THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[October 1928]

… they found the Carillon player – a celebrated man of 70 with 2 pupils – The Canon w^dnt let R climb quite to the top for the parapet was blown away by a shell & he said it was very dizzy work –
The view was misty – so it was chiefly the excitement of the bells which made the climb so worth while – The canon was educated in England & Oxford – a man about 60 & he & 2 sisters live very comfortably in a dark old fashioned house in a courtyard – He was in business & became a priest after the war – his people are well known publishers – There was a little Polish monk staying in the house. R found him delightfully simple – he also liked the Organist very much – (Canon Dersain¹ has a brother in Dorking!)
He enjoyed both his crossings – nothing could have been more successful.²
Your

A

1. Transcribed ‘Derain’ in RVW.
2. This account refers to a visit by VW to Malines, apparently in September or October 1928 (in October he was in London conducting at the Queen’s Hall on 4th, in Leicester on 13th and in Oxford on 23rd).
See VWL820 and R.V.W.: a biography p.173. A performance of VW’s Mass in G minor had taken place – see VWL2418.