A chant in E major by ‘Charles Stanford jun.’ first appeared in the newspaper music lists for the service in the Chapel Royal on Sunday 16th February 1862, and was sung frequently thereafter. Stanford, who was then nine years old, was already familiar with the viceregal court, to which his family had several connections. His uncle, Charles Stuart Stanford, was one of Lord Carlisle's viceregal chaplains. In June 1860, Stanford accompanied his father John to a party at the Viceregal Lodge, which was also attended by his godfather Charles Graves, who one month later was appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal.

Stanford's youthful precociousness is well documented, and a number of his juvenile works were performed during his childhood. A double chant completed in September 1858 was included in a now lost book of juvenilia, which may possibly have been the same chant as the one in E major of which fragments can be found in three loft books.

The alto and tenor parts from RCB MS 1113/ACanDx and TCanDx below were copied in pencil into their respective books, and the tenor line from BCanAx was written in ink on a slip of paper inserted into the book, and corrected to correspond with the tenor line from TCanDx. The consecutive fifths between alto and tenor suggest perhaps that the alto part below is from the earlier version with which the BCanAx tenor line corresponds.