Fair waved the golden corn

Fair waved the golden corn. John Hampden Gurney* (1802-1862). This was first published in Gurney’s Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, selected for some of the Churches of Marylebone (‘The Marylebone Collection’, 1851), when he was serving as rector of St Mary’s, Bryanston Square. It was originally written as a children’s hymn, and it was one of the hymns that D.H. Lawrence remembered from his childhood: ‘I loved “Canaan’s pleasant land”. The wonder of “Canaan”, which could never be localised’ (Lawrence, 1928; Beal, 1955, p.9):   Fair waved the golden corn  In Canaan’s pleasant land,When full of joy, some shining morn,  Went forth the reaper-band.   To God so good and great  Their cheerful...