Christmas: Its Origin and Associations Part 49

_CHAPTER XIII_

CONCLUDING CAROL SERVICE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Now, returning from the celebrations of Christmas in distant parts of the world, we conclude our historic account of the great Christian festival by recording the pleasure with which we attended the

CONCLUDING CAROL SERVICE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

at a fine old English cathedral--the recently restored and beautiful cathedral at Lichfield, whose triple spires are seen and well known by travellers on the Trent valley portion of the London and North Western main line of railway which links London with the North.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL (_By permission of Mr. A. C. Lomax's Successors Lichfield_)]

Christmas carols have been sung at Lichfield from long before the time of "the mighty Offa," King of the Mercians, in whose days and by whose influence Lichfield became for a time an archiepiscopal see, being elevated to that dignity by Pope Adrian, in 785. And, in the seventeenth century, the Deanery of Lichfield was conferred upon the Rev. Griffin Higgs, the writer of the events connected with the exhibition of "The Christmas Prince" at St. John's College, Oxford, in 1607, whose authentic account of these interesting historical events will be found in an earlier chapter of this work.

The Christmas carols at Lichfield Cathedral, sung by the full choir at the special evening service on St. Stephen's Day (December 26th), have, for many years, attracted large and appreciative congregations, and the last of these celebrations in the nineteenth century (on December 26, 1900) was well sustained by the singers and attended by many hundreds of citizens and visitors. Eight Christmas Carols and an anthem were sung, the concluding Carol being "The First Nowell"; and the organist (Mr. J. B. Lott, Mus. Bac., Oxon) played the Pastoral Symphony from Sullivan's "Light of the World," Mendelssohn's March ("Cornelius"), the Pastoral Symphony from Handel's "Messiah," and other exquisite voluntaries. From the anthem, E. H. Sears's beautiful verses beginning

"It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old,"

set to Stainer's music and well sung, we quote the concluding predictive stanza:

"For lo, the days are hast'ning on, By prophet-bards foretold, When with the ever-circling years Comes round the age of gold; When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendours fling, And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing."

[Ill.u.s.tration]