Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/57

 IHS.VII.JAN. is, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

51

CHRISTMAS EVE IN PROVENCE.

(US. vi. 505.)

No one who is sensible of the charm of Provence can fail to be pleased with ST. SWITHIN'S description of the manner in which, in that favoured region, Christmas Eve is observed. It has been pointed out by a recent writer that Christmastide comes nearer home to the imaginative Provencal because his country in many of its aspects has a close resemblance to the Holy Land. M. Alexandre Paul, in Le Petit Maraeillais of 23 Dec., has a delightful article on this subject, entitled 'Noel en Provence,' from which, with the Editor's permission, I venture to give an extract that I will not apoil by any attempt at translation :

" Allez aussi dans nog montagnes calcaires et seches, dans notre campagne austere etparfume'e, les bastides essaim^es & flanc de coteaux, les res- tanques d'oliviers aux fines grisailles, les cypres effil&s, a 1' entree du chemin montant et rocailleux, le troupeau de chevres disperse" dans les ' roucas,' le petit ane gris grimpant la calade, le vieux puits moussu et le pont archaiique sur la riviere, tout cela noxis parle, 6gaye notre vue, nous attendrit. Nous associons tous ces details naturistes, per- sonnages et animaux, aux paysages familiers et nalfs de la Pastorale. Oui, ce sont bien la les types de constructions et de gens que nous aimons voir figurer dans le touchant Episode biblique. Ce sont ceux que nos bons santonniers ont pris pour modeles dans leurs innocents travaux d'art.

" Et il ne faut pas aller bien loin de la grande ville pour retrouver dans nos villages environnants de ve"ritables Bethl6ems : antiques ' oustau ' superposes et couleur de liege, rues tortueuses et d^clives, jardinets suspendus en terrasses, d'oii fuse le jet souple d'un palmier. Et voici une etable. N'est-ce pas 1'fitable ? et

L'on songe a Je"sus sur la paille,

R6chauff6 par 1'ane et le bceuf ....

Souvenir dont 1'ame tressaille !

Noel, Noel, au gui 1'an neuf !

" Et il n'est pas jusqu'a notre ciel palestinien, a noa horizons luniineux comme ceux de Jud^e, qui ne contribuent a nous mieux faire gouter toute la po^sie, la fraicheur et le charme du merveilleux anniversaire.

" Nous allons ainsi dans les champs et les bois, 1'ame berce'e par tous ces jolis souvenirs de la Nativit6, auxquels la musique des pins semble ajouter des cantiques de circonstance. N'est-ce pas dans cette petite prairie que les bergers entendirent les voix des anges annoncant la grande nouvelle ? N'est-ce pas ici le logis de mis Delicado, et la celui de Bartoumiou ? Tiens ! 1'Amoulaire avec sa machine a la grande roue virotante ! et mis6 Theresoun done ! la pois- onniere claquant des sabots et criant a tue-t6te

de sa voix sonore : ' Lei bellei sardino ! Lei sardino d'aubo ! '

" Et n'est-ce pas derriere ces montagnes, L\-bas, ces montagnes que le couchant patine de si suaves violets, que les rois Mages passeront ? "

And while we read of storm and tempest enveloping the British Isles, Provence is illuminated by a sun as bright as that of Galilee, and a sky that could not be a deeper blue if it were suspended over Sinai.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

Villa Paradis, Hyeres (Var).

LAMB'S CHAPEL, LONDON (11 S. vi. 291,- 357, 435). The earlier of the existing registers of St. James - on - the - Wall, and Lambe's or Lamb's Chapel, a parchment volume, measuring 12 in. high by 9 in. broad, was included (lot 155) in Messrs. Puttick & Simpson's sale by public auction, 22 July, 1902, of Dr. J. J. Howard's MS. collections, and was purchased by Messrs. H. Sotheran & Co., on behalf of the Clothworkers' Com- pany for III. 15s. It contains entries of marriages as follows : 1 Jan., 1618/19, to 15 Nov., 1626; 13 May, 1640; 25 June, 1696, to 31 July, 1698. In addition (on fo. 1) are entered records of three christenings : 4 March, 1620 ; 24 Aug., 1623 ; and 27 May, 1627.

The second register, a paper book, * measuring 12 in. high by 84 in. broad, pre- viously preserved at Clothworkers' Hall, Mincing Lane, contains records of 1,052 marriages solemnized at Lamb's Chapel, by licence, from 19 May, 1709, to 5 March, 1753.

Both registers were presented to the Library Committee of the Corporation of London by the Clothworkers' Company, by order of the Court, 30 July, 1902. They may be consulted at the Guildhall Library (MS. Collections 1159/1,2).

DANIEL HIPWELL.

84. St. John's Wood Terrace, N.W.

FISHER FAMILY (US. vi. 509).' Fisher's Dra wing-Room Scrap -Book ' was published by the firm of Fisher, Son & Co. of London, probably the most extensive publishers of illustrated works in the kingdom at that time.

The senior partner, Henry Fisher, was born in 1781, and was the son of Thomas Fisher, a timber merchant in Preston, Lanes. Henry was apprenticed to a local printing and stationery business, but com- pleted his articles with Hemingway & Nuttall of Blackburn. This firm dissolved, and Mr. Jonah Nuttall went to Liverpool,