Note 202 — X. MAGDALEN COLLEGE.

Neither the benefaction of Henry VII. nor his annual commemoration has any connection with the custom of singing a Latin hymn on the Tower at sunrise on May-day. Two accounts of the origin of this custom, which allege such a connection, have often been repeated and sometimes confused: (1) That Mass was formerly said at an early hour on May 1st upon the top of the Tower for Henry VII., and that the hymn is a survival from this service. (2) That the sum paid by the Rectory of Slymbridge to the College was intended for the maintenance of the custom of singing on the Tower. Of the first of these accounts it may be said that there is no evidence of any celebration of Mass on the Tower (a thing à priori highly improbable) at any time; and that the hymn, which now forms part of the College “Grace,” is probably a composition of the seventeenth century, and is certainly not part of the Requiem Mass according to the rite of Sarum, or any other rite. Of the second account it may be said that the deeds relating to Slymbridge show clearly that the payment was not intended for this purpose, to which it was never applied. The present custom of singing the hymn from the “Grace” originated, it is believed, in the last century on an occasion when the former custom of performing secular music on the Tower was interrupted by bad weather. The hymn was probably chosen as a substitute because the choir were perfectly familiar with its words and music. The details of the ceremony as it is at present performed were arranged about fifty years from the present time.