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Originally enclosing a letter to Julian which Bob found on the return home, probably from Nicky [Mariano]. Lina [Waterfield] said in a telephone call that she thought it would be all right even if [her husband] Aubrey had not written to Aulla; he is currently away in Gloucestershire, but [the people at Aulla] will understand Julian's telegram and get things ready [for his and Ursula's honeymoon]. Hopes Julian and Ursula had time for everything in London. Bob and Bessie stopped to see Mrs V[aughan] W[illiams] and Adeline on the way back, and gave them some cakes; Ralph [Vaughan Williams] is 'getting on well'. Glad that everything went so well, and hopes they have a good time.

King's Coll. Cambridge [headed notepaper]. -Thanks her and Bob for sending the Abinger Chronicle 'so quickly [see TRER/ADD/87]; can return it, as he has found his own copy. No hurry for her to return his Skelton piece; in the 'revised version' he 'did mention R[alph] V[aughan] W[illiams] - his setting of Skelton's Hymn to the Father had been sung two days earlier in the church [at the Aldeburgh Festival]

The White Gates, Westcott Road, Dorking. - Thanks Bessie for lending him the first issue of the "Abinger Chronicle" [24/77]; has copied his essay ["Local Musicians"] so returns it now.

Contains "Local Musicians", by Ralph Vaughan Williams; "A Plea for Thomas" by Max Beerbohm, "Mr Gosse & Professor Collins" by Oliver Lodge, and two poems, "Friends" and "Littlehampton, January 1939" by 'S.S.' [Sylvia Sprigge]. 'Elizabeth Trevelyan' written at the top of the cover in pencil.

Ashmansworth, nr Newbury, Berks. - He and his wife were at the White Gates [visiting Ralph Vaughan Williams] when the 1947 "From the Shiffolds" arrived: was 'delighted' to find his own copy when he returned home. Often reads the previous years' booklets, and "A Memory" is a particular favourite; this year's 'will be equally valued & kept'.

Lemon Corner. - It is 'delightful' to get Bob's "Windfalls" [the new edition?]: knows many of the pieces 'so well', as Bob has read them aloud to her, but it is good to read them again; 'just a sip of nectar at a time' since she can only read for a few minutes; glad the print is good. Hopes Bob will not mind if she lends the book to one of his 'most ardent admirers', the lady to whom he sent the Vaughan Williams concert tickets; Olive always lends her the Christmas presents from Bob [his "From the Shiffolds"]. Wonders if Bob is keeping warm, and trusts he is not 'like all the inhabitants of this Infirmary, afflicted with rheumatics, arthritis, neuritis and what Milton calls Fierce Catarrh'; also that the 'domestic situation' is easier.

Veronica, Silverdale, nr Carnforth. - Thanks Bob for sending his "New Parsifal"; will get him to write his name in it when he comes north. Read it with much 'zest and enjoyment' as if he had never done so before; thinks it has all 'come quite fresh and delightful'. Sure it is 'first rate and... will last a long time'; eager to see what the reviewers say, as soon as Bob has a 'bundle of cuttings' he can spare'. The 'Chiswicks [Chiswick Press] have managed the cover very well'; the 'arrangement with Bickers' [printers and booksellers] sounds good, and will probably be 'more efficient' than Longmans or 'liitle [Charles Elkin?] Matthews'. Will remember all this for "Mrs Lear" [his forthcoming "King Lear's Wife"], but thinks he should try Heinemann first as Bob suggests. Thanks Bob for taking the trouble to see [Edward] Marsh and writing; will follow up this opening as soon as he can; unfortunately the typescript [of "King Lear's Wife"] is not yet ready, since he has had a 'few bed-days', and there is an 'Old-Man-of-the-Sea of a plumber here' who makes work 'impossible'. The house is ready to move into; they are going to Allithwaite on Friday, on to Well Knowe for a fortnight, then 'back here for ever. This is a 'damned place, full of old maids collecting for the provision of woollen comforters for deep sea fishermen'.; mentions the suggestion in the local directory that Silverdale is named after 'Soever', a 'hardy Norseman'. Promises Bob that 'Mrs Lear' will be his 'Lenten task', and to get the typescript to Marsh by Easter.

