THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road, 
Dorking.

[1936]

Dear Maud
I have to give a lecture on Folk song on Oct 23^d & want to see if I can arrange for Elizabeth Darbyshire-Jones to illustrate & for you to hear her – As she sings chiefly the N.F. ¹ones my lecture ought to be about them – would it be very impertinent if I stole your thunder in this way – & further still would you beef me with some facts.
– How are you – we haven’t met for ages
The enclosed may amuse you, they are part of “Joanna Southcotts Box”²
Yrs
RVW

1. i.e. Songs from Newfoundland, which had been collected and published by Karpeles.
2. Joanna Southcott was a nineteenth-century prophetess whose ‘box’ contained her prophecies. The enclosure is not present.