Page:Our Hymns.djvu/381

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THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 361

WILLIAM HILEY BATHUEST, M.A.

BORN 1796.

THE subject of this brief sketch is a son of Earl Bathurst, known before as the Hon. Charles Bragge, M.P. for Bristol. At Cleve Dale, near Bristol, young William was born, August 28, 1796. He was educated first at Winchester School and afterwards at Christchurch College, Oxford. He was successful at the Univer sity, and in 1818 graduated B.A. In the following year he entered the Church, and in 1820 he was presented to the rectory of Barwick-in-Elmet, a valuable living, about eight miles from Leeds, Yorkshire, and there was attached to it the perpetual curacy of Koundhay, also near Leeds. From 1820 to 1852 he continued to fulfil his parochial duties and to grow in the affec tions of his parishioners ; but at that time the public attention given to the unsatisfactory condition of the Prayer Book, and especially the difficulty of conscientiously using the Baptismal and Burial Services, so impressed his mind that he resigned his valuable living rather than do what he could not fully approve. Mr. Bathurst resided from 1852 to 1868 at Darleydale, near Matlock, Derbyshire, and since then he has removed to Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, having come into possession of the estates of his father the Earl.

In 1827, Mr. Bathurst published " An Essay on the Limits of Human Knowledge," and in 1831, his " Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use." All the hymns, 206 in number, are original, and the greater number of the psalms are also original. In the year 1849, and before leaving Barwick, he published "The Georgics of Virgil: Translated by W. H. B." And in the same year, "Metrical Musings; or, Thoughts on Sacred Subjects in Verse." He also published a sermon in 1863. A second edition of his " Psalms and Hymns" appeared in 1842, and several of his hymns have been intro duced into collections. We cannot assign to his hymns more

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