_Christmas Hymn_.--Can any of your readers inform me who was the author
of the well-known Christmas Hymn, "Hark the Herald Angels sing," which
is so often found (of course without the slightest shadow of authority),
at the end of our Prayer-Books? In the collection of poems entitled
_Christmas Tyde_, published by Pickering, the initials "J.C.W." are
appended to it; the same in Bickersteth's _Hymn Book_. In the last
number of the _Christian Remembrancer_, it is incorrectly attributed to
Doddridge, who was the author of the other Christmas Hymn, "High let us
swell our tuneful notes," frequently appended to Tate and Brady; as well
as of the Sacramental Hymn, "My God and is Thy table spread?" If the
author of this hymn cannot be determined, it would be interesting to
know its probable date, and the time when this and the other
unauthorised additions were made to our Prayer-Book. The case of
Doddridge's hymn is more remarkable, as being the composition of a
dissenter.