A couple of disparate jottings:

1) I don't think the Bodleian copy's handwritten emendation of "how" to "who" (last stanza of "Farewell ye green fields") necessarily improves the text. I'd sing "how" as readily as "who", maybe moreso knowing it to be the older reading. (I'm guessing there's no indication of who did the emending.)

2) The long eſſes may ſuggest a date prior to 1820, but my copy of Bramley and Stainer, Chriſtmas Carols New and Old, ſurely no older than about 1870 and probably printed closer to 1880, ſtill has them, whence I copied them onto one of my blogs...

Ladder of Mercy - Jacob's LadderK

1. As Jacob with travel was weary one day,
At night on a ſtone for a pillow he lay,
He ſaw in a viſion a ladder ſo high,
That its foot was on Earth, and its top in the ſky.

Chorus
Hallelujah to Jeſus, who died on the tree,
And hath raiſed up a ladder of mercy for me,
And hath raiſed up a ladder of mercy for me.

etc.

3) The 1933 Reorganized LDS Saints Hymnal has this one-stanza gem (I really do think it's a gem and could be used quite appropriately by Christians of any stripe) which they attribute to the 1841 Edition (i.e. the 1841 LDS hymnal):

This God is the God we adore,
Our faithful, unchangeable friend,
Whose love is as large as his power,
And knows not beginning nor end.
'Tis Jesus, the first and the last,
Whose Spirit will guide us safe home;
We'll praise him for all that is past,
And trust him for all that's to come.

Haruo

Haruo