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Home  »  The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century  »  Jane Borthwick (1813–1897)

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Critical and Biographical Essay by Alfred H. Miles

Jane Borthwick (1813–1897)

“HYMNS from the Land of Luther” (first series, 1854; second series, 1855; third series, 1858; fourth series, 1862), by Jane Borthwick (1813) and her sister Sarah (Mrs. Findlater, 1823–1886), was one of the earliest systematic attempts to enrich English hymnody from German sources, and was made, singularly enough, practically simultaneously with the efforts of Catherine Winkworth in the same direction. The first series of “Hymns from the Land of Luther” was published by the Borthwicks in 1854; the first edition of “Lyra Germanica” by Catherine Winkworth in 1855. Miss Borthwick contributed a number of translations and original poems to the Family Treasury, which were afterwards collected and published under the title “Thoughts for Thoughtful Hours” in 1857. Her most popular original hymn is “Come, labour on,” her best-known translation “Jesus, still lead on.”