THEIR AUTHOKS AND ORIGIN. 131
says : "It will be a great acquisition to the Methodist sect to have their hymns set by Giardini."
Mr. Daniel Sedgwick, to whom hymnology owes so much, has recently shown, on what he believes to be good evidence, that the countess is the author of the hymn erroneously attributed to Robinson :
" Come, thou fount of every blessing." No. 666.
The evidence is as follows : On some ily-leaves in a volume of " Hymns and Sacred Poems," by the "Wesleys, 1747, there are some hymns written, including this, which the writer attri butes to the Countess of Huntingdon. The writer is Diana Vandeleur, afterwards Diana Bindon. On a ticket of the Wes- leyan Society that was in use about 1760, the maiden name of Vandeleur is found. This ticket is pasted over the writing, which appears to be of the same date as the hymns, and of course earlier than the ticket. The MS. of the hymns also appears to be written earlier than the autograph on the title-page, " Diana Bindon, 1759." Miss Vandeleur was a personal friend of the countess, and claims the hymn for her. Over against this evidence, we have the distinct claim made by Robinson himself, that he published this hymn in 1758. Mr. Sedgwick has also found a similar hymn by Robinson :
"Hail ! Thou source of every blessing,"
which he supposes accounts for the other being attributed to him by mistake. Two other verses are given in some collections, of which one is thought to be by the countess, or by Miss Van deleur, and the last of these two verses is by Charles Wesley. It is in his fifty-first hymn, in his second volume of " Hymns and Sacred Poems," 1749.
Vide a fuller discussion of this question under Robinson.
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