Syria, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, &C - Illustrated, in a Series of Views Drawn From Nature #232593

Mad people continue even at the present time to be sent from the surrounding country, to be cured at St. Antonio: it is much more likely to drive sane people mad than to cure lunatics. The descent into this gloomy vale, as you pass hence, is so sad, the cliffs on each side so grim, that you think you are taking leave of the gay and blessed things of nature, of the sweet grove, of the sun-lit shore, of the shepherd and his pastures, of the beautiful sea and its wild waves. The convent is so overhung by the heights, as to- receive slenderly the beams of the sun: in the plate, which is taken at noon, a flood. Of light is thrown too lavishly on the roof and walls: noon is the only hour in which this could happen: during the greater part of the day they are cold and sunless. Each point, each nook or ledge of rock around, is covered with crosses which do not appear in the plate.