O perfect Love, all human thought transcending

O perfect Love, all human thought transcending. Dorothy Frances Gurney* (1858-1932). Written in 1883 at a house called Pull Wyke in Windermere in the Lake District as a wedding hymn for her sister, who asked for new words to the tune STRENGTH AND STAY by John Bacchus Dykes*. Dorothy’s account of its composition was as follows: It was written one Sunday evening in a quarter of an hour… for my sister’s marriage with Mr. Hugh Redmayne, of Brathay Hall. We had all been singing hymns, and had just sung No. 12 in Hymns Ancient and Modern [‘O Strength and Stay, upholding all creation’], when my sister remarked that it was her favourite tune, and that she wished the words were suitable to a...