All Things Bright and Beautiful

Paley cited wings and eyes as examples of complexity of design, analogous to that of a watch, with God as the Divine Watchmaker.

[1] Inspiration for Alexander's hymn text "The purple-headed mountain, The river running by" has been attributed to four separate locations in Wales, Ireland and England.

Alexander visited Llanwenarth House in Govilon, Monmouthshire in 1848, and according to this claim, the hymn refers to the nearby Sugar Loaf or the Blorenge mountains, and to the River Usk.

[1][5] She is also known to have visited Markree Castle near Sligo, and some sources link Alexander's text with the surrounding gardens there.

[6] Alexander's travels also took her to the nearby village of Dunster in Somerset in 1848, and the landscape of Grabbist Hill and the River Avill are also claimed to be her inspiration.

[9] An alternative interpretation of the third verse holds that Alexander was expressing the equality of rich and poor in the eyes of God.

Percy Dearmer omitted this verse from The English Hymnal (1906); he was sympathetic to Christian socialism and stated that the words reflected the "passivity and inertia at the heart of the British Establishment in the face of huge inequalities in Edwardian society".

[11][12] Dearmer questioned whether Alexander had remembered the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), and attributed her view of the world to her having "been brought up in the atmosphere of a land-agent on an Irish estate".

The cold wind in the winter, The pleasant summer sun, The ripe fruits in the garden,− He made them every one:

(Amen) The United Church of Canada includes a fourth verse:[14] The rocky mountain splendour, the lone wolf's haunting call, the Great Lakes and the prairies, the forest in the fall.

The melody may have political origins in the English Civil War, and its name is thought to be a reference to the Royal Oak, a tree at Boscobel, Shropshire in which King Charles II hid himself in 1651.

[16] This tune was first arranged for the hymn by Martin Shaw in 1916, published in his book for children, Song Time.

Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson and Corporal Jones sing orders to the squad while disguised as choirboys to disarm the three Nazi bomber pilots.