Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Critical and Biographical Essay by Alfred H. Miles

Godfrey Thring (1823–1894)

AMONG the most popular hymns of recent years, several of those written by the Rev. Godfrey Thring must be numbered. Mr. Thring was born at Alford, Somerset, on the 25th of March, 1823, and was educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. After holding several curacies, he became Rector of Alford in 1867, and Prebendary of East Harptree in Wells Cathedral 1876. He published “Hymns Congregational and Others” (1866), “Hymns and Verses” (1866), “Hymns and Sacred Lyrics” (1874), and “A Church of England Hymn-Book” (1880). Many of his hymns are in common use, some of them being great favourites for congregational purposes; they show an eye for the picturesque, a dramatic instinct, a sympathetic spirit, and a joyous disposition. The hymn commencing “Saviour, blessed Saviour,” which in its complete form, as given in “Hymns and Sacred Lyrics,” comprises ten stanzas of eight lines each, is too long for selection. The same may be said of the fine hymn beginning “I heard a sound of voices.” The following hymns are of general acceptance among the Churches.