"Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing,
Thanks for mercies past received;
Pardon all, their faults confessing;
Time that’s lost may all retrieve;
May Thy children ne’er again Thy Spirit grieve.
Let Thy Father-hand be shielding
All who here shall meet no more;
May their seed-time past be yielding
Year by year a richer store;
Those returning make more faithful than before.
Bless our home of love and learning,
Each Preceptor and each Friend,
Keep its lamp forever burning,
Let each year the past transcend,
On our school let all Thy blessings still descend."
HASSON
Hymn 577 in the Ancient & Modern hymn book succeeds superbly in evoking the mixed emotions felt at the end of term by St Margaret’s girls of the Hasson era, most poignantly for those leaving the school for ever. When many of them returned to Folkestone in 1990 to celebrate the school’s centenary and sang the hymn in Holy Trinity Church, several wept as the happy memories flooded back through the decades.
The music was composed by Sir J. Barnby, but the words familiar to the girls are from two sources. The first and second verses are in fact verses 1 and 4 of the original by H J Buckoll. The third verse, "Bless our home of love and learning", was written by Dudley Hasson.
An atheist's translation of "Lord dismiss us"
Well, we're off home soon. We've had a good time. Some of us have been naughty, others lazy, and I'm sure we'll all try to do better next term. Of course, some of us won't be coming back next term, and I wish them the best of luck for the future. But the rest of us had better work hard, 'cos its not a bad old place, really, and not a bad bunch of people. Three cheers for the School and everyone in it --- hip-hip . . . .
