New York City, October 16, 1882.
Sergeant Newlin, U. S. S. Office,
Cleveland, Ohio:
Dear Sir: I send with this two selections, taken as stated. Although, perhaps, not quite what you seek, there may be enough in them to warrant your perusing. As to their fitness for the purposes you demand I leave to you.
Trusting they may not be unacceptable, I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
CHAS. WARD RAYMOND.
The following poems are, perhaps, more curious than interesting. They afford, however, some idea of the superstitious dread with which the advent of Christmas day must have been regarded in these early times, not merely by the vulgar, but by all classes of our forefathers, for the Francis Moores and Raphaels of the fifteenth century found even kings willing believers in their extravagant predictions. From the allusions in each verse of the first poem to the risks that those who steal subject themselves to, one would almost suppose thieving to have been the fashionable vice of the age, practiced alike by both rich and poor, and that there was great need of such injunctions against it.
Both of these poems are from the same Harleian MS. in the British Museum (No. 2252, fols. 153–4). Christmas with the poets. London. David Bogue, 86 Fleet street. 1855.
I.