Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/117

 9 th S. II. AUG. 6, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

109

the Consistory Court of London on 25 March 1897, Dr. Tristram, the Chancellor of th Diocese of London, in his judgment ( 26 idem), stated that the register (1620 to 1650 of the births, marriages, and deaths of th persons who, in 1620, founded the colony o New England, in North America, whicl is contained in the log of the Mayflower "is in its character an authentic registe of marriages, births, and deaths of person: resident in a territory which formed part o the possessions of Great Britain at thos dates, and which was by custom then within the diocese of London," and that "the custody of it belonged to that court." He further stated that " up to the time of the declaration of the Independence of the States of America [4 July, 1776], New England was for ecclesi astical purposes in the diocese of London," anc that "it has been the practice to transmit from the colonies and from foreign parts certificates of the births, marriages, and deaths of British subjects to the Bishop of London's registry for safe custody and reference in this country, the bishop's registry being the only public registry for the custody of such documents within the diocese." I presume therefrom that all the British colonies from the dates of their foundation or acquisition had similarly to send certificates to the Bishop of London s registry. If so, are there any of these certi- ficates now extant ; is there any printed list of the colonies, &c., showing the first and last dates of the certificates appertaining to each colony, kc. ; and where are the certificates themselves? Are they at the registry, or at Fulham Palace, or where ? Are they separate and distinct from any similar records (but of much later dates) now in charge of the Re- gistrar-General at Somerset House? Also, have the certificates appertaining to New England from 1620 to 1776 been returned to America, or are they still in London ?

C. MASON. 29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

A NOBLE CARD-SHARPER. In 'Night and Morning,' IV. vii. (p. 356 of Knebworth edition), Lord Lytton, describing his un- scrupulous aristocrat Lord Lilburne, makes an illustrative reference in these terms :

" He had been in early life a successful gambler, and some suspicions of his fair play had been noised abroad ; but, as has been recently seen in the in- stance of a man of rank equal to Lilburne's, though perhaps of less acute if more cultivated intellect, it is long before the pigeon will turn round upon a falcon of breed and mettle."

What case of half a century ago is alluded to in this reference ? THOMAS BAYNE.

Helensburgh, N.B.

ues, bot

"SUMER IS Y-CUMEN IN." (9 th S. ii. 7.)

THIS famous old round is well worth a note in 'N. & Q.' It is unique in many ways, though few musical historians out of Eng- land give any first-hand particulars about it. There is in the Bodleian MSS. a hymn to St. Augustine, the last lines of which are set to music without notation in two parts. It is believed to have been written in Cornwall during the tenth century, and is thus an even more astonishing example of early polyphonic writing. A version will be found in the Musical Times for August, 1895. But our rota is also unique in its more extended form. It is a six-part canon, four in one, built on a or ground bass, for two parts ; and in

th of these respects it is absolutely the earliest example known. Equally remark- able are the freedom and sweetness of its melody, and the thoroughly heal thy, .English character of the whole. Sir F. Ouseley sums it up thus :

" Unquestionably the oldest piece of polyphonic and canonical composition known to be in existence.

The character of the melody is sweet and

mstoral, and well adapted to the words. It must

>e regarded as the only piece in six real parts

mown to exist before the fifteenth century ; it is

airly free from errors of harmony ; it is a strict

canon, and the earliest canon known ; it also

offers the earliest example of a basso ostinato,

r ground bass. On every account, then, it deserves

o be considered as the most remarkable ancient

musical composition in existence."

This written apparently before the Bod- eian MS. hymn was brought to notice .ppears as a postscript, and most important jart, in the elaborate account of ' Early hristian Hymnology ' in Naumann's ' His- ory of Music ' (vol. i.) ; and its meaning is \pril and May to England. It proves, to luote a later critic, " that as regards music England was, roughly speaking, generally bout a century in advance of other nations." With all its faults," says Chappell, '"Sumer s icumen in ' is incomparably in advance of ny music of the thirteenth century that the ontinent of Europe had produced." That MS. should be unmentioned in any book purporting to be a history of music is scarcely credible. It was first described by Wanley in his 'Catalogue of the Harleian MSS.' (1709). Hawkins gave a copy of the Guida, and added a solution of the canon in its six parts, referring it to the fifteenth century. Burney put the date back a hundred years, and effected some corrections in the pes,