Fair Waved the Golden Corn

Author: John Hampden Gurney

Gurney, John Hampden, M.A., eldest son of Sir John Gurney, a Baron of the Exchequer, was born in Serjeants’ Inn, London, Aug. 15, 1802, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1824. On taking Holy Orders he became Curate of Lutterworth (1827-1844), and subsequently Rector of St. Mary's, Marylebone, and Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral. He died in London, March 8, 1862. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and other religious societies had his cordial sympathy, and received his active support. His publications include several small volumes in prose, and the following:— (1) Church Psalmody; Hints for the improvement of a Collection of Hymns published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1… Go to person page >

Fair waved the golden corn. J. H. Gurney. [Dedication of First Fruits.] This application of the "First Fruits " as a hymn of prayer and praise for Children appeared in the author's Marylebone Psalms & Hymns, 1851, No. 38, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and not in his Lutterworth Collection of Hymns, 1838, as sometimes stated. It has attained to great popularity, and is found, generally unaltered, in most of the leading modern hymn-books. Bingham, in his Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, has rendered it into Latin as "Pulchrius in Judae campis crepitante susurro."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)