THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

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

June 22 1941

Dear Sir
I have been reading with interest your “Kilverts Diary”.¹
On page 43 there is a reference to the “Lazarus” ballad and “the song about our Saviour” (presumably the “Bitter Withy” carol) and another which I cannot place “King James and the Tinker” – elsewhere there is a reference to a Welsh Country Dance “The Fall of Paris”.
Did the author by any chance leave  among his M.SS. the words to these ballads (not the tune alas! these people never thought of noting a tune) or the words of any other ballads or description of dances – these w^d be very valuable for the archives of the Folksong Society
Yours faithfully
R Vaughan Williams

1. William Plomer was an author, poet and librettist (for Benjamin Britten) who edited the diaries of Francis Kilvert, which described rural life in the second half of the nineteenth century; the Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert were published in 3 volumes from 1938-1940.