Career
He collaborated on the collection Church Songs (1884) with Sabine Baring-Gould. Sheppard also collaborated with Baring-Gould on Songs of the West, which contains folk songs from Devon and Cornwall. Songs of the West was published by Methuen in conjunction with Watey and Willis.
The first edition appeared both as a four part set, undated, and as one volume dated 1895.
In a new edition songs omitted from the first edition were listed, and the music was edited by Cecil Sharp. The second edition mentions the third collaborator, the Review
Doctor F. West. Bussell, a scholarly eccentric who later became Vice-President of Brasenose College, Oxford. Sheppard was Rector of Thurnscoe, Yorkshire, and his parochial duties limited the amount of time he could spend on the work.
In Plymouth City Library are two manuscript volumes containing the material as collected, in all 202 songs with music
In the published work it was necessary to bowdlerise some songs so that the book would be acceptable to respectable Victorians.
