LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
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Bringing in the Yule Log | [Frontispiece] |
The Herald Angels | [2] |
Virgin and Child | [5] |
Joseph Taking Mary to be Taxed, and the Nativity Events | [6] |
The Nativity (Central portion of Picture in National Gallery) | [8] |
Virgin and Child (Relievo) | [9] |
Group from the Angels' Serenade | [10] |
Adoration of the Magi (From Pulpit of Pisa) | [11] |
"The Inns are Full" | [14] |
Grape Gathering and the Vintage (Mosaic in the Church of St. Constantine, Rome, A.D. 320) | [16] |
German Ninth Century Picture of the Nativity | [16] |
Ancient Roman Illustrations | [17] |
Ancient Roman Illustrations | [18] |
Ancient Agape | [19] |
Ancient Roman Illustrations | [21] |
Early Celebrations in Britain | [23] |
Queen Bertha | [27] |
An Ancient Fireplace | [30] |
Traveling in the Olden Time, with a "Christmas Fool:on the Front Seat | [31] |
The Wild Boar Hunt: Killing the Boar | [32] |
Adoration of the Magi (Picture of Stained Glass, WinchesterCathedral) | [34] |
A King at Dinner | [40] |
Blind Minstrel at a Feast | [42] |
Minstrels' Christmas Serenade at an Old Baronial Hall | [44] |
Westminster Hall | [46] |
Strange Old Stories Illustrated (From Harl. MS.) | [50] |
A Cook of the Period (Early Norman) | [55] |
Monk Undergoing Discipline | [56] |
Wassailing at Christmastide | [57] |
Panoply of a Crusader | [58] |
Royal Party Dining in State | [63] |
Ladies Looking from the Hustings upon the Tournament | [73] |
The Lord of Misrule | [74] |
Curious Cuts of Priestly Players in the Olden Time | [76] |
A Court Fool | [77] |
Virgin and Child (Florentine, 1480. South Kensington Museum) | [83] |
Henry VI.'s Cradle | [84] |
Lady Musician of the Fifteenth Century | [91] |
Rustic Christmas Minstrel with Pipe and Tabor | [92] |
Martin Luther and the Christmas Tree | [106] |
The Little Orleans Madonna of Raphael | [107] |
Magdalen College, Oxford | [110] |
Bringing in the Boar's Head with Minstrelsy | [111] |
Virgin and Child, Chirbury, Shropshire | [118] |
Riding a-Mumming at Christmastide | [121] |
A Dumb Show in the Time of Elizabeth | [123] |
The Fool of the Old Play (From a Print by Breughel) | [137] |
The Acting of one of Shakespeare's Plays in the Time ofQueen Elizabeth | [141] |
Neighbours with Pipe and Tabor | [147] |
Christmas in the Hall | [149] |
The Hobby-Horse | [197] |
Servants' Christmas Feast | [202] |
"The Hackin" | [216] |
Seafaring Pilgrims | [219] |
An Ancient Fireplace | [225] |
A Druid Priestess Bearing Mistletoe | [228] |
A Nest of Fools | [229] |
"The Mask Dance" | [231] |
The Christmas Mummers | [234] |
The Waits | [240] |
The Christmas Plum-Pudding | [245] |
Italian Minstrels in London, at Christmas, 1825 | [246] |
Snap Dragon | [247] |
Blindman's Buff | [249] |
The Christmas Dance | [250] |
The Giving Away of Christmas Doles | [257] |
Poor Children's Treat in Modern Times | [265] |
The Christmas Bells | [271] |
Wassailing the Apple-Trees in Devonshire | [279] |
Modern Christmas Performers: Yorkshire Sword-Actors | [282] |
Modern Christmas Characters: "St Peter," "St. Denys" | [283] |
A Scotch First Footing | [285] |
Provençal Plays at Christmastide | [320] |
Nativity Picture (From Byzantine Ivory in the British Museum) | [324] |
Calabrian Shepherds Playing in Rome at Christmas | [329] |
Worshipping the Child Jesus (From a Picture in the Museumat Naples) | [337] |
Angels and Men Worshipping the Child Jesus (From aPicture in Seville Cathedral) | [338] |
Simeon Received the Child Jesus into his Arms (FromModern Stained Glass in Bishopsgate Church, London) | [348] |
Lichfield Cathedral | [349] |
While shepherds watched their flocks by night, All seated on the ground; The angel of the Lord came down, And glory shone around. Carol.
THE HERALD ANGELS.
Lo! God hath ope'd the glist'ring gates of heaven, And thence are streaming beams of glorious light: All earth is bath'd in the effulgence giv'n To dissipate the darkness of the night. The eastern shepherds, 'biding in the fields, O'erlook the flocks till now their constant care, And light divine to mortal sense reveals A seraph bright descending in the air.
Hark! strains seraphic fall upon the ear, From shining ones around th' eternal gates: Glad that man's load of guilt may disappear, Infinite strength on finite weakness waits.
Why are the trembling shepherds sore afraid? Why shrink they at the grand, the heavenly sight? "Fear not" (the angel says), nor be dismay'd, And o'er them sheds a ray of God-sent light. O matchless mercy! All-embracing love! The angel speaks and, gladly, men record:— "I bring you joyful tidings from above: This day is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord!"
Hark! "Peace on earth, and God's good-will to men!" The angels sing, and heaven resounds with praise— That fallen man may live with God again, Through Christ, who deigns the sons of men to raise.
W. F. D