Religion: The Squarson

On Whitsun Tuesday in 1865, the Sunday-school children of an English mill-town mission named Horbury Brig, in Devonshire, were scheduled to march to church to join the children of the nearby parish in worship. As the mission's curate later told it, "Mr. Fred Knowles [a church warden] came to me at the Vicarage and asked what they were to sing on the long walk. We discussed one thing and then another and I said I would write a processional. 'You must be sharp about it,' said Mr. Knowles, 'for this is Saturday and there will shortly be no printing done.' So...