Onward, Christian Soldier
Sabine Baring-Gould

by John Lea

The title of this article is taken from the biography of Baring-Gould by William Purcell, a rich, rewarding book, published by Longmans in 1957. The words are at once a tribute to the man and an allusion to his well-known hymn "Onward, Christian soldiers." Essex people knew him as the rector for ten years of East Mersea, where, as we shall see later, he is still remembered.

Most people would agree that by almost any standard Baring-Gould was a remarkable man. He contained within himself a rich abundance few could equal; he was parson, poet, novelist, archaeologist, antiquarian, theologian, historian, writer of more than 120 books, including thirty novels, and his industry for over seventy of his ninety years was amazing. As a curate in a small Yorkshire town he fell in love with a beautiful mill girl, sent her away to be educated, then married her and "lived happy ever after." They had fifteen children, and it is said that Sabine sometimes failed to recognize the later youngsters and needed prompting by his wife. At a children`s Christmas party in the vicarage at Lew Trenchard he saw a nice little girl in costume coming downstairs whom he asked. "And whose little girl are you, my dear?" Bursting into tears, the child replied "I`m yours, Daddy."

In spite of his many interests and occupations he lived in obscurity, and for the greater part of his life in remote and lonely places; he preferred it to be so. He never sought publicity or tried to secure favours, and in his Reminiscences he says scarcely anything about himself. While he was best known as a novelist, it is evident that he himself put first his work as an Anglo-Catholic parish priest: yet for his lone and faithful service and his many religious writings no reward came from the Church of England, not even a canonry.

Sabine Baring-Gould was born in Exeter on January 28, 1834, the eldest child of his parents. His father, Edward Baring-Gould, was a cavalry lieutenant in the East India Company`s service who, through an accident which caused a permanent limp, was invalided home, where he lived the life of a country gentleman; he married Sophia Ford, daughter of an admiral in the Royal Navy.

Edward grew tried of the quiet life at Bratton Clovelly, and in 1837 the family went to the Continent, where for years they lived an unsettled life. In 1844 Sabine was sent to King`s College School, London, for two years, and for a year he attended the grammar school at Warwick; he also received private tuition. In 1851 the family settled in Devon, where the ancestral estate at Lew Trenchard now needed the personal supervision of the father. In his native county, among scenes he loved, the growing Sabine acquired habits and experiences to which he gladly returned in later life. In October 1853, at the age of nineteen, he entered Clare Hall, Cambridge.

His university career was perhaps chiefly notable for the deep religious convictions he experienced. He helped to form the Society of the Holy Cross, whose members engaged in prayer, theological study and almsgiving. Ordinary friendships had been impossible during his unsettled early life, and he now welcomed the society of like-minded students. He was very tall and handsome, and a fellow undergraduate wrote, "He has the sweetest face I ever saw in my life, always serene and undisturbed".

His career

Sabine`s father wanted his son`s career to follow the pattern of a mathematician, but the youth had not the slightest inclination that way, and when he left Cambridge he went straight to Pimlico and became a lay worker at St. Barnabas. When appealed to for funds, Mr. Baring-Gould ordered his son to leave Pimlico at once. Sabine did leave, not to return home, but to become an assistant master at Lancing College, where he remained for eight years, and where "everybody liked him."

The way eventually became clear for Sabine to carry out his wish to become a clergyman, and in 1864, at the age of thirty, he was ordained by the Bishop of Ripon, and at once became curate of Horbury, a small Yorkshire town. He threw himself wholeheartedly into the work and started various successful organizations for young people. He wrote "Onward, Christian soldiers" for the juniors to sing in their Whit-Tuesday procession in 1865, and the hymn became known the world over. At Horbury, too, he met the lovely sixteen-year-old Grace Taylor, who had started work in the local mill at the age of ten. In spite of the difficulties in their way, Sabine, as ever, pursued his own course, and sent Grace to York to be educated and trained for the society in which her life would be passed, and they were married in Horbury parish church on May 28, 1868.

