The Life, Travels, and Literary Career of Bayard TaylorConwell, Russell H.
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The Life, Travels, and Literary Career of Bayard Taylor
Conwell, Russell H.
Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878
On the 7th of May he left Jerusalem, in company with another traveller
and the mule-drivers, taking the route by way of Samaria to Nazareth
through a country at that season covered with the richest and freshest
foliage. Along the entire route the tourist seldom passes out of sight
of broken columns, falling fortresses, gray old monasteries, dismal
hermitages, and Roman masonry. The olive and fig trees shaded the path,
and with the wide fields of grain gave the appearance of thrift and
enterprise. He visited Shechem, where it is said that Joseph was buried,
and near which he was thrown into the pit by his brethren. There Mr.
Taylor saw Samaritans of the original stock, and there he was shown an
ancient manuscript of Hebrew Law, said to be three thousand years old.
He made a short stop at Nazareth and was shown where the mother of Christ
had resided, the table from which Christ ate, and the school-room (?) in
which Christ is said to have been taught.
Going thence he ascended Mount Tabor, as it was his custom to climb all
the mountains he could reach, and then hastened on to the Sea of Galilee.
There he swam in its crystal water, and visited the Mount of Beatitudes,
Joseph’s Well, and Magadala, the home of Mary Magdalene. Passing Cesarea
Philippi, and crossing the anti-Lebanon range of mountains in imminent
danger of robbery and death from the rebellious tribes of Druses which
inhabited that region, they came out on the afternoon of May 19th in view
of the lovely city of Damascus.
Mr. Taylor made a sketch of himself as he appeared in his Eastern
costume, while seated on an eminence that afternoon, overlooking the most
ancient city in the world. In one of the rooms of Mr. Taylor’s lovely
home of Cedarcroft there hangs a large painting, of considerable merit,
and said to be an excellent portrait, which was executed by a friend
from that sketch. It represents Mr. Taylor sitting in Oriental posture,
on the mountain-side, with the domes, minarets, and embowered walls of
Damascus on the distant plain. He always held that painting to be a
treasure, connecting him, as it did, with those scenes of early travel,
and with the friend who made the painting, and with those who admired it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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