The Preface to Volume 2 (1891) of SDNQ lists amongst the journal’s subscribers who have died, The Very Rev. Dean Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821-1891), Dean of Wells 1881-1891.
Later in the same volume (no.170), James Coleman notes that besides Dean Plumptre’s published volumes of poems, he left behind him ‘many fugitive pieces’, including verses written in 1887 for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, a poem written in 1888 on the Bi-Centenary of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, and a poem written in 1889 to celebrate the Golden Wedding anniversary of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Lord Arthur Hervey, and Patience Singleton [whose daughter trained the mute swans at the Bishop’s Palace to ring a bell]. James Coleman concludes that SDNQ seemed ‘a fitting repository in which to preserve such interesting mementos of a Dean of Wells who, during his tenure of office, so thoroughly identified himself with Somerset history.’
THE NATIONAL ANTHEM (1887).
ADAPTED FOR QUEEN VICTORIA’S GOLDEN JUBILEE.
Seed sown through fifty years,
Sown or in smiles or tears,
Grant her to reap.
Her heritage of fame,
Her pure and stainless name,
Her people free from shame,
Guard Thou and keep!
O’er lands and waters wide,
Through changing time and tide,
Hear when we call:
Where’er our English tongue
To wind and wave hath rung,
Still be our anthem sung;
God save us all!
GOLDEN JUBILEE HYMN (1887).
For all Thy countless bounties,
Through varied chance and change;
For old familiar blessings,
For mercies now and strange;
For laws that widen slowly,
For ordered life and free,
We thank Thee, Lord, and welcome
Our year of Jubilee.
For queenly wisdom sought for
In prayer of early days;
For guidance pure and noble
That won the wide world’s praise;
For children taught to follow
Their father’s footsteps true;
For afterglow of brightness
We now praise renew.
For peace with all her triumphs,
Peace welcomed after war;
For prosperous years that brought us
Rich gifts from near and far;
For days of darker outlook
that tried the nation’s nerve;
For all alike we thank Thee;
Thou gav’st; Thou canst preserve.
For onward march of knowledge
That grows from more to more;
For words of noblest wisdom
From poet’s golden lore;For these we praise Thee, Father,
Oh, make us Sons of Light,
Against the hosts of darkness,
With these, for Thee, to fight!
The fifty years behind us
Have told their wondrous tale;
The fifty years before us
Lie yet within the veil;
Grant, Lord, that all our future
May work out good begun;
That, in the tasks that wait us,
The goal at last be won.
Through all Thy saints and servants
Send forth Thy Light and Truth;
Renew our nation’s greatness,
As ’twere an eagle’s youth;
So, with full hearts of gladness,
We lift our souls to Thee,
And keep in hope and courage
Our years of Jubilee.
THE BI-CENTENARY OF A.D. 1688 [‘The Glorious Revolution’].
A HYMN FOR A.D. 1888.
Thine arm, O Lord, was mighty
To guard and keep Thy fold,
In those dark days of conflict,
That tried our sires of old;
The hosts of ancient error
Were armed against our land,
Men’s hearts with fear were falling,
No helper seemed at hand.
The way was long and weary,
The long-ed for goal was far,
The skies were dark and stormy
Without or moon or star;
But through that night of sorrow,
The pilgrims kept their way,
And soon the gleam of sunrise
Turned darkness into day.
For lo! in that fierce warfare,
The seven Confessors rose,
And, clad in Truth’s bright armour,
They faced her leaguered foes;
And with them rose the nation,
When that brave deed was done,
And in the strength if weakness,
Their victory was son.
Not theirs, perchance, the wisdom
That looks behind, before.
The thoughts of men who welcome
Stern truths of storied lore;
Theirs but to do and suffer,
And bear their cross alone,
That we, who follow after,
May reap where they have sown.
Two hundred years divide us
From that old tale of strife,
And scarce we hear the echoes
Of that resounding life;
Yet in the plenteous harvest
We gather far and wide,
The sower meets the reaper,
The saints are by our side.
Grant, Lord, to all Thy servants,
Who come from East and West,
That they, Thy Truth defending,
In blessing may be blest;
Fulfil the hopes and yearnings
Of those who fought that day,
Who, still beneath the altar,
In patient waiting pray.
Send forth Thy bravest warriors
To speed o’er land and sea,
And as they sound the trumpet,
Let sin and falsehood flee;
On England’s Church and Nation
Pour blessings from above,
And crown their faithful labours
With Peace and Truth and Love.
THE BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS’ GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY – A.D. 1889 (JULY 30).
Fifty summers bright and glowing, fifty winters keen and cold,
Bringing each its joys and sorrows, each its treasures new and old;
These ye now retrace in silence, as the shadows lengthen fast,
And the silver now is golden, and the best days are the last.
Then were hopes that have not failed you, love’s great law not unfulfilled;
Then were pleasant ways of wisdom, warmth of heart years have not chilled,
In your souls abiding ever, as from some serener clime,
Echoes, neither faint nor distant, of the everlasting chime.
Nor is now life’s force abated, age has left undimmed your sight,
And the vision opens wider, and at eventide is light;
Now ye reap the golden harvest, all to full completeness grown,
And we own God’s law accomplished, for ye reap as ye have sown.
Boys have grown to stainless manhood strong for no ignoble strife;
Daughters passed from girlhood’s brightness on to woman’s wider life;
Children’s children gather round you, and their infant lips attest
That the crowning joy of goodness is in blessing to be blest.
And the flock of Christ rejoices that their Shepherd still is theirs,
Watching, feeding, guiding ever, sharing all their hopes and cares;
And they thank their Lord and Master, Christ, great Shepherd of the sheep,
And they pray that He will ever His true servant bless and keep.
Yest, the silver now is golden, and the skies are clear above,
And the good wine flows unfailing, wine of joy and hope and love,
Shadows, neither faint nor distant, of a nobler wedding feast,
Where the King shall crown His chosen, and the Bridegroom be the Priest.
Further reading:
E.H. Plumptre’s entry in Hymnary.org
Rachel Hassall
April 2020
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