In the last days of Advent the Calabrian minstrels enter Rome, and are to be seen in every street saluting the shrines of the virgin mother with their wild music, under the traditional notion of soothing her until the birth-time of her infant at the approaching Christmas. This circumstance is related by lady Morgan, who observed them frequently stopping at the shop of a carpenter. To questions concerning this practice, the workmen, who stood at the door, said it was done out of respect to St. Joseph. The preceding engraving, representing this custom, is from a clever etching by D. Allan, a Scottish artist of great merit. In Mr. Burford's excellent panorama of the ruins of Pompeii, exhibited in the Strand, groups of these peasantry are celebrating the festival of the patron saint of the master of a vineyard. The printed "Description" of the panorama says, these mountaineers are called Pifferari, and "play a pipe very similar in form and sound to the bagpipes of the Highlanders." It is added, as lady Morgan before observed, that "just before Christmas they descend from the mountains to Naples and Rome, in order to play before the pictures of the Virgin and Child, which are placed in various parts of every Italian town." In a picture of the Nativity by Raphael, he has introduced a shepherd at the door playing on the bagpipes. Seignors escriez les malveis, Car vus nel les troverez jameis De bone part: Botun, batun, ferun groinard, Car tot dis a le quer cuuard Por faire honor. Deu doint. NOEL beyt bein li vin Engleis NOEL fait beivre son veisin, Deu doint a tuz cels. E io primes beurai le men, Si io vus di trestoz Wesseyl Translation. Now, lordings, listen to our ditty, Christmas wassell keeps to day; And, as the king of all good fellows, Reigns with uncontrouled sway. = πείς E Lordings, in these realms of pleasure, Lordings, 'tis said the liberal mind, That on the needy much bestows, From Heav'n a sure reward shall find; From Heav'n, whence ev'ry blessing flows. Who largely gives with willing hand, Or quickly gives with willing heart, His fame shall spread throughout the land, His memory thence shall ne'er depart. Lordings, grant not your protection To a base, unworthy crew, But cherish, with a kind affection, Men that are loyal, good, and true. Chace from your hospitable dwelling Swinish souls, that ever crave; Virtue they can ne'er excel in, Gluttons never can be brave. Lordings, Christmas loves good drinking, Till he drowns his care in sleep. And all the joys they both inspire! Here I'll drink a health to all. The glorious task shall first be mine: And ever may foul luck befal Him that to pledge me shall decline! Hail, father Christmas! hail to thee! From what has been observed of ChristImas carols in another work, by the editor, a few notices will be subjoined with this remark, that the custom of singing carols at Christmas is very ancient; and though most of those that exist at the present day are deficient of interest to a refined ear, yet they are calculated to awaken Gascoigne and Anjou, being at this time under the dominion of the English sovereigns, were not regarded as part of France, tender feelings. For instance, one of them represents the virgin contemplating the birth of the infant, and saying, "He neither shall be clothed in purple nor in pall, But all in fair linen, as were babies all : He neither shall be rock'd But in a wooden cradle, that rocks on the mould."* Not to multiply instances at present, let it suffice that in a MS. at the British Museum there is "A song on the holly and the ivy," beginning, "Nay, my nay, hyt shal not be I wys, Let holy hafe the maystry, as the maner ys: "Holy stond in the hall, fayre to behold, Ivy stond without the dore, she ys ful sore acold. "Nay my nay," &c. "Holy, & hys mery men, they dawnsyn and they syng, Ivy and hur maydyns, they wepyn & they "Nay my nay," &c. wryng. The popularity of carol-singing occasioned the publication of a duodecimo volume in 1642, intituled, "Psalmes or Songs of Sion, turned into the language, and set to the tunes of a strange land. By William) S(latyer), intended for Christmas carols, and fitted to divers of the most noted and common but solemne tunes, every where in this land familiarly used and knowne." Upon the copy of this book in the British Museum, a former possessor has written the names of some of the tunes to which the author designed them to be sung: for instance, Psalm 6, to the tune of Jane Shore; Psalm 19, to Bar. Forster's Dreame; Psalm 43, to Crimson Velvet; Psalm 47, to Garden Greene; Psalm 84, to The fairest Nymph of the Valleys; &c. In a carol, still sung, called "Dives and Lazarus, "there is this amusing account: "As it fell it out, upon a day, Rich Dives sicken'd and died, "Rise up, rise up, brother Dives, And come along with me, However whimsical this may appear to the reader, he can scarcely conceive its ludicrous