Meantime Baring-Gould had been appointed perpetual curate at Dalton, a hamlet of only 100 people in remote Swaledale, and here, after a continental honeymoon, he brought his bride, During their three years at Dalton two daughters were born, and like all the children of their parents, they were extremely handsome. In this undemanding little parish he began that large output with his pen which occupied so much of his life, his chief work here being The Origin and Development of Religious Belief, in two volumes. The book attracted the attention of Mr. Gladstone, who offered Sabine the Crown living of East Mersea, which he thankfully accepted.

During the ten Essex years which he commenced in 1871 at the age of thirty-seven, Baring-Gould was at the zenith of his powers. It was here that as a novelist he produced his masterpiece, his Essex story Mehalah, and in other ways his pen was constantly busy. Six of the children were born at East Mersea, where today the flat landscape, the wide sweep of sky, the sea and the wind remain as in Sabine`s time. The moaning of the wind in one of the old rectory bedrooms was so bad that he had to warn his guests not to be alarmed by it.

The change from his native Devon and the Yorkshire hills and dales to the Essex salt marshes was great; yet this nature lover soon found some affinity with his surroundings. In Mehalah he writes: "A more desolate region can scarcely be conceived, and yet it was not without beauty. In summer the thrift mantles the marshes with shot satin, passing through all gradations from maiden`s blush to lily-white. Thereafter a purple glow steals over the waste as the sea lavender bursts into flower, and every creek and pool is royally fringed with sea aster."

Uninspiring

The immediate vicinity was uninspiring; it consisted of flat, dull fields upon which was spread as manure the "London muck" discharged from barges, with its disgusting odour. The people tilled the land or dredged for shrimps, and they did not like the activities of the new parson: they preferred one who would let them alone. There was hardly any social life, but records show that Sabine did occasionally assist with the services at West Mersea, where thing were a little livelier. Fortunately he had his own sources of contentment in the various literary projects upon which he was constantly engaged.

There is now no resident incumbent at East Mersea, the parish having been merged with that of West Mersea, but the church remains and services are still held there. Near the church can be seen a group of council houses bearing the name "Baring-Gould Cottages." Girls, and also boats, in Mersea are named "Mehalah," which, although a marshland name, has certainly come into more prominent use because of the story; natives still also bear the surnames of characters in the book. Before writing it Sabine had spent about eight years in Essex, and was therefore able to describe scenes, people and the local atmosphere from his own knowledge.

Mehalah

Mehalah, with its wild, grim and tragic note, has often been likened to Emily Bronte`s Wuthering Heights. Swinburne and other discerning critics have given it their commendation. At the request of many people in the district and elsewhere. A new edition of the novel was issued in 1950 by Forbes Robertson Ltd., and the story is still in demand. Altogether it has gone through nearly twenty editions since its first publication in 1880. For his notable novel Baring-Gould received fifty pounds from Smith and Elder. He relates that the idea of the story came to him through being taken by a coastguard to an abandoned, desolate house on the Essex marshes, and it haunted him through a sleepless night.

Dramatized version

It was in the Essex rectory that Sabine produced his Lives of the Saints, a monumental work in sixteen volumes; he considered it his chief literary achievement. Here, too, he wrote The Vicar of Morwenstowe, finding in the eccentric Hawker, who paid his pastoral visits with a pet pig at his heels, a subject who richly repaid his love for the queer and odd.

He leaves Essex

In May 1872 Sabine`s father died, and he thus became squire of Lew Threnchard, with a great improvement in his fortunes. But the new squire still remained quietly in Essex for a further nine years until the death of his uncle, the Rev. Charles Baring-Gould, who meantime held the family living, and eventually completed forty-nine years in it. In June 1881 Sabine presented himself to the incumbency of Lew Trenchard, having left Essex and taken up residence in the ancestral home, where he remained for the further forty-three years of his long life.

His career continued to follow much the same pattern, but with the heightened enjoyment of living in his native county. He did his pastoral work, wrote many books, explored Dartmoor, collected the folk-songs and folk-lore of Devon and Cornwall, and made a name which became known in the world, yet remained himself in the seclusion which he preferred. He lost his dear Grace after forty-eight years of wedded life and his own passing came on January 2, 1924, within three or four weeks of his ninetieth birthday.

Published in Essex Countryside December/January 1957/58, transcribed by Joe Vince August 2025.
The photograph of Baring-Gould in middle age was reproduced by Essex Countryside from the 1957 biography published by Longmans.

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