Of these old ballads of both kinds, many (and snatches of more) have survived to the present day, and may be heard, particularly in the Northern counties of England, ringing through the frosty air of the long winter nights, in the shrill voices of children, for several weeks before Christmas, probably, too, to the old traditional tunes. They are, however, as might be expected of compositions which have no more substantial depositary than the memories of the humble classes of the young, full of corruptions, which render some of them nearly unintelligible. The difficulty of restoring these old carols in their original forms is becoming yearly greater, in consequence of the modern carols, which are fast replacing them by a sort of authority. In country places many of the more polished carols, of modern composition, find their way into the Church services of this season; and amongst the singers who practise this manner of appealing to the charities of the season with most success are the children of the Sunday-schools and the choristers of the village church. These, with their often sweet voices, bring to our doors the more select hymns and the musical training which they have gathered for more sacred places; and from a group like that which stands at the parsonage door in our plate, we are more likely to hear some carol of Heber's, some such beautiful anthem as that beginning, "Hark! the herald angels sing," than the strange, rambling old Christmas songs which we well remember when we were boys. These latter, however, occasionally are not without a wild beauty of their own. We quote a fragment of one of them from memory. We think it begins:-- "The moon shines bright, and the stars give light, A little before the day;" and wanders on somewhat after the following unconnected fashion:-- "Awake, awake, good people all! Awake, and you shall hear How Christ our Lord died on the cross For those he loved so dear. "O fair, O fair Jerusalem! When shall I come to thee? When shall my griefs be at an end, That I thy tents may see! "The fields were green as green could be When, from his glorious seat, The Lord our God he watered us With his heavenly good and sweet. "And for the saving of our souls Christ died upon the cross! We never shall do for Jesus Christ What he has done for us! "The life of man is but a span, And cut down in its flower; We're here to-day, and gone to-morrow, We're all dead in an hour. "Oh, teach well your children, men! The while that you are here, It will be better for your souls, When your corpse lies on the bier. "To-day you may be alive, dear man, With many a thousand pound; To-morrow you may be a dead man, And your corpse laid under ground,--