THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking.

30th March, 1949.

Dear Mrs. Stewart¹

It was good of you to write. I wish I could have heard the performance², but it clashed with a performance of the Bach Passion which I was conducting in Dorking, but I hear from all accounts that it went extremely well, as I felt sure it would, after hearing an early rehearsal.
We had not heard about Fredegond’s accident, but my Wife wrote off to her at once and has had an answer from her and I think she is really getting well now.  As you say she is not strong enough to bear much pain.³
May I say a word about my admiration for the wonderful work which Mrs. Thomson is doing in Birmingham.⁴
Yours sincerely

R Vaughan Williams

Mrs. Stewart,
Girton Gate,
Huntingdon Road
CAMBRIDGE.

1.  See VWL1151.
2.  Of Sir John in Love by the Clarion Singers.
3.  Adeline’s niece Fredegond Shove, daughter of Frederick and Florence Maitland.
4.  Katharine Thomson, conductor of the Clarion singers, and daaghter of Jessie Stewart. VW and UVW had been to Birmingham for a rehearsal of Sir John in Love at the beginning of the month. See VWL2959.