Educated at Cambridge University, Baring-Gould spent some time teaching before training to be an Anglican priest. In 1868, he became the curate at Horbury Bridge and married Grace Taylor, a 16 year old mill girl, a marriage that lasted 48 years and produced 15 children. It wasn't only in this respect that Baring-Gould was prolific. His biliography contains over 500 entries and includes hymns, novels, ghost stories and serious works of scholarship. From 1889 to 1891, he published Songs of the West, a collection of folk songs from the Devon and Cornwall districts. Extremely popular, he produced a second edition in 1905. In 1880, he inherited the family estates at Lewtrenchard in Devon and became the rector there. During this time he produced his most famous hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers. His many works include The Path of the Just (1854), The Book of Were-Wolves (1865), Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1867), Red Spider (1887), The Way of Sorrows (1887), Old Country Life (1889), Historic Oddities (1889), The Tragedy of the Caesars (1892), A Garland of Country Songs (1895), Bladys of the Stewponey (1898), A Book of Dartmoor (1900), In Dewisland (1904), Devonshire Characters and Strange Events (1908), The Vicar of Morwenstow (1913), A Book of Cornwall (1923) and Early Reminiscences (1923). |
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