Had a letter from [John] Drinkwater three weeks ago, who said he had seen Bob, and also asked for the 'refusal' of 'Mrs Lear'; have therefore promised to send him a typescript too. Drinkwater sent his [play] "[Oliver] Cromwell....."; Bottomley at length replied he was 'on his side about King Oliver', but that Drinkwater should not 'write poetry like a partisan'. Ernest Newman was 'offensive and vulgar' about [Wagner's] "Parsifal"; loathed' him as Bob did. Wishes he could have seen the opera with Bob. As it has just gone out of copyright, has bought a cheap score; expected it to be 'good but vegetarian and flabby' so was glad to see it 'so much huger' than expected; thinks 'the Amfortas... more moving than anything else in Wagner'. Has got hold of a Bohn edition of the Grimm "Fairy Tales" 'just like' Bob's, and now he and his wife read them out loud in the evening. Very glad that Julian is better: 'suppressed influenza' seems to have been a great danger for children recently, and Lady A[lice] Egerton says her little niece almost died of it. Hopes Sir George is also better. Adds a postscript to say that the French musical review S. I. M. ["Société internationale de musique"] for 1 January has a 'good portrait' of R[alph] Vaughan Williams and a piece on "Les Post-Elgariens" by Marcel Boulestin.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Meant to answer Bessie's 'kind letter' before, but 'these are paralysing days, and it is impossible to write with one's old gaiety, nor has one time to create a new sort'. Went to the London Library the morning after the bombing, and 'saw Carlyle's head stricken from his shoulders, and the theological section ruining [?] through the ceiling of the Reading Room'; wonders whether 'poor Bob has looked in'. Meant to 'do half a days salvaging there, but had to go numbering up all my aunts in Putney. All were intact'. Now he is back home, 'combatting a sore throat and cough with prudence and success'; would like to come over next month, and perhaps as the evenings get lighter she will get to visit them.

Should have 'taken chair for Hsiao Chien on Tuesday', and is disappointed that he cannot; has not seen him recently, but has 'been blessed with an American charmer [William Roerick], a friend of Christopher Isherwood, who has now gone off to Africa'. He was acting in This is the Army [by Irving Berlin], perhaps not known to Bessie 'even by name!', and took Forster a few times to the Churchill Club [at Ashburnham House]. There was a '"musical brains trust" there , Ralph V[aughan] W[illiams], acquitting himself very well, Malcolm Sargent - glib, Wm Walton smartibootified, and Alan Rawsthorne a little drunk'.

Thanks Bessie for the 'cutting for [the National Council for? Civil Liberties'; thinks they are 'a little nervous of adding education to their activities'. His mother seems fairly well, and sends love. 'Bob (policeman) [Buckingham] has been over here mending pokers, window sashes etc. He has had a grim time during the raids'; Forster hears '(from another source) that many more planes come over than we are allowed to know'. Hopes the news of [her daughter in law?] Ursula and family is good.

King's College, Cambridge. - Sends a 'Prologue and Epilogue' [now not present] for Trevelyan to show to Vaughan Williams. Was good to see Trevelyan: Dene [?] 'quite fell in love' with him.

2 St Margaret's Road, Edinburgh. - Is glad Trevelyan agrees with his idea about the mist effect in Act III [of "The Bride of Dionysus": see 7/42]. Is getting on well, and has produced 'four big sheets', or forty-three pages of the old score, since he sent the wire to Trevelyan; he began in the examination room, 'racing the Mus Bac candidate at paper-spoiling'. He is also happy with the rest of the finished material: it is not the case that for him revision is 'an endless process, changing with [his] point of view'. Believes that when the job is finished, they will both feel he has 'not been unreasonably long over it'; in any case, it is 'the largest musical design that has ever been carried out with a fastidious sense of musical form and dramatic fitness'. Art and politics will not be 'exclusively governed by cads and invalids for ever' so it will not be so old-fashioned 'when the next half-dozen revolutions in art have become classical reality'. Odd to think he was afraid the opera would have 'dried up' in two and a half years away from it. Has been as tough a job for him as the "Ring" was for Wagner.

Has been working on 'the strong-winged foam-wanderers' chorus and has given it a new end; Vaughan Williams had criticised it 'in his vague puzzle-headed way' but neither of them could then see what the matter was; Tovey is now much happier with it. Discusses other changes he has made, including the removal of the effect used to represent Theseus' disappearance and the echoes of it; the double bass pizzicato he had had was 'curious confirmation' of his theory that plagiarism 'consists of echoing what you don't know properly' and is 'the exact opposite of the effects of scholarship upon art'; it came from [Richard] Strauss who uses the technique in "The Salad & the Electrocution" ["Salome" and "Elektra"] but always properly connected to something beyond the orchestra. Has got rid of it, not because he does not like Strauss - will happily reuse it elsewhere - as he has something else. Gives musical notation in his discussion of the 'hope only thy death's pain' figure. Proof of 'the finality of the big sheets' in Raabe's copy. Notes that in a work of this size 'most of what people say a priori about one's development of style is bosh' - compares Wagner - and decries the pressure on young artists 'to strike out new paths' which prevents them from producing work larger than 'watch-pocket size'. Will now move on to the Nereids. A pencil postscript on the first page that Grettie has 'been overdoing it' and ordered to take a rest, but she will be able to come with Tovey. They go to Oxford on 5 April. There are also pen and pencil postscripts by Tovey noting further progress on the opera on the back of the envelope.

