This Primitive Methodist favourite is one of Charles Wesley’s.
The hymn is number 521 in the 1889 Primitive Methodist Hymnal with Supplement, where it is set to three different tunes. In the main body of the book it is set to both Warrenne Number 1 by Rev. OR Barnicott M.A.and Zion by B Millgrove, but the tune I remember it being sung to at Sunday night suppers was number 305 in the Supplement section – Shepherd. No composer is given, but elsewhere a version of the same tune is called Green Fields and credited to an arrangement of a tune from J. S. Bach by Lewis Edson. Wesley and Bach – quite a pedigree.
In the best Primitive Methodist Ranter tradition, they loved a tune with a strong rhythm that you could join in with and march along to. Shepherd fills the bill nicely!
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Sound clip now repaired: several links were displaced by the move to a new platform
The sound links given do not work, but you can hear this hymn sung here: https://youtu.be/-2DGoS2irvg
You’ve captured the hymn in this comment. It was my mother’s favourite, learned in the 1930’s in the small Primitive Methodist Chapel at Allerdean,near Berwick-upon-Tweed. Her mother came from nearby Ancroft and loved to return to the chapel where they would often sing this hymn.
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