THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates

August 1 [1944]

Dear Bessie

I shall certainly stipulate – if and when the National Trust accept Leith Hill Place¹ – that the public shall have rights of access to the woods & some of the fields. Anyhow you & Bob and your friends must feel yourselves free to walk in the woods as you always have done.
The Kitchen Garden may go to keep up the estate – So it is up to me, and you as neighbours, to try and find a tenant who at the same time, is desirable and rich – Some form of community is possible, but I think I should prefer a private tenant as they are likely to be more human in their relations with the cottagers and workmen – and I want to keep up the great tradition in that respect set up by my Grandfather, my mother and Hervey himself.
The house will be let partly furnished – the valuable pictures, china and furniture will be gone, but there will remain a good lot of “utility” stuff with the house – or may be let out to a market gardener which I think could be the best as it has great potentialities – but I want to make it quite clear that the National Trust have not definitely accepted it yet.
Yrs

Ralph

1. The National Trust eventually accepted the house, with an endowment of £4,000, in a letter dated 15th November 1944. By that time it had been agreed that the house would be let to VW’s cousin Sir Ralph Wedgwood. See also VWL1923.