on charity from Ridley, had a long conference with him; the result of which was, a communication to the city authorities, who promptly attended. A plan was soon arranged by which St. Thomas's Hospital was to be devoted to the relief of the sick and diseased; Bridewell, for the correction and amendment of the idle poor; and Christ's Hospital, for the education of poor children, in addition to the maintenance provided by the gift of Henry. It is related that when Edward,-then sinking into the grave,-had signed the charter of this gift, he ejaculated, in the hearing of his council"Lord! I yield thee most hearty thanks, that thou hast given me life thus long, to finish this work to the glory of thy name." In June, 1553, a few days before his death, Edward received the lord mayor and corporation at the palace, and presented them with the charter. The scene which occurred on this occasion was depicted by the pencil of Hans Holbein, in a picture which now adorns the hall of the institution, and which is represented in our frontispiece: the king is seen seated on the throne; around him are some of his ministers; Bishop Ridley, kneeling, is receiving the charter from the hand of the king; the mayor and corporation are on the other side of the throne; members of the common council are seen on either side; and in front are some of the children, dressed in russet gowns. The picture, as a work of art, has been the subject of some severe criticism; but as a national monument, commemorative of an important event in the history of the humbler classes of English society, it is both valuable and interesting.

Thus arose CHRIST'S HOSPITAL; and it will now be seen what has been our object in carrying the reader's attention back to monastic times, when twothirds of the entire area of the city of London was occupied by religious houses and their various appendages. It will be seen that the poor and sick persons who had been assisted by the monks, and the poor children who had been in some sort educated by them, were thrown friendless on the world, by the sudden suppression of those institutions; and that Christ's Hospital was the first attempt to remedy the temporary evil occasioned thereby: we say temporary, for there is abundant proof that the improvement in religion and morals, consequent on the suppression, ultimately counterbalanced, beyond all measure, the evil and suffering at first resulting from it. Having thus shown the causes which led to the foundation of Christ's Hospital, we shall be prepared to trace its subsequent history, and to describe the buildings comprised within the precincts of the institution.

THE SYRIAN COAST. III.

THE original appellation of the town now known as Akka, or Acre, was one descriptive of its situation. It was styled by its Canaanitish inhabitants, Accho, signifying inclosed, or shut-up; a term peculiarly appropriate to a town built upon a neck of land stretching two miles into the sea, and in all probability then, as it certainly was afterwards, and is now, defended by a wall drawn from the open sea on the west, to a small creek on the east, which served as a haven. It is mentioned as one of the cities which the Israelites were unable to subdue, (Judges i. 31,) but although it was of sufficient importance in the time of Alexander to have a mint, (upon the coins struck in which it is styled Ako,) little notice occurs of it in history, until the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, (B.c. 250,) who, having taken it from Antiochus II., rebuilt it, and named it Ptolemais. It was for some considerable time possessed by the Egyptians, but was in the following century in the hands of the kings of Syria. Here the impostor Alexander Balas first established himself, who was assisted by the Maccabees; and it was afterwards possessed by Tryphon, who having persuaded Jonathan Maccabeus to visit him, made him a prisoner, and shortly afterwards put him to death (B.C. 143).

Ptolemais next fell into the hands of the Romans, and was by the Emperor Claudius raised to the dignity of a colony; about this period it was visited by St. Paul, and it early became the seat of a Christian bishop. It continued to form a part of the Greek empire until the conquest of Syria by the Saracens, (A.D. 636,) when it was occupied without resistance by the followers of the Prophet, and remained in their hands until 1104, in which year it was captured by the Crusaders, after a twenty days' siege. The king, Baldwin I., was assisted in this enterprise by a fleet of Pisans and Genoese, who received in return for their services, a grant of a quarter of the town, a practice very commonly followed in the Crusades, but from which much mischief arose in after-times, as each party possessed an independent authority, which was but too often exercised te the prejudice of all the rest.

Under the Crusaders, Ptolemais, or, as it was then called, Acon, regained much of its ancient importance, Numerous churches and monasteries were erected; and it was so strongly fortified, as to be deemed impregnable; but when Saladin had annihilated the chivalry of the Latin kingdom at the disastrous battle of Hittin, or Tiberias, (July 5, 1187,) Acon opened its gates to him two days after, and remained in his possession for four years, its fortifications being still further strengthened, a numerous garrison placed in it, and vast quantites of warlike stores laid up in it by the victor. The king, Guy de Lusignan, had been taken prisoner at Tiberias, and when, after a while, he was released, he found that his authority was not acknowledged in the few fragments of his Dekingdom still in the hands of the Christians. termined, however, to persevere, he collected together a small force of 700 knights and 9000 infantry, (some the survivors of the battle, but the majority pilgrims who had recently arrived from Europe,) and being assisted by a Pisan fleet, ventured to lay siege to Acon, before which he arrived in August, 1189. The garrison was far more numerous than the besiegers, yet the latter made a desperate attempt to carry the place by escalade, on the third day after their arrival, and would probably have succeeded, had they not at the very moment of victory been induced to retire to their camp by news of the approach of Saladin.

The besiegers were now besieged in their turn, and, though they repelled several attempts to storm their lines, were severely defeated in more than one battle which the disorderly multitude of pilgrims ventured upon against the wish of their leaders.

In the mean time famine began to prevail in the Christian camp, while the besieged, having the command of the sea, (for an Egyptian fleet had driven away the Pisans,) were plentifully supplied with provisions, and often received reinforcements of men; in the Christian camp sickness also raged to such an extent, that for some time 200 pilgrims died in a day. Beside all this, disunion prevailed among their leaders. Conrad of Montferrat, prince of Tyre, from whence most of their supplies were procured, used the influence he thus possessed, to thwart the plans of the king, whom he desired to dispossess of the crown; and thus the camp was split into two factions, the French pilgrims espousing the cause of Guy, while Conrad was supported by the Germans, the wreck of the crusade which the Emperor Frederic I. had cononducted by land as far as the confines of Syria, and who reached Acon under the command of his son, the duke of Suabia*.

