392 CIRCLE OF THE HOURS. 



sunrise, was the time from whence the first canonical hour of the 

 day was reckoned : hence Prime or Primsang of the Saxons was 

 at six o'clock in the morning. Tieuce or Undersang at nine. Sext 

 or Middaegsang at noon. Nones or Nonsang at three. Vespers 

 or Aefensang at six. Complin or Nightsang at nine. Matins or 

 Unthsang in the first hour after midnight. Laudes at three in the 

 morning. Thus was the whole of the day divided. The Mass was 

 generally celebrated after Tierce ; the Angelus said at morning 

 prayers about Prime, at noon, and at Vespers or thereabouts, on the 

 ringing of the Angelus Bell. Afterwards, when certain monks got 

 more lazy, Laudes after a short pause followed Matins, and they 

 went to rest again till Prime. The Saxon names for the hours were 

 from translations of the Rule of St. Benedict, made by Ethelwold 

 bishop of Winchester in the reign of Edgar. These rules were rati- 

 fied and consolidated by St. Dunstan in his Concordat of Rules. 



The natural phenomena observable at this time of day are in 

 summer the first pale light of morning, at other times of year it is 

 dark, and when Laudes were said at this time, the church, as at 

 Matins, used to be lighted up with candles and lamps. The great 

 Cockcrowing which so frequently happens about this time gave it 

 the name of the Nightwatch, of which we have spoken yesterday, 

 as the crowing begins early in the third hour, soon after two 

 o'clock. The birds now in late spring and the early summer often 

 begin to sing : we have heard the Nightingale, the Lark, the Robin, 

 and the Thrush, already carolling at this early hour the first pale 

 beam of orient light, shortly following the crowing of the Bird of 

 Dawn, and enlivening the often only cool hour of the vhole diurnal 

 circle. 



In winter, the most violent of the nocturnal gales of wind, which 

 blow so often at uncertain intervals from Catherine Tide to Christ- 

 mas, take place at this hour. 



Hymntts ad Laudes. 



Nox, & tenebrae, & nnbila,' 

 ConfusaMundi, & turbida ; 

 Lux inlrat : albescit polus ; 

 Christus venit; discedite. 

 Caliiro terraesciiiditur, 

 Percussa solis spicule. 

 Rebusque jam color redit, 

 \'ultu nitentis sideii*. 

 Te Christe, sohiin uovimus, 

 Te raente pura, &simplici, 

 Flendo, & canendo, quaesumus, 

 Intende nostris sensibus. 

 Sunt multafnclsillita, 

 Quae luce pur^'entur tiia : 

 Tu ver^ lux coelestinm 

 Vultu serene illuniina. 

 Deo Patri sit gloria, 

 Ejusque soli Filio, 

 Cum Spiritu Paraclito, 

 • Nunc, & per omne saecula. 



