Dec. 22. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



493 



CHRISTMAS CAROL FORMERLY SUNG AT CHRIST S 

 HOSPITAL. 



Perhaps some of your readers will kindly assist 

 me to complete the following fragment of a 

 Christmas Carol. It used to be sung, fifty years 

 ago, by the boys of Christ's Hospital, but its use 

 has ceased ; and it is likely to be forgotten, if not 

 rescued by your valuable drag-net. I have once 

 or twice of late years made inquiry among the 

 present race of Bluecoat Boys, but without find- 

 ing any knowledge of it whatever. A\''e had an 

 original tune to it also, a tune that varied in some 

 of its parts. I should be happy to send the notes 

 of so much as I can remember to any one who 

 could help me to complete the air as well. 



" Carol. 

 1. 

 " Hail ! happy morn, when to the earth did come, 

 Our Saviour Christ from his most glorious home ; 

 And all the cherubs in the sky did sing. 

 Loud hallelujah to their Eternal King." 



2nd or 3rd. 

 " The wise men of the East a globe * did spy, 

 A blazing star in the bright glittering sky ; 

 And well they knew yet fully did pretend,^ 

 Christ came to the earth for some great end." 



ith or 5th. 

 " A far more glorious star, and more serene, 

 Than ever mortal eye before had seen. 

 Did at the birth of this blest babe appear, 

 To show the Saviour of Mankind was near." 



Ifere follow severed forgotteyi verses. 



" Peace flows from Christ, the Prince of Peace, 

 Peace and its blessedness, still to increase ; 

 The blessings of Immanuel, 



" Unto the high and lofty One, 



Who to eternity reigns alone. 

 All glory from our songs resound ; 



As in the heavenly quire, 



Let all the earth conspire, 

 Since his Eternal Son reigns King over Zion — Zion — 



crown'd 



An old " Crug," 



LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TABLE, ETC. 



On recently examining the painted windows of 

 King's College Chapel, at Cambridge, with a view 

 to publication, I was struck with the resemblance 

 that one subject bears to a woodcut in the block- 

 book called the Speculum Humance Salvationis. 

 Many other subjects among these windows appear 

 also to have been suggested by the block- books 

 of the fifteenth century, but in this instance the 

 figures and composition have been literally 

 adopted. The subject is " The offering a Golden 

 Table in the Tem{)le of the Sun," and forms one 



No. 321.] 



* Eastern globe? 



t It fully did portend ? 



compartment of the window over the north en- 

 trance. Each page of the block-book above re- 

 ferred to, contains two pictures placed side by 

 side, which are supposed to possess relation or 

 parallel to one another. Thus " The Resur- 

 rection," where Christ leaves the tomb on the 

 third day, is placed by the side of a picture of 

 " Jonah delivered from the Whale." In the Bihlia 

 Pauperum, another block-book, this illustration is 

 extended by a third subject, in which Samson is 

 seen carrying away the gates of Gaza. 



In the Speailum, however, only each alternate 

 page contains a subject from the Ncav Testament ; 

 the intervening ones are occupied with parallels 

 from the Old Testament, or from pagan history, 

 as " Codrus sacrificing himself for the welfare of 

 his country," by the side of " Eleazar slaying the 

 elephant." 



The immediate subject, howevei% of the present 

 Query, " The offering of the Golden Table," is 

 made a parallel to the Presentation of the Virgin 

 Mary. As in the paintings by Giotto, Gaddi, and 

 most early Italian masters, the youthful figure of 

 the Virgin is seen ascending the steps of the 

 temple. In this respect the Cambridge window 

 differs from the old wood-engraving. ]\Iy present 

 object, however, is to obtain information on a 

 point that I have not opportunity to investigate, 

 and submit to others in the hope that some grati- 

 fication may be connected with the pursuit. 



Where does the legend of the Golden Table and 

 the Temple of the Sun come from ? 



I gather from the text, both of MSB. and the 

 block-book, that two fishermen caught a massive 

 gold table in their net, and having carried it to a 

 neighbouring temple on the coast, there dedicated 

 it as an offering to the sun. 



In one MS., marked Harl. 4996., is a reference 

 to chap. v. of the Schola.itica Historia, but I do 

 not find the narrative in Petrus Comestor. How 

 the subject came to be adopted as a parallel to 

 the Presentation of the Virgin, is also remarkable. 

 The following lines from the text beneath the 

 pictures should not be omitted : 



" Pulchra Maria est per niensam soils prefigurata, 

 Quia per earn celestis esca nobis est collata ; 

 Nam ipsa filium Dei Ihesum Christum generavit. 

 Qui nos suo corpore et sanguine refocillavit. 

 Benedicta sit ista beatissima mensa, 

 Per quam collata est nobis esca tarn salubris et tara 

 immensa ! " 



George Scharf, Jun. 

 1. Torriugton Square. 



Westminster Plays. — How long have the scho- 

 lars on the foundation of Westminster School 

 been in the habit of performing the plays ot 

 Terence exclusively ? In a Life of Barton Booth, 



