The rector of Slimbridge, in the diocese of Gloucester, is bound to pay
ten pounds a year to Magdalen College, for "choir music on the top of
the College tower on May-day." (See Rudder's _Gloucestershire_.) Some
years ago a prospectus was issued, announcing as in preparation, "The
Maudeleyne Grace, including the Hymnus Eucharisticus, with the music by
Dr. Rogers, as sung every year on May Morning, on the Tower of Magdalene
College, Oxford, in Latin and English. With an Historical Introduction
by William Henry Black." Can any of your readers inform me whether this
interesting work ever made its appearance? I am inclined to think it did
not, and have an indistinct recollection that the _original_ MS. of the
"Grace" was lost through the carelessness of the lithographer who was
entrusted with it for the purpose of making a fac-simile.
Whilst making some researches in the library of Christ Church, Oxford, I
accidentally met with what appears to me to be the _first draft_ of the
"Grace" in question. It commences "_Te Deum Patrem colimus_," and has
the following note:--"This Hymn is sung every day in Magdalen College
Hall, Oxon, dinner and supper throughout the year for the after grace,
by the chaplains, clarkes, and choristers there. Composed by Benjamin
Rogers, Doctor of Musique of the University of Oxon, 1685." It is
entered in a folio volume, with this note on the fly-leaf,--"Ben Rogers,
his book, Aug. 18. 1673, and presented me by Mr. John Playford,
Stationer in the Temple, London." The Latin Grace, _Te Deum Patrem
colimus_, is popularly supposed to be the _Hymnus Eucharisticus_ written
by Dr. Nathaniel Ingelo, and sung at the civic feast at Guildhall on the
5th July, 1660, while the king and the other royal personages were at
dinner; but this is a mistake, for the words of Ingelo's hymn, very
different from the Magdalen hymn, still exist, and are to be found in
Wood's collection in the Ashmolean Museum. The music, too, of the _Te
Deum_ is in a grand religious style, and not of a festal character.