Thus the years 1189 and 1190 wore away, the operations of the besiegers having been utterly with out effect, and their loss most terrible; when news came that the kings of England and France were advancing with numerous armies. Saladin immediately threw a fresh garrison into the place, so that when the king of France arrived, (April 13, 1191,) he found the siege in reality was yet to begin. He was, however, unable to effect anything until Richard Cœur de Lion landed, (June 8,) and then the rivalry of the two monarchs prevented their acting in concert, till they had each made an assault upon the town and been repulsed. At length uniting their forces, the place was surrendered on the 12th of July; the terms being the restoration of the wood of the "true cross," which Saladin had taken at Tiberias, the payment of a large sum of money, and the liberation of 2500 Christian captives. The officers and great part of the garrison were detained as hostages, and as the conditions were not fulfilled at the appointed time, were mercilessly massacred by order of King Richard on the 20th of August. Thus terminated the memorable siege of Acon, which was more frightfully destructive of human life than any other event of the kind on record; for beside the loss of the Moslems, it is estimated by contemporary writers that out of 300,000 pilgrims engaged, not one-tenth returned to Europe.

By the terms of the truce which Richard concluded before leaving the Holy Land, a strip of seacoast extending from Jaffa to Tripoli was secured to the Christians, and Acre remained in their hands until their final expulsion from Syria. Its advantageous position, and the excellent harbour which it then possessed, occasioned it to become a place of great trade during the frequent truces which occurred, and contemporary writers speak of it as a most splendid city, particularly mentioning the great church of St. John (whence the name by which the city is often mentioned, of St. Jean d'Acre,) the cathedral of St. Andrew, the fortified palaces of the three great military orders, who had here their head-quarters, and formed the only defence that could be relied upon, an artificial port, and a noble aqueduct. The fortifications

A number of these Germans formed themselves into a third military order, which bore the name of the Teutonic, and after the loss of the Holy Land employed itself chiefly against the pagan inhabitants of Lithuania. The other orders were the Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John, and the Knights Templars, both founded at Jerusalem, the former about 1050, the latter in i118.

were sedulously attended to by the knights, and upon them chiefly were expended the sums which were yearly collected in Christendom for the relief of the Holy Land. The population was very large, but of a very mixed character, and included a great number of Mohammedans. In proportion as their other strongholds were wrested from them, Acre became of more and more importance to the Christians; and at length, in the year 1291, its walls inclosed all that remained of the conquests of Godfrey, and Baldwin, of Richard, and Edward I*. Feeble as the Christians now were, they still continued to provoke their enemies by plundering excursions into the neighbouring country, and by shameless breaches of faith to merchants who visited them for purposes of trade, and when at length the Egyptian Sultan appeared before their walls, (April, 1291,) there was no unity of counsel, as to their measures of defence. All the various powers which had heretofore possessed any portion of the Holy Land, had here their representatives, who occupied distinct quarters of the town, in which they exercised sovereign power, and could scarcely be brought to an agreement on any point, when the safety of all was at stake. At last, as their only hope was in the courage of the military orders, the chief command was bestowed upon the grand master of the knights of St. John, who bravely defended the city for thirty-three days; but the assailants were twenty times as numerous as the garrison, and on the 18th of May, 1291, the double wall was forced, 60,000 Christians either massacred or made slaves, and vast numbers drowned in endeavouring to escape by sea The Knights Templars defended their hospital three days longer, until the grand master was slain, and of 500 knights only ten were left alive. The fortifications were destroyed, as were the churches and the dwellings, the harbour became gradually choked up with sand, and for 200 years Acre remained a ruin, inhabited only by a few fisher

men.

At length it was in some measure restored by Fakrel-Din, the prince of the Druses, who, in the seventeenth century, aimed at opening a communication between his country and Europe, and for that purpose made great efforts to rebuild some of the ruined cities on the coast, but on his death, it sank into its former state; and so remained until raised again by the Sheik Daher, who was for many years the actual ruler of Syria, and did much to make Acre more particularly a place of importance. Upon his death, in 1776, he was succeeded by Djezzar Pacha, who undid much that his predecessor had done, and in whose time, Acre sustained its memorable siege from the French, under Buonaparte, who here met with his first serious reverse. The fortifications were at this time in a mi serable state, and no resistance was anticipated; but Sir Sydney Smith, the British commodore, landed a party of seamen and marines, and by their aid, Djezzar was enabled to repulse no less than twelve assaults on the town, though one was treacherously made during the

his force soon increased to seven times their number, with which

* Edward, before he became king, served in the crusade before Tunis, where St. Louis died; finding the other princes disheartened, and wishing to return home, he sailed for Acre, where he landed early in 1271, with only 6000 men, but his fame was such that he took the field, and speedily reduced Nazareth and several other places, but finding it impossible that his acquisitions could be maintained without a much larger force than there was any chance of his being able to spare from his own dominions, and that no reliance could be placed upon the energy of those he came to succour, he entered into a truce for ten years with the sultan of Egypt, which secured several advantages to the inhabitants of Acre, and left Syria, in May, 1272. Whilst he was at Acre, an attempt was made to assassinate him by an Arab armed with a poisoned dagger, and the venom is said by some writers to have been sucked from the wound by his wife Eleonora ; on which Fuller remarks, "Pity it is that so pretty a story should not be true; yet can it not stand with what others have written."