THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From P.A.S. Hadley
Gonville and Caius College
Cambridge
Telephone  3275

6 Nov. ‘55

My dearest Ursula,

I write to you direct because it is easier for me to go off the deep end to you than to Ralph because I know quite well that praise, thanks & adoration tend only to embarrass the old boy.  These sentiments, once more reiterated, you may convey by only gradual degrees.
I feel quite sure that F.& F. would not have been accepted by the OUP, or any other publisher, if it had not been for Ralph.  I never ever tried a publisher because I thought and still think that the interest is too territorially confined.  But the moment Ralph steps in don’t you see the entire picture is transformed!  F.& F. becomes an object of more than merely local interest.  Of course I shall never forget the moment when I read his letter asking “whether we may come” to hear it?  Furthermore: let me tell you that Ralph has superimposed a magic here & there which wasn’t there before!
Once more: the op. couldn’t have been thought up at all but for my life long adoration of Ralph of all he has done for me in his teaching & spiritual influence.¹
My fondest love

Paddy

1. VW had recommended that Hadley’s Cantata for male chorus and orchestra, Fen and Flood be published by Oxford University Press. They did so in an arrangement by VW for soloists and mixed chorus. See Catalogue of Works 1956/6.