Emmanuel College, Cambridge [Headed notepaper; address underlined and exclamation marks added]. - Glad Bob's '"Experience as a lawyer"' will allow him to visit next Sunday. Everyone is cheerful, 'flourishing on [their] old lines', but they 'expect "a sop"' such as Bob to be thrown them once a week: 'this week's sops were [Bertrand] Russell and his brother [Frank]'. Saw [Nathaniel] Wedd this morning for breakfast and a walk, who was 'quite all [George] had hoped or expected'. Has decided not to speak again at the Union, which is 'an inexpressible relief'. 'Great revolutions' here this term: there was 'a lady at MacT[aggart]'s "Wednesday evening" last week', and an exhibition [scholarship] has been started for history at Trinity; this is important as previously there have only been third year scholarships, which do not attract the best students; in the exams last May everyone in both years got thirds; the college have received a gift of two thousand pounds from Lord Derby. Inberg{??] has come up and is "flourishing"; [Frank?] Elliott is 'developing into the most delightful of fellows". Notes in postscript that he has 'found the kettle holder'; gives an account of the battle [of toy soldiers]; lists 'our table' as consisting of [Edward?] Marsh, [Maurice] Amos. [Ralph] Wedgwood, [Ralph] V[aughan]-Williams, [George] Moore, [Henry Graham] Dakyns, [Harry] Watkins, George himself, and his Harrow friend [Charles] Buxton.

2 St Margaret's Road [on University of Edinburgh headed notepaper]. - Is sorry not to have written sooner: meant to do so when [Trevelyan's] "Pterodamozels" came but this has taken longer than he expected. The move to the Toveys' new house happened just when Trevelyan's letter about [John] Foulds arrived; Grettie had a collapse due to the strain of the move and is only now recovering. Would be jolly if Trevelyan came to Edinburgh in October. Trevelyan may show Foulds anything of Ariadne ["The Bride of Dionysus"] which may interest him, as long as he first see the parts which are in a final state - 'the big sheets or Raabe's copy'.

Is interested in what he has seen of Foulds' work, though has seen nothing recent: sent an early set of variations on to Röntgen, who was very pleased; Trevelyan should encourage Foulds to send something to the Carnegie people, as their first year's list is very successful, with Vaughan Williams, Bantock, Stanford and Frank Bridges and 'three totally unknown names with them' [Boughton, Howells and ?]: calls it, short of founding orchestras, 'much the best thing that has yet been done for English music.' Grettie liked [Trevelyan's] "Pearl Tree" but since she is still recovering he has not introduced her to the "Pterodamozels" yet: [Austen's] "Emma" 'represents the limit of our joint capacity for satire'. Has discovered Chapman's translation of Homer, and also that with help he can read Homer himself.

Thought Bessie might like to see the enclosures [no longer present]; does not want them back. R. V. W. [Ralph Vaughan Williams] tells him 'he has now heard from her [reference unknown]'. Is going to spend the weekend with the Bells; hopes he [emphasised] gets back. Was very nice seeing her and Bob recently, and the Sturge Moores. Must get the Goethe novel which he [Thomas Sturge Moore?] recommended; Forster had never heard of it. Always 'fall[s] off Wilhelm Meister.

His mother seems fairly well, and 'more worried about the tea & rations than the bombs'. Must go to meet Mr Todd [perhaps J. J. Todd of Dorking, like Forster involved with refugee commitees and The National Council for
Civil Liberties], who is coming to tea.

14 Barton St. - Trevelyan has done splendidly [to secure the Swan at Fittleworth: see 2/32 and 2/33]. Hopes he has not done wrong in inviting others. Asks if there will be enough room to put up Dakyns (father and son), Whitehead (father and son) and Vaughan Williams. Will be at the Mill House, Grantchester, from Saturday, so Trevelyan should send further correspondence there.

