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great virtues were attributed to the wood of the cross, and fragments of it were eagerly sought for. A curious story on the subject is related in Harl. MSS. 2252. (temp. Hen. VIII.) intituled," A grete Myracle of a Knyghte callyde Syr Roger Wallysborow.'' This knight being in the Holy Land, wished to bring off privily a piece of the cross; he prayed to that effect, when his thigh opened miraculously and received it. He returned to Cornwall, his native country, having in the course of the .voyage through virtue of the cross appeased the elements and prevented shipwreck. On his arrival his thigh again opened to let out the fragment of the cross. He gave part to the parish church where this happened, thence called Cross Parish, and the remainder to St. Buryan, where his lands were.
The names of the two thieves were said to have been Titus and Uumachus, (1 Infancy, chap, viii.v. 3.) of whom the former prevented the latter from robbing Joseph and Mary on their journey to Egypt with Jesus, who then foretold to his mother that they should thirty years afterwards be crucified with him, and that Titus should go to Paradise.
P. 112. Ritson (Introduction to Scotch Songs, vol. i. p. civ.) gives the following lines as sung during the Christmas holidays about the middle of the 16th century, which bear a similarity to this carol.
All sones of Adam, rise up with me, Go praise the blessed Trinitie, &c. Then spake the Archangel Gabriel, said, Ave, Mary mild, The Lord of Lords is with thee, now shall you go with child. Ecce ancilla domini.
Then said the Virgin, as thou hast said, so mat it be,
Welcome be heavens King. There comes a ship far sailing then, Saint Michel was the stieres-man ;
Saint John sate in the horn : Our Lord harped, our Lady sang, And all the bells of heaven they rang,
On Christ's sonday at morn, &c.
There is also a printed broadside carol, very similar to this, of which the last verse is rather quaint.—Joseph and his " fair lady" being in the ships, |
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