When Thy soldiers take their swords

When Thy soldiers take their swords. Frances Mary Owen* (1842-1883). Written ca. 1872, probably at the same time that Owen was engaged on writing The Story of George Washington (1883), for the boys in her husband's house at Cheltenham College. With its chivalric imagery it was calculated to appeal to boys and young men: it is not surprising that it is an example of the Public School hymnody discussed so effectively by Lionel Adey* (Adey, 1988, pp. 165, 182, 187). It was published in Owen's Essays and Poems (1887), and in Hymns for the Use of the Chapel of Cheltenham College (1890). It was included in the Wesleyan Methodist Hymn Book (1904), and, most appropriately, in the Public School...