east they have not allowed
it to become the private house of a particular rich man.
And that is what we have suffered to happen, if not to Westminster Abbey,
at least to Welbeck Abbey.

The Mosque of Omar (I repeat firmly) stands on the great eastern
plateau in place of the Temple; and the wall that runs round
to it on the south side of the city contains only the Dung Gate,
on which the fancy need not linger. All along outside this
wall the ground falls away into the southern valley; and upon
the dreary and stony steep opposite is the place called Acaldama.
Wall and valley turn together round the corner of the great
temple platform, and confronting the eastern wall, across the ravine,
is the mighty wall of the Mount of Olives. On this side there
are several gates now blocked up, of which the most famous,
the Golden Gate, carries in its very uselessness a testimony
to the fallen warriors of the cross. For there is a strange
Moslem legend that through this gate, so solemnly sealed up,
shall ride the Christian King who shall again rule in Jerusalem.
In the middle of the square enclosure rises the great dark Dome
of the Rock; and standing near it, a man may see for the first time
in the distance, another dome. It lies away to the west, but a little
to the north; and it is surmounted, not by a crescent but a cross.
Many heroes and holy kings have desired to see this thing,
and have not seen it.

It is very characteristic of the city, with its medieval medley and huddle
of houses, that a man may first see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
which is in the west, by going as far as possible to the east.
All the sights are glimpses; and things far can be visible and things
near invisible. The traveller comes on the Moslem dome round a corner;
and he finds the Christian dome, as it were, behind his own back.
But if he goes on round the wall to the north-east corner of the Court
of the Temple, he will find the next entrance; the Gate of St. Stephen.
On the slope outside, by a strange and suitable coincidence,
the loose stones which lie on every side of the mountain city
seemed to be heaped higher; and across the valley on the skirts
of the Mount of Olives is the great grey olive of Gethsemane.

On the northern side the valley turns to an artificial trench,
for the ground here is higher; and the next or northern gate bears
the name of Herod; though it might well bear the name either
of Godfrey or Saladin. For just outside