14 Barton St. - Is anxious to hear whether Trevelyan has secured the Swan at Fittleworth, and whether there will be room for the whole party (see also 2/32 and 2/34). As well as the names mentioned by Trevelyan, Henry Dakyns will come, and Sanger is encouraging Dakyns' father and [brother] Arthur to come; Sanger has also encouraged Davies to invite Whitehead, and North [Whitehead] may come too. Davies has invited Vaughan Williams to join them as well.

The Mill House, Grantchester, Cambridge. - Arrangements for a gathering [at the Swan at Fittleworth, Sussex, see 2/33 and 2/34] over Easter. [Robin] Mayor is named twice in Trevelyan's list; he should also include Henry Dakyns, Alfred Whitehead and North [Whitehead]. Should think by Wednesday there will be room for 'V.W.' [Vaughan Williams], and room for 'Dakyns pere' and Arthur [Dakyns] at any time. The back of the paper seems to show drinks consumed: Norton and Strachey appear as well as names mentioned in the letter.

11 Roxburgh Mansions, Kensington Court, W.8. - Fine weather has welcomed his return to London; is very much enjoying his biological work at the Huxley Building, very different to the 'mathematic struggles' that once took place there; describes the difference in smells between the 'cold musty odour of Maths and Mechanics' on the lower floors and that of the biological science department. Enthuses over discoveries in biology: 'We come very close now to the knowledge of life itself"; is no longer an active socialist, though he maintains his belief in its 'ethical rightness'. Hopes she will visit when in London; the [Vaughan Williams] family has settled in, though the flat is a little bare; hopes he will be able to visit when he returns to Dorking as he enjoyed his stay at the Shiffolds very much.

86 Chesterton Road, Cambridge. - Is glad she liked the Gainsborough card, which he thinks is charming and worth keeping; Dorothy disposes of most of their cards, perhaps to hospitals, but he always keeps a few; reminisces about the scrap-books he and his siblings used to make while his father read aloud to them; he still has his books. His health was good enough for him to go to Buckingham Palace three weeks ago to get his 'badge and ribbon from the King' [the Order of Merit]; he also took Tim to the Christmas Feast at Trinity and saw George [Trevelyan] for the first time since he had retired as Master. Is hoping he will be able to come to Leith Hill Place next summer: was very disappointed not to be able to come. Also thinks well of Britten: very much enjoyed his "Let's Make an Opera", and Tim thought well of "Peter Grimes" and other things by him; not sure about "Billy Budd" when he heard it on the radio, however, thinking it 'scrappy' and full of what Vaughan Williams calls 'wrong notes'. Thought [Roy] Harrod's life of [Maynard] Keynes was not well judged, but he had not noticed exaggeration of the influence of Bloomsbury. Had forgotten that Norton stayed with the Trevelyans when he was ill; was very fond of him. Bessie seems to imply Bloomsbury harmed him; asks if this is what she thinks. Agrees that it is a good thing that [his niece] Riette has gone to live at Well Walk; Tim went to see them there and had a nice time; thinks Riette very charming. Is sorry Bessie has been laid up by neuralgia, but is glad Dr Bluth's treatment seems to have improved it.

Copse Cottage, Fernhurst, Haslemere. - Has thought sine he left Edward on Monday that he was 'overheated' in his defence of V[aughan] Williams; though 'every one has the right or rather the duty of defending his friends' just as everyone has the right 'or call it duty too' of criticising those he disapproves of, he thinks he went in his 'heated and clumsy manner of defense' beyond what was justified by Marsh's criticism. He 'got to know [Vaughan Williams] and like him a lot' at Bayreuth, but quite understands that 'if you don't happen to find the likeable part, you are bound to dislike him'. Marsh cannot come next Sunday as Bob Is playing [rugby] at Harrow on Saturday then going to the [Hans] Richter concert on Monday with Tucket [Ivor Lloyd Tuckett?]; hopes it will be better, since the 'program looks more promising', and that he will see Marsh there.

