As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams
I recently wrote a short piece about my Grandmother’s picture (see sandradolby.com My Grandma’s Picture). At the end of that account, I mentioned her little tradition of singing the hymn “As pants the hart” as I dusted. I’d like to say a little more about that song and about her choosing to sing it. The lyrics of the hymn are an adaptation of Psalm 42 which begins “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.”
The hart (deer or stag) that “pants” for cooling streams is being chased by hunters and longs for escape and a way to cool down. My grandmother knew the meaning of the words and of course the biblical context, but she chose to create an amusing pun, casting the word “pants” as a noun, in this case underpants. American word usage usually means trousers when we say “pants,” but the British usually mean underpants when they say “pants.” I’m not sure why my grandmother (not British) made the connection with underwear upon hearing the word “pants.” In any case, I’ve always found the little pun a very endearing memory.
I wrote out the opening tune as I remember her singing it. It is a little different than the melody I found in various hymnbooks. But it is close—probably my faulty memory. The tune is listed as a Scottish melody called Martyrdom in most hymnbooks. The version above from the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal was arranged in four parts by Kenneth G. Finlay in 1882. I was excited to find that Handel had also composed an anthem with that title, but his version is a much more complex piece of music. I’ll attach some links that are relevant. The last is a bagpiper playing the tune most often associated with the hymn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Pants_the_Hart_(Handel)
http://folio.furman.edu/projects/anthems/pdf/As_Pants_the_Hart.pdf
https://adventisthymns.com/lyrics/113-as-pants-the-hart
My Grandma’s Picture
This picture of my grandmother hangs on the wall of my small music/reading room (or what I assume was supposed to be a dining room). Including its frame, the picture measures 22.5” x 26.5” –impressively large for an individual photo. The frame is made of wood and displays decorative scrollwork all around. If you look at the back, you see mitered corner pieces and nails keeping everything in place. The back of the picture itself is some sort of canvas, which makes me think that it was treated as a painting. In the early 1900s, photographs were often “enhanced” by adding painted details. The small decorative swirls on the dress certainly appear to be painted on.
So, why do I have this wonderful artifact in my house? Obviously one reason is that she was my grandmother (more on that in a little bit). But my grandmother had five children and many grandchildren, all of whom might have wanted this picture. Why am I the lucky one to have it now, long after my grandmother is no longer with us? Mostly because I asked for it when older family members were handing on various family heirlooms shortly after she died. I was twenty years old and a college student, but I know that that was one thing I wanted to have always with me if I could.
My grandmother, Marjorie Gertrude Beghtel (“Gertie”), was born in 1879 in Huntington County, Indiana—my home county as well. She married my grandfather, C. Franklin Dolby, in 1904. I never knew my grandfather, as he died before I was born. My father, Charles Dolby, was one of the five children borne to my grandparents. My grandmother died in 1967, but when I was growing up, she lived right next door to my family, and I spent part of every day at her house. I was always intrigued by this large picture. Why did she have this picture of herself as a young woman hanging in her house?
I learned somewhat later that this was basically her engagement/wedding picture—so a picture of her at around 25 years of age. I suppose this might have been a tradition—having such a picture made when you married. I am glad to have this reminder of my grandmother. People tell me I looked like her in some ways when I was in my twenties. But I’m mostly glad to have the picture because it brings with it memories of all those hours I spent at her house as I was growing up. She was happy to let me snoop through boxes of letters from my Aunt Mary saved over many years and to occasionally help her with household chores. My favorite task was dusting her collection of glass objects and salt and pepper shakers stored in the wonderful cabinet with a curved glass front. She always gave me an old pair of pink underwear to do the dusting. And as I dusted, she would sing the old Brethren hymn “As Pants the Hart . . .” One of my cherished memories.