The class quiz
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The poet Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-95) wrote the hymn ‘Maker of Heaven and Earth’ – better known as ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ – in 1848. The third child of Elizabeth Reed and Major John Humphreys, land agent to the 4th earl of Wicklow, she began writing verse at an early age, and was influenced by Anglican theologian John Keble, who edited her Songs for Little Children. She married the Rev. William Alexander in 1850. Her view of class was very conservative:
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
In other words, our place in life is fixed by God. However, even in the 19th century, not many rich people lived in castles. Cecil Alexander went on to write ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and ‘There is a Green Hill Far Away’ and opened a school for the deaf.
