Rare books, manuscripts, music, ephemera…
17th December 2019
Next on our Christmas carol countdown is ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. It turns out we have the eighteenth century to thank for this beloved carol and its delightful assemblage of festive feathered friends; according to Keyte, the words first appeared in ‘various forms in broadsides from the early eighteenth century onward’ (p. 469). Lucy […]
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10th December 2019
Last night, BBC Four broadcast a programme with Lucy Worsley revealing the surprising stories behind some of the nation’s favourite Christmas carols. ‘Hark! the Herald Angels sing’ got a mention, so we thought we would feature it ourselves today. As we wrote yesterday on the blog, the carol was included, along with the first appearance […]
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