THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates

Friday [c.1945?]

Dear Bessy

I w^d do much for my friendship to you and to help that poor lady – but I fear her verses are impossible – they are not even bad in the right kind of way, & the first line is almost the same as “Rule Britannia”.
Even if a publisher accepted them she w^d at most get £1-1-0¹ for them – that is what A.C. Graves² got for the words of “Father O’Flynn” a song which sold in thousands (see Robert Graves autobiography).
love from

R. Vaughan Williams

1.  i.e. a guinea.
2.  Alfred  Perceval Graves