Shepherds, in the field abiding

Shepherds, in the fields abiding.  George Ratcliffe Woodward* (1848-1934).  From Songs of Syon, Third Edition, revised and enlarged (1908), and reprinted in the Cowley Carol Book*, Second Series (1919). It is based on a text from the Sarum Antiphoner, ‘Quem vidistis, pastores’. It had four stanzas, presenting the story of the Incarnation through question, answer, and thanks: it has an affinity with other carols that feature the shepherds, notably ‘Angels we have heard on high’*, from the French carol ‘Les anges dans nos campagnes’. Woodward’s text in Songs of Syon was as follows: Shepherds, in the field abiding, Tell us, when the seraph bright Greeted you with wondrous tiding, What ye saw...