THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

4, Maresfield Gardens,
Hampstead, N.W.3.

19.I.24

19.I.24

Dear Ralph

By all means use ‘I’ll go & enlist’ in your published ballet music – I am only too glad to hear you are printing it.  I am not quite certain that I have power but I give you the permission nevertheless and am prepared to abide by the consequences!¹
I am keeping well by staying resolutely in my room – it seems the only way but it is a bit dull sometimes.  You are so busy I am not going to ask you to come & see me but if ever you want a change and a talk come along – ring me up first in case I have a visitor – tea at 4, dinner 7.30.²
I have a ticket for Holst’s operas this afternoon but I dont think I shall use it – it is hardly worth the risk – but I should like to hear it very much.³   I am writing a good deal and have a book on the history of the dance but I don’t know if it will ever come to anything!  Remember me to M^rs V.W.
Cecil J Sharp.

1. VW had used the tune ‘Go and ’list for a sailor’ in his ballet Old King Cole, Catalogue of Works 1923/2.
2. Sharp’s health had deteriorated since his collecting expeditions in the Appalachians.
3. A double bill comprising The Perfect Fool and Savitri had been given by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in June 1923 and was currently receiving three repeat performances. See Michael Short, Gustav Holst: The Man and his Music, p.215.