On a point of information Borchester, the words of "Silent Worship" appear to have been written by Sir Arthur Somervell but were certainly set to his adaptation of the aria by Handel.

I knew the song from primary school and the BBC, and I bet Barry Dransfield did too - I was so blown away by his rendering on "Unruly" a couple of years ago that I did a bit of Googling and found at least some of the song's origins. Obviously the lyric is meant to evoke the 18th century but to me it's redolent of the 1890s/early 1900s - I can imagine Walter Crane or Arthur Rackham illustrating it.

It's very true, as several people said, that unfortunately children don't casually acquire gems like these any more - I believe it was called education wasn't it?