Thorne, on a thorne at his farm-house, at Wilton, which blossoms at Christmas as the other did. My mother has had branches of them for a flower-pott several Christmasses, which I have seen. Elias Ashmole, Esq., in his notes upon • Theatrum Chymicum,' saies that in the churchyard of Glastonbury grew a wallnutt tree that did putt out young leaves at Christmas, as doth the King's Oake in the New Forest. In Parham Park, in Suffolk (Mr. Boutele's) is a pretty ancient thorne that blossomes like that at Glastonbury; the people flock hither to see it on Christmas-day. But in the rode that leades from Worcester to Droitwiche is a blackthorne hedge at Clayes, half a mile long or more, that blossoms about Christmas-day for a week or more together. The ground is called Longland. Dr. Ezerel Tong sayd that about Rumly-marsh, in Kent [Romney-marsh ?] are thornes naturally like that at Glastonbury. The soldiers did cutt downe that near Glastonbury; the stump remaines. Certain oaks were recorded to have put forth leaves on Christmas Day. Aubrey describes an old pollard oak in the New Forest, which "putteth forth young leaves on Christmas-day, for about a week at that time of the yeare. Old Mr. Hastings, of Woodlands, was wont to send a basketfull of them to King Charles I. I have seen of them several Christmasses brought to my father. But Mr. Perkins, who lives in the New Forest, sayes that there are two other oakes besides that, which breed green buddes after Christmas Day, (pollards also,) but not constantly." .. Christmas Carols. Although the carol music now played is secular, the custom origi nated evidently in commemoration of the early salutation of the Virgin Mary before the birth of Jesus Christ, or the Gloria in Excelsis, the hymn of the angels-the first instance of this sort of holy song. Jeremy Taylor says:- 'As soon as these blessed choristers had sung their Christmas Carol, and taught the Church a hymn, to put into her offices for ever, in the anniversary of this festivity, the angels returned into heaven." The word Carol is from the Italian Carola, a song of devotion, (Ash); or from cantare, to sing, and rola, an interjection of joy. In the Hall of Merton College, Oxford, previously to the Reformation, to which the major part of the Society were so adverse as resolutely to deny the first Protestant Warden admittance into the College, the Fellows were accustomed to assemble round the fire, for the purpose of singing hymns on holyday evenings, and their vigils, from the vigil of All Saints to the evening of the Purification. At the Reformation this custom was abolished as superstitious. Anciently, persons kept watch with the shepherds, while minstrels chanted Carols, an observance still kept in the Isle of Man, where the people attend service at church; and after the sermon, they remain in the sacred edifice, singing Carols until midnight. دو The Christmas Carol was not confined to the Church offices in the mediæval times. "It has been the custom,' says a modern writer, "for the common people of England, for many centuries, to go about in bands at an early hour on Christmas morn, serenading their neighbours with what are called 'Carols."" These ditties, ages ago, gladdened the feasts of royalty; for, when Henry VII. kept his Christmas at Greenwich, in the middle of the Hall sat the dean and those of the king's chapel, 66 who, immediately after the first course, sang a carall." A manuscript in the British Museum, however, carries the practice to the AngloNorman times, in the Carol commencing : Now lordlings listen to our ditty, Strangers coming from afar; Christmas wassell keeps to-day; The earliest printed collection of Christmas Carols is only known from the last leaf of a volume from the press of Wynkyn de Worde, 1521: it contains the celebrated "Carol bryngyng in the Bore's Head," which, with innovations, is sung at Queen's College, Oxford. Some of the early religious Carols have been handed down to us in an interpolated state, as in the ditty beginning Joseph was an old man, an old man was he, And he married Mary, Queen of Galilee. This was sung by companies of little children, and brings fairly before us the paintings of the old masters, wherein Joseph is always represented as an old man, and Mary sits in the oxen's stall with the crown on her head: As Joseph was a-walking, he heard an angel sing, Very melodious, too, is the rhythm of the Carol, "I saw two ships come sailing on," and containing this verse: And all the bells on earth shall ring On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; On Christmas Day in the morning. It The Anglo-Norman feste-chanson we have already quoted is more an incitement to Christmas revelry than a picture of its holy joy. Another of these secular carols has been discovered in a manuscript of the time of Henry VI., though the song itself is probably of a century earlier. relates to dressing the halls and chambers with evergreens at Christmas, from which ivy was discarded, as it was used at funerals: here are a few lines in modern orthography : : Nay, ivy, nay, it shall not be, I wis; Let holly have the mastery, as the manner is; Let holly stand within the hall, fair to behold; Let ivy stand without the door-she is full sore and cold. Holl and his merry men, deftly dance and sing, Nay, ivy, &c. Ivy and her maidens are always sorrowing. Nay, ivy, &c. The Reformation did not impair the popularity of the Christmas Carol in England. "Suppose," says one writing in 1631, "Christmas now approaching, the evergreen ivy trimming and adorning the portals and partcloses of so frequented a building; the usual carols to observe antiquity cheerfully sounding, and that which is the complement of the inferior comforts, his neighbours, whom he tenders as members of his own family, join with him in this concert of mirth and melody." At the end of a miscellany of epigrams, &c., printed about the same period, is a "Christmas Carroll," reciting the pastimes of the season: Harke how the wagges abrode doe call Each other forth to rambling; The boyes are come to catch the owles, George Herbert has left this solemn exhortation to holy song: The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be? My God, no hymn for Thee? My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds The pasture is Thy word: the streams Thy grace, Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers Nor can we forget that little nursery Carol, "A Cradle Hymn"- which has so much of the touching simplicity and gentleness of Isaac Watts, the classic of the people. For the last century the singing of Christmas Carols has been preserved in England, more or less, over different parts of the country. In Heath's Account of the Scilly Islands, he says that it is usual there to sing Carols on Christmas Day at church. Goldsmith, in his Vicar of Wakefield, writing about 1763, and "laying the scene of his narrative at a small cure in the North of England," relates that among other customs which they retained, the inhabitants "kept up the Christmas Carol." Brand, in 1795, described little troops of boys and girls singing Christmas Carols, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and other places in the north of England. In 1811, a writer describes in the North Riding of Yorkshire sweet singing under his window, on Christmas morn, by young women and men. 