THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates

October 28 [1949]

Dear Mr Sheppard
I think your wife must be home by now and we shall look forward to hearing she is safe & well & has found you without influenza or worn to a shadow without her. This scrap is really a very belated thank you for a lovely parcel that arrived the day before my husband’s birthday – and also he was very much pleased with your letter.
He is writing ie composing – & on Nov 20 2 new works are going to have a try through here – so I can hear them.¹ 
Music seems the best protection against all the sinister threatenings.
Our kindest remembrances to yr wife – Everyone marvelled at the wedding cake²
Yrs
AMVW

1. The works in question were An Oxford Elegy and Fantasia (Quasi Variazione) on the ‘Old 104th’ Psalm Tune. See VWL2909, VWL3751, etc.
2. The Sheppards had recently been married, and Mary Sheppard had recently returned to South Africa from a visit to England, where she had met the VWs.