James Ashcroft Noble

Noble, James Ashcroft, was born at Liverpool in 1844, and came to London in 1881. He was then for eight years at Birkdale, Lanes., but returned to London in 1892, and died April 3, 1896, at Wandsworth Common. He was a well-known essayist, and contributed to the Spectator, the Academy, and other literary papers. In 1887 he published Verses of a Prose Writer, simple and unambitious, but with the breath of true poetry. In the section entitled "Poems of the Inner Life" there are two hymns written in 1886 for the elder (2) and younger (1) girls at Wintersdorf, a girl's school at Birkdale, where he used to lecture on English literature:—
1. God of beauty, Thou hast spread. [Beauty of Nature.] 1887, p. 92, as "A Hymn of Beauty, written for the little ones at Wintersdorf." In C. Farrington's Hymns for Children, 189 i.
2. Lord Jesus, in the days of old. [The Way to Emmaus.] 1887, p. 95, as “A Hymn for Evening, written for the girls at Wintersdorf." In the Sunday School Hymnary, 1905. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)