THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates
Dorking

Sept 1 [1946]

Dear Mr Byard
Many thanks for your letter – you I have not heard from Jacques¹ – but anyway I fear I could not come – Oct 12^th is my birthday & I should want to spend at least part of it at home.
Yr programme seems v. good – certainly include Greensleeves if you like.²
– Perhaps you would like to quote verse 6 in your programme
“Thy crimson stockings all of silk
with gold al wrought above the knee
Thy pumps as white as was the milk
And yet thou would’st not love me”
Yrs ever

R. Vaughan Williams

1.  Reginald Jacques, founder of the Jacques Orchestra.
2.  Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves‘, adapted from Sir John in Love, Catalogue of Works 1934/1.