86 Chesterton Road, Cambridge. - Is certainly better, and his doctor still thinks that in time he will be as well as he was three months ago, but recovery is taking longer than he had hoped at first and so he has not been able to go to Leith Hill Place. Does not think he ever went inside when 'old Mrs Vaughan-Williams' was alive and perhaps never saw her, though he often saw Ralph's sister when she was visiting the Shiffolds. Agrees that the house is in perfect condition now. Thinks he would be interested to see his old letters to Bob, though he doubts he ever wrote anything important enough to make them worth keeping. Did get up the Easter parties every year, except once when Keynes did it, and supposes it was a bother, though less than he would find it now. Interested to hear that Ralph was reworking his "Pilgrim's Progress" after hearing it again.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Has been meaning to write and send the enclosed from [F. W.?] Ogilvie, who ‘also came and talked to me after my Broadcast - or rather listened to me, for I waxed quite lyrical. He is a darling, but weak, and the more friendly jogs he can receive the better’. Will try to ‘get up the statistics about German music’ and write to Ogilvie or see him. Meanwhile, thinks it important that ‘those who can speak with authority about music’, such as Bessie, should ‘send in their views’.

Advises her not to ‘worry over dear old R. V. W. [Ralph Vaughan Williams, who is a ‘complete goose as regards judgements.’, as illustrated by his acceptance of the Shakespeare Prize [awarded to him in 1937 by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, at the University of Hamburg]. Now he ‘waddles to the other extreme and cackles anti-Beethoven’. Forster saw him recently at a Refugee Tea and had a ‘very strong sense of his loveableness and goodness’. Looks forward to visiting Bessie next week; can easily get there and back ‘by feet and bus’.

Doesn’t think he quite agrees with Bessie about the war, but is ‘a feeble disagreer, and not argumentative’. Does think that ‘Hitler is a nasty nuisance who would start again if we made peace’, and would not only aim to take away their ‘money and possessions, which don’t spiritually matter’, but also ‘our right to say what we think and feel, which does matter, anyhow to me’. Knows the British government also takes this away, ‘but not to the same extent that Hitler would. The refugees are living examples of his mentality’, which is always before Forster. Has given up his flat, partly as it is in a ‘very bombable area [Bloomsbury]’ but also he can no longer afford it. Has taken another for half the price at Chiswick [9 Arlington Park Mansions], and hopes to move in soon. They are going on ‘quietly’ at West Hackhurst; his cousins [Percy Whichelo and his wife Dutchie] are ‘helpful’ in the house, and Agnes is ‘not over-worked’. Comments on ‘what lovely paper’ Bessie writes on; ‘even when there is a picture of a prison on it it is such a pretty prison’. Asks to be remembered to the Sturge Moores, and sends love to Bessie and Bob.

The White Gates, Westcott Road, Dorking. - Hopes Bob will not mind an 'ignoramus' such as himself thanking him for his poem in the "New Statesman" [probably that to Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, published 22 October 1938], an 'oasis in the desert of sham cleverness & parochial thinking'.

From the "Observer", as noted in an annotation at the top of the cutting, 4 April 1948 p 3. "Profile: Vaughan Williams, O.M."
Written ahead of the first performance of his 6th Symphony in E minor on 21 April.

84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester. - Was delighted to get "The Bride of Dionysus" as a present from Miss Philips; began to read it last night and could not stop. Had heard a little about it from Lady Farrer, who knew it through 'her cousins, the Vaughan Williamses'. Admires the drama very much, and thinks it will 'make a most inspiring libretto for Mr [Donald] Tovey', who stayed with them [Meta and her sister Julia?] once and impressed them both with his 'real genius'; she believes if anyone can write 'adequate music' for the "Bride" it is he.

Concert by the London Symphony Orchestra, leader George Stratton, conductors Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Cole.

Concert at the Dorking Halls, 7.30-9.45 pm, Tuesday 6 April 1948.
Names of Committee and Musical Committee.
Performers: Margaret Field-Hyde, Joan Gray, Eric Green, Arthur Cranmer, Jean Stewart. Narrator: Bernard Bouquet.
Leader of String Orchestra: Isidore Schwiller. Accompanist: Arnold Goldsbrough
Conductor: Ralph Vaughan Williams. Guest Conductor: Herbert Howells
Chorus formed from the Choral Societies of Blackheath, Beare Green and Oxshott, and singers from Dorking Madrigal and Oriana Choirs.
Distribution of 'Challenge Banners and Trophies' by E. M. Forster.

Ursula Wood, 57 Gordon Mansions, Torrington Place, WC1; Ralph Vaughan Williams, The White Gates, Dorking, Surrey. - Thinks recipients 'will not be surprised to hear' that they have decided to marry soon [on 7 Feb, 1953]; their addresses will stay as above until they find a 'suitable house'. Asks for their 'blessing'.

The White Gates, Westcott Road, Dorking. - Thanks Bob for his 'beautiful poems [in this year's edition of "From the Shiffolds"] - especially the first'; Leopardi's sentiments sometimes appear 'alarming modern'.