DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4996#0098
80 THE GARDEN.
There was yet time to pay a hasty visit to the garden, which is
without the high wall of the convent, though attached to it, and
forming a second enclosure of considerable extent, surrounded by an
inferior wall of rude stones, piled up one on the other without
cement. The entrance from the convent is by a long, low, dark
covered way, which requires one to stoop carefully in passing ; at
either end is a heavy grated door, which is left open during the day,
but, like the garden-gate, is locked at dusk ; the keys, as I afterwards
witnessed, being then brought in by one of the brethren, who
knelt and kissed the Superior's hand as he presented them to him.
As we emerged from this subterranean passage, the last rays
of a red and glorious sunset were burnishing the dark plume-
like summit of that gigantic solemn old cypress, which far over-
tops the lofty walls of the convent; but the rest of the garden
was sunk in the still shadow of a calm evening, and a quiet
and melancholy serenity pervaded its rustling walks. Enclosed, as
before said, with a rough wall, it rises by successive terraces,
covered with soil brought from afar, up the side of the mountain,
which towers above in stern desolation, without a blade of grass, as
if threatening to crush rather than shelter the precious acre or two
of fertility, so laboriously won and so unceasingly tended. But its
adamantine crags have stood firm for ages ; and year after year have
the trees, striking their rootlets into every crevice, so tightened
their grasp of the massive fragments among which they stand, that
their gnarled and hoary trunks appear almost as immovable.
There are long alleys of gray rustling olives, intermingled with
the darker and broader foliage of the fig and mulberry ; and a
variety of fruit-trees—such as apples, pears, almonds, quinces, and
pomegranates, trellises covered with vines, and little beds of herbs
and vegetables, maintained by runnels of water, and beaming with
a most refreshing, familiar, home-look, in a wilderness which looks
like the very grave of nature. An old monk seemed installed as
head-gardener; and some of the Arab serfs of the convent are also
employed, the terraces being cultivated for corn. The fruits are all
of good quality, although the garden was now looking quite at its
There was yet time to pay a hasty visit to the garden, which is
without the high wall of the convent, though attached to it, and
forming a second enclosure of considerable extent, surrounded by an
inferior wall of rude stones, piled up one on the other without
cement. The entrance from the convent is by a long, low, dark
covered way, which requires one to stoop carefully in passing ; at
either end is a heavy grated door, which is left open during the day,
but, like the garden-gate, is locked at dusk ; the keys, as I afterwards
witnessed, being then brought in by one of the brethren, who
knelt and kissed the Superior's hand as he presented them to him.
As we emerged from this subterranean passage, the last rays
of a red and glorious sunset were burnishing the dark plume-
like summit of that gigantic solemn old cypress, which far over-
tops the lofty walls of the convent; but the rest of the garden
was sunk in the still shadow of a calm evening, and a quiet
and melancholy serenity pervaded its rustling walks. Enclosed, as
before said, with a rough wall, it rises by successive terraces,
covered with soil brought from afar, up the side of the mountain,
which towers above in stern desolation, without a blade of grass, as
if threatening to crush rather than shelter the precious acre or two
of fertility, so laboriously won and so unceasingly tended. But its
adamantine crags have stood firm for ages ; and year after year have
the trees, striking their rootlets into every crevice, so tightened
their grasp of the massive fragments among which they stand, that
their gnarled and hoary trunks appear almost as immovable.
There are long alleys of gray rustling olives, intermingled with
the darker and broader foliage of the fig and mulberry ; and a
variety of fruit-trees—such as apples, pears, almonds, quinces, and
pomegranates, trellises covered with vines, and little beds of herbs
and vegetables, maintained by runnels of water, and beaming with
a most refreshing, familiar, home-look, in a wilderness which looks
like the very grave of nature. An old monk seemed installed as
head-gardener; and some of the Arab serfs of the convent are also
employed, the terraces being cultivated for corn. The fruits are all
of good quality, although the garden was now looking quite at its