e from the following words that he
appreciated the contrast between simple and sublime scenery: 'It must
be noticed too, that the river, from the source of Jordan at the foot
of Lebanon as far as the Desert of Pharan, has broad and pleasant
plains on both sides, and beyond these the fields are surrounded by
very high mountains as far as the Red Sea.'

In dealing with Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives, religious
enthusiasm suppresses any reference to scenery.

These descriptions shew that the wealth and fertility of the country
were praised before its beauty, and that this was only referred to in
short, meagre phrases, which tell less about it than any raptures
without special knowledge.

It was much the same with Phokas, who visited the Holy Land in
1135.[2]

He was greatly impressed by the position of Antioch, 'with its
meadows and fruitful gardens, and the murmur of waters as the river,
fed by the torrents of the Castalian spring, flows quietly round the
town and besprinkles its towers with its gentle waves ... but most to
be admired of all is the mountain between town and sea, a noble and
remarkable sight--indeed, a delight to the beholder's eye ... the
Orontes flows with countless windings at the foot of it, and
discharges itself into the sea.'

He thought Lebanon very beautiful and worthy its praise in Holy
Scripture: 'The sun lies like white hair upon its head; its valleys
are crowned with pines, cedars, and cypresses; streams, beautiful to
look at and quite cold, flow from the ravines and valleys down to the
sea, and the freshly melted snow gives the flowing water its crystal
clearness.'

Tyre, too, was praised for its beauty: 'Strangers were particularly
delighted with one spring, which ran through meadows; and if one
stands on the tower, one can see the dense growth of plants, the
movement of the leaves in the glow of noon.'

The plain of Nazareth, too, was 'a heaven on earth, the delight of
the soul.'

But recollections of the sacred story were dearer to Phokas than the
scenery, and elsewhere he limited himself to noting the rich fruit
gardens, shady groups of trees, and streams and rivers with pleasant
banks.

Epiphanius Monachus Hagiopolitae, in his _Enarratio Syriae_, was a very
dry pioneer; so, too, the _Anonymus de locis Hierosolymitanis_;
Perdiccas, in his _Hierosolyma_, describes Sion thus: 'It stands on
an eminence so as to strike the eye, and is beautiful to behold,
owing to a number of