THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

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

Tuesday [mid-August 1949]

My Dear

I have been reading the bronze poem again – I think it is beautiful – I am keeping it to myself for the present, but I do not see why I should¹ – I am immersed in a new job which has got to be finished soon – a Latin version of “Sancta”.²
All love – I am so glad you are having a good time³ – I did not know Nigel⁴ was there – I am very  glad of that too.
All love

RVW

1.  The poem Spoken to a bronze head, by UVW. “Spoken to a Bronze Head”, which evokes Epstein’s bust of VW, made in 1949. See also VWL1769 and VWL3771.
2. Sancta Civitas was performed in Latin in the Teatro Argentina, Rome, on Sunday 13 November 1949, with Josef Krips conducting the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. VW had made his own translation from the Book of Revelation.
3.  i.e. at Cadgwith in Cornwall, where UW was filming with John Schlesinger.
4.  Nigel Finzi. In fact VW was assuming it was another Nigel, a friend of UW’s, who was there.