Anna Louisa Walker was born in England but went in her teens with her parents to Sania, Canada, where her brothers were railway engineers. Returning to England, she became a governess for a time, then she reviewed books, making her home with her second cousin, a Mrs. Oliphant, for some years. In 1883 she married Harry Coghill, a wealthy merchant. She published six novels and a book of poems, _Oak and Maple_, and edited the _Autobiography and Letters_ of Mrs. Oliphant. _MUSIC._ WORK SONG, known in England as “Diligence,” was written for this hymn. To fit the tune it became necessary to drop a syllable in the fourth line of each verse, an alteration which the author disliked extremely and which she never sanctioned. For comments on Lowell Mason see Hymn 12. 222. Where cross the crowded ways of life _Frank Mason North_, 1850-1935 An unexcelled “Hymn for the City.” The following account of it is given in _The Churchman_, July, 1938, in an article by Eloise R. Griffith, on “Our Great Hymns”: Frank Mason North, D.D., a well-known clergyman of the Methodist Church, is the author of this well-loved hymn. It is sometimes called “A Prayer for the City,” or “A Prayer for the Multitudes,” and has the distinction of appearing in more standard hymnals today than any other hymn written in this century. To those of us who are concerned about “how the other half lives,” and who know either from our own experiences or those of friends about the darker side of life in a great city and particularly in our own country during the last nine years,—this beautiful hymn never fails to find a heartfelt response. It paints a picture with which many city dwellers are all too familiar. In 1903, Dr. North was editor of _The Christian City_, the organ of the Methodist City Missionary Society. His office was in the Fifth Avenue building of the Methodist Book Concern. One day one of the professors of Wesleyan University (who was on the committee to prepare and revise the new Methodist hymnal, and who knew North’s ability to write hymns), met him in one of the halls. “Why don’t you write a missionary hymn for us, Dr. North?” asked the professor. “We need more missionary hymns in our new hymnal.” Dr. North modestly answered that he did not feel he would be able to write a hymn worthy of the proposed new hymnal, but that he would try.