'Carols," wrote our old friend William Hone, in 1825, “begin to be spoken of as not belonging to this century, and few, perhaps are aware of the number of those now printed:" he adds, "upwards of seventy are at this time published annually." Mr. Davies Gilbert, President of the Royal Society, published a volume of Ancient Christmas Carols, with the music: he writes, till lately, in the west of England, cakes were drawn hot from the oven; cider or beer exhilarated the spirits in every house; accompanied by the singing of Carols. Within the present century, this singing of Carols began on Christmas Eve, and was continued late into the night. On Christmas Day, these Carols took the place of Psalms in all the churches, the whole congregation joining; and at the end, the clerk declared in a loud voice, his wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year to all the parishioners. Still these Carols differed materially from those of earlier times, which were festal chansons for adding to the merriment of Christmas, and not songs of Scripture history; the change having been made by the Puritans. In 1836, a writer in the Penny Cyclopædia, describes Christmas Carols as still sung in many parts of the country, though seldom heard in the metropolis. Since the above was written, carol-singing has been much cherished by the publication of several Collections of Carols and Poetry for Christmas. Dr. Gauntlett has arranged, composed, and edited a volume, with music, one of which, "the Legend of Joseph and the Angel," concludes thus: Then be ye glad, good people, The collection closes with a very old favourite : God rest you, merry gentlemen, Was born on Christmas Day; In 1838, William Howitt wrote: The Christmas Carols which were sung about from door to door, for a week at least, not twenty years ago, are rarely heard in the midland counties. More northward, from the hills of Derbyshire, and the bordering ones of Staffordshire, up through Lancashire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Durham, you may frequently meet with them. The custom of Christmas Carolling prevails in Ireland to the present time. In Scotland it is unknown. In Wales it is still preserved to a greater extent than it is in England. After the turn of midnight, on Christmas Eve, divine service is celebrated, followed by the singing of carols to the harp; and they are similarly sung in the houses during the continuance of the Christmas holidays. Delightful it is to hear the church-bells ringing merrily on Christmas Eve, or the Carol echoing through the streets. Such delights have been thus touchingly sung by a living poet : Wake me, that I the twelvemonth long May hear the song About me in the world's throng; That treasured joys of Christmas-tide May with mine hour of gloom abide; Deep in my heart when I would sing; Each of the twelve good days Its earnest yields of duteous love and praise, Ensuring happy months, and hallowing common ways.-Keble. The best modern collections of Illustrations of Christmas with which we are acquainted, are— -Christmastide; its History, Festivities, and Carols. By William Sandys, F.S.A.: Christmastyde, a volume of Poetry, selected with great feeling and judgment, and published by Pickering in 1849; and Christmas with the Poets, an elegantly embellished volume, cleverly edited by Henry Vizetelly. The Christmas Tree, etc. A German of the household of Caroline, Queen of George IV., is stated to have made what he termed a Christmas Tree for a juvenile party at that festive season, in London. This tree was a branch of an evergreen, fastened on a board, and hung with gilt oranges, almonds, &c.; and beneath it were a model of a farmhouse, figures of animals, &c. The making of Christmas Trees was then described as a common custom in Germany, and as a relic of the pageants constructed at that season in ancient days. Ages before, in a pageant in the reign of Henry VIII., one appears, from the following record, to have been a prominent feature. Agaynst the xii. daye, or the daye of the Epiphaine, at nighte, before the banket in the Hall at Richemonde, was a pageaunt devised like a mountayne glisteringe by night, as tho' it had been all of golde and set with stones; on the top of whiche mountayne was a tree of golde, the branches and bowes frysed with golde, spredynge on every side over the mountayne with roses and pomegarnettes, the whiche mountayne was with vices [screws] brought up towards the kynge; and out of the same came a ladye apparelled in cloth of golde, and the chyldren of honor called the henchmen, whiche were fresh disguised, and danced a morice before the Kyng; and that done, re-entred the mountaine, and then it was drawn backe, the wassail or banket brought in, and so brake up Christmas.-Vide Loseley MSS. We had, doubtless, a great Christmas Tree in the streets of London, more than four centuries since. Stow mentions holme, ivy, and bay, and gives an account of a great storm on Candlemas Day, rooting up a standard tree in Cornhill, which was full of holme (holly) and ivy for Christmas. But the Christmas Tree is thought to have been traced to a period long antecedent to the Christian era, namely, to that cradle of civilization-Egypt. The palm-tree is known to put forth a shoot every month ;* *The Egyptians represented the year by a palm-tree, and the month by one of its branches; because it is the nature of the tree to produce a branch every month.-Volney. |