This sightseeing business is very difficult. Since half past two and before five I saw Jerusalem without its walls, saw the Brook Kedra, walked on the Mount of Olives, walked in the Garden of Gethsemane, saw the Church of All Nations built around the rock whereon Jesus prayed while the Disciples slept, drove a dozen miles to Bethlehem, passed Rachel’s tomb, past the field where the Shepherds Watched their Flocks, past the well where the Wise Men stopped & from where they saw the star, saw the city of Bethlehem, the first church of all, the cave where Jesus was born, the Manger, & enough historical & archaeological treasures for a years study and that’s only between lunch and tea. I’ve old Jerusalem tomorrow, the Via Dolorosa with the Stations of the Cross the Holy Sepulchre, the mosque of Omar, the Wailing Wall & Crusader & Christian relics & remains galore. Today we saw & I passed over it, Jerome’s cell where he wrote the Vulgate & his tomb.

                        The only answer is to take in a little, keep your emotions in check & just look at the place & be satisfied with having seen it. More is impossible. Afterwards one can, perhaps, speculate on these things, with the impetus of having seen them. I’m a poor pilgrim. But it does help, just having seen them. I never realised how hilly & wilderness surrounded is Jerusalem. Nor that Bethany, Bethlehem & the journey of the Wise Men is all so possible geographically.

                        I’ve only seen the old city from the Mount of Olives, over the deeply cut & boulder strewn brook Kedra which surrounds it on three sides. But the New Jerusalem is a wonderful place. It has all been created since 1917 when Allenby won Jerusalem from the Turks. There are wide tarmac roads & fine pavements, & the loveliest buildings, new & so beautifully designed. There could be no better proof of the success of British Administration. Every building is lovely & all in clean white cut stone; behind & in between is the wilderness, rugged boulder strewn scrub, but as a new city it’s superb. It’s all very hilly here. Our train from Lydda climbed all the while & only twice did we touch little outcroppings of civilisation. The Dead Sea I saw from the Mount of Olives, & I bought an eggcup of black rock, Dead Sea Rock.

                        The things I didn’t buy. Oh, I was so sensible. Trying to curb my buying now. At Bethlehem it was the Armenian Christmas & the “stable” was gorgeously hung with crimson tapestries & black bearded patriarchs with funny hats & gorgeous vestments were conducting a special service. Everyone had candles & lots of children – Armenian ones – frisked & clattered about. Odd.

                        A kindly Franciscan Friar gave me the enclosed leaf from the garden for you & also the flower. Both from the Garden of Gethsemane.

                        There’s so much to say & so many thoughts are prompted by this afternoon’s trip that I better say no more & think it over.

                        The train journey was very orderly. It was a ten coach first class with three sleepers & one dining car, & I had a whole side of a compartment to myself. In my loose  & wearing a jersey I was not cold & slept smoothly. I took the air & a cup of tea at Gaza (Eyeless in Gaza) at 0600 & we got to Lydda at 0800 & the new train, for Jerusalem, left at 0850 & after climbing through a veritable wilderness of mountainy country made Jerusalem at 1145. The trains were made at Smethwick & the lavatory at Birmingham. Everyone here goes to work with his animal, nearly always a small delicate footed donkey, often with a camel as well. They even plough with camels !

                        Now I’m ready for bed, to make up the night in the train. I intend going out to Haifa on Monday by train, as Adjt., to visit the 1003 detachment. Then to Beirut on Tuesday, & to Damascus.

                        As always, I need you with me on expeditions like these & see everything with a view to seeing it properly with you.