22 DECEMBER 1888, Page 27

Jerusalem : the Holy City. By Colonel Sir Charles W.

Wilson. With a new Introduction. (J. S. Virtue and Co.)—The letterpress and illustrations of this volume originally appeared in" Pic- turesque Palestine." Sir Charles Wilson has now furnished them with a new introduction, in which the results of recent investiga- tions and excavations are summarised, not without a lament over the changes—which, after all, are another manifestation of the modern spirit—that are taking away so much from the picturesque aspect of the city. Among the discoveries are a pool near the Church of St. Anne, a probable claimant for identification with the Yool of Bethesda; an inscription in Hebrew found in a channel running into the Pool of Siloam, dating from before the middle of the sixth century ; reservoirs and aqueducts in the Hill of Oppel ; and a theatre, probably built by Herod, though there had been an earlier attempt to Hellenise Judaism,—an attempt which brought out the heroic resistance of the Maccabees. Sir Charles Wilson briefly discusses the vexed questions of the scene of the Crucifixion and of the limits of the pre-exilic city ; and he notices the forma- tion of a "Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society," which has for its object the translation of authentic records of pilgrimages to Pales- tine. The illustrations number about eighty, four of them being on steel. These are so well known that we need not say more than that they are remarkably interesting and effective.