effect, when the ❝ serpent's *Harl. Coll. 5396. knee" is solemnly drawn out to its utmost length by a Warwickshire chanter, and as solemnly listened to by the well-disposed crowd, who seem, without difficulty, to believe that Dives sits on a serpent's knee. The idea of sitting on this knee was, perhaps, conveyed to the poet's mind by old wood-cut representations of Lazarus seated in Abraham's lap. More anciently, Abraham was frequently drawn holding him up by the sides, to be seen by Dives in hell. In an old book now before me, they are so represented, with the addition of a devil blowing the fire under Dives with a pair of bellows. Carols begin to be spoken of as not belonging to this century, and few, perhaps, are aware of the number of these compositions now printed. The editor of the Every-Day Book has upwards of ninety, all at this time, published annually. This collection he has had little opportunity of increasing, except when in the country he has heard an old woman singing an old carol, and brought back the carol in his pocket with less chance of its escape, than the tune in his head. Mr. Southey, describing the fight" upon the plain of Patay," tells of one who fell, as having "In his lord's castle dwelt, for many a year, mary, Smoak'd on the Christmas board." Joan of Arc, b. x. l. 466. These ditties, which now exclusively enliven the industrious servant-maid, and the humble labourer, gladdened the festivity of royalty in ancient times. Henry VII., in the third year of his reign, kept his Christmas at Greenwich: on the twelfth night, after high mass, the king went to the hall, and kept his estate at the table; in the middle sat the dean, and those of the king's chapel, who, immediately after the king's first course," sang a carall."*. Granger innocently observes, that "they that fill the highest and the lowest classes of human life, seem in many respects to be more nearly allied than even themselves imagine. A skilful anatomist would find little or no difference in dissecting the body of a king, and that of the meanest of his subjects; and a judicious philo * Leland, Collect. vol. iv. p. 237. sopher would discover a surprising conformity in discussing the nature and qualities of their minds."* 66 The earliest collection of Christmas carols supposed to have been published, is only known from the last leaf of a volume printed by Wynkn de Worde, in the year 1521. This precious scrap was picked up by Tom Hearne; Dr. Rawlin lume of tracts, and bequeathed it to the son purchased it at his decease in a voBodleian library. There are two carols upon it: one, 66 a caroll of huntynge,” s reprinted in the last edition of Juliana Berners' "Boke of St. Alban's ;" the other, in Mr.Dibdin's "Ames," with a copy of a caroll, bringing in the bore's head," is as it is now sung in Queen's-college, Oxford, every Christmas-day. Dr. Bliss, of Oxford, also printed on a sheet for private distribution, a few copies of this and Ant. a Wood's version of it, with notices cascerning the custom, from the hand-wrtings of Wood and Dr. Rawlinson, in the Bodleian library. Ritson, in his ill-tenpered "Observations on Warton's History a Christmas carol upon bringing up the of English Poetry," (1782, 4to. p. 37,) has boar's head, from an ancient MS. in his possession, wholly different from Dr. Bliss's. The "Bibliographical Miscella nies," (Oxford, 1813, 4to.) contains seven carols from a collection in one volume in the possession of Dr. Cotton, of Christchurch-college, Oxford, "imprynted at London, in the Powltry, by Richard Kele, dwellyng at the longe shop vnder saynt 1546 and 1552:"I had an opportunity of Myldrede's Chyrche," probably" between perusing this exceedingly curious volume, which is supposed to be unique, and has since passed into the hands of Mr. Freeling. There are carols among the Godly and Spiritual Songs and Balates, m "Scottish Poems of the sixteenth century," (1801, 8vo.); and one by Dunbar, from the Bannatyne MS. in "Ancient Scottish Poems." Ŏthers are in Mr. Ellis's edition of Brand's "Popular Antiquities," with several useful notices. Warton's "History of English Poetry" contains much concersing old carols. Mr. