History
The hymn was first published in 1848 in Mrs Cecil Alexander's Hymns for Little Children. [1] It consists of a series of stanzas that elaborate upon the clause of the Apostles' Creed that describes God as "maker of heaven and earth", and has been described as asserting a creationist view of the natural world. [2] [3]
It has been suggested that a number of sources may have influenced Alexander's composition. The hymn may have been inspired by Psalm 104, verses 24 and 25: "Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts". [4] The hymn may have been inspired as well by a verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner : "He prayeth best, who loveth best; All things great and small; For the dear God who loveth us; He made and loveth all." [1] Alternatively, inspiration may have come from William Paley's Natural Theology , published in 1802, that argues for God as the designer of the natural world. For example, the hymn's second verse alludes to "wings" and verse 7 refers to "eyes". Paley cited wings and eyes as examples of complexity of design, analogous to that of a watch, with God as the Divine Watchmaker. [1]
Inspiration for Alexander's hymn text "The purple-headed mountain, The river running by" has been attributed to four separate locations in Wales, Ireland and England. Alexander visited Llanwenarth House in Govilon, Monmouthshire in 1848, and according to this claim, the hymn refers to the nearby Sugar Loaf or the Blorenge mountains, and to the River Usk. [1] [5] She is also known to have visited Markree Castle near Sligo, and some sources link Alexander's text with the surrounding gardens there. [6] Alexander's travels also took her to the nearby village of Dunster in Somerset in 1848, and the landscape of Grabbist Hill and the River Avill are also claimed to be her inspiration. [7] [8]
However, a more credible account[ according to whom? ] is given by Sir John Heygate of Bellarena House in County Londonderry, which links the hymn to the many visits paid by the Alexanders to what was then the Gage family residence, a family into which Sir John's ancestor -Sir Frederick Heygate-married in 1850. Writing in 1973,[ citation needed ] Sir John attributed "the purple headed mountain" to nearby Benevenagh, and "the river running by" to the River Roe which flows past Bellerena House. Sir John had heard the story from the late Sir Norman Stronge, speaker of the Northern Ireland House of Commons, whose family also had ties to the area.[ citation needed ]
- Purple-headed mountains and rivers running by: possible inspiration
Markree Castle gardens
Grabbist Hill, Somerset
the River Avill, Somerset
Benevenagh, County Londonderry
River Roe, County Londonderry
The third verse makes reference to "The rich man in his castle,/The poor man at his gate", and asserts that their social positions have been ordained by God. It has been interpreted as an expression of the theological view that society is ordered and upheld by Divine providence. This view of social strata has been linked to Alexander's identity as an Anglo-Irish person affirming the existing social order in the midst of the Irish famine. [9] An alternative interpretation of the third verse holds that Alexander was expressing the equality of rich and poor in the eyes of God. A comparable text in Alexander's Verses for Holy Seasons (1846) makes reference to "The poor man in his straw-roofed cottage,/The rich man in his lordly hall" and states that their prayers to God are of equal importance: "He listens, and He answers all". [10]
Nevertheless, the sentiments of this verse are generally considered to be outdated and many later versions and performances of "All Things Bright and Beautiful" omit the third verse. Percy Dearmer omitted this verse from The English Hymnal (1906); he was sympathetic to Christian socialism and stated that the words reflected the "passivity and inertia at the heart of the British Establishment in the face of huge inequalities in Edwardian society". [11] [12] Dearmer questioned whether Alexander had remembered the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), and attributed her view of the world to her having "been brought up in the atmosphere of a land-agent on an Irish estate". [1] The revised edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern , published in 1950, also omits this verse.