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare," gives a specimen of the carol sung by the shepherds, on the birth of Christ, in one of the Coventry plays. There is a sheet of carols beaded thus: "CHRISTUS NATUS EST: Christ it born;" with a wood-cut, 10 inches high, * Biog. Hist. Engl, ed. 1904, vol. iv. p. 36. by 8 inches wide, representing the stable at Bethlehem; Christ in the crib, watched by the virgin and Joseph; shepherds kneeling; angels attending; a man playing on the bagpipes; a woman with a basket of fruit on her head; a sheep bleating, and an ox lowing on the ground; a raven croaking, and a crow cawing on the hay-rack; a cock crowing above them; and angels singing in the sky. The animals have labels from their mouths, bearing Latin inscriptions. Down the side of the wood-cut is the following account and explanation: "A religious man, inventing the conceits of both birds and beasts, drawn in the picture of our Saviour's birth, doth thus express them: the cock croweth, Christus natus est, Christ is born. The raven asked, Quando? When? The crow replied, Hac nocte, This night. The ox cryeth out, Ubi? Ubi? Where? where? The sheep bleated out, Bethlehem, Bethlehem. A voice from heaven sounded, Gloria in Excelsis, Glory be on high. London: printed and sold by J. Bradford, in Little Britain, the corner house over against the Pump, 1701. Price One Penny." This carol is in the possession of Mr. Upcott. The custom of singing carols at Christmas prevails in Ireland to the present time. In Scotland, where no church feasts have been kept since the days of John Knox, the custom is unknown. In Wales it is still preserved to a greater extent, perhaps, than in England; at a former period, the Welsh had carols adapted to most of the ecclesiastical festivals, and the four seasons of the year, but in our times they are limited to that of Christmas. After the turn of midnight at Christmaseve, service is performed in the churches, followed by the singing of carols to the harp. Whilst the Christmas holidays continue, they are sung in like manner in the houses, and there are carols especially adapted to be sung at the doors of the houses by visiters before they enter. Lffyr Carolan, or the book of carols, contains sixty-six for Christmas, and five summer carols; Blodengerdd Cymrii, or the "Anthology of Wales," contains fortyeight Christmas carols, nine summer carols, three May carols, one winter carol, one nightingale carol, and a carol to Cupid. The following verse of a carol for Christmas is literally translated from the first mentioned volume. The poem was written by Hugh Morris, a celebrated songwriter during the commonwealth, and until the early part of the reign of William III :— • Here the master or mistress of the house was called on by name to officiate, And let every body in the house be content that we To remember the time, in faithfulness, Who delivered every one, through his good will Should there be an inquiry who made the carol, In the rage for collecting" almost every thing, it is surprising that "collectors" have almost overlooked carols, as a class of popular poetry. To me they have been objects of interest from circumstances which occasionally determine the direction of pursuit. The wood-cuts round the annual sheets, and the melody of "God rest you merry gentlemen,” delighted my childhood; and I still listen with pleasure to the shivering carolist's evening chant towards the clean kitchen window decked with holly, the flaring fire showing the whitened hearth, and reflecting gleams of light from the surfaces of the dresser utensils. Davies Gilbert, Esq. F.R.S. F.A.S. &c. has published "Ancient Christmas carols, with the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the west of England." Mr. Gilbert says, that 66 on Christmas-day these carols took the place of psalms in all the churches, especially at afternoon service, the whole congregation joining and at the end it was usual for the parish clerk, to declare in a loud voice, his wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year." In "Poor Robin's Almanac," for 1695, there is a Christmas carol, which is there called, “A Christmas Song," beginning thus: So much only concerning carols for the present. But more shall be said hereon in the year 1826, if the editor of the ties to that time. He now, however, earEvery-Day Book live, and retain his facul nestly requests of every one of its readers in every part of England, to collect every time in the year 1825, and convey these carol that may be singing at Christmas carols to him at their earliest convenience, with accounts of manners and customs peculiar to their neighbourhood, which urges and solicits this most earnestly and are not already noticed in this work. He anxiously, and prays his readers not to forget that he is a serious and needy suitor. They see the nature of the work, thing that they think pleasant or reand he hopes that any thing and every communicating to him without delay. markable, they will find some means of The most agreeable presents he can receive at any season, will be contributions and hints that may enable him to hierd useful information with easy and cheerfui amusement. CUSTOMS ON Mr. Coleridge writing his "Friend,” from Ratzeburg, in the north of Germany, mentions a practice on Christmaseve very similar to some on December the 6th, St. Nicholas'-day. Mr. Coleridge says, "There is a Christmas custom here which pleased and interested me. The children make little presents to their parents, and to each other, and the parents to their children. For three or four |