THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking,
Surrey.

16th January, 1952.

Dear Frank,¹

It is most kind of you to lend us your room for January 25th. It will be quite a small meeting my idea being to gather together a few experts whose judgment I trust, to give me what will amount to a composition lesson, and advise me whether I shall go on with the work which is still in sketch form, or scrap it.² Therefore I do not want a large crowd and I do not want it to be known that this is taking place, otherwise quantities of people will be offended at not having been asked.
The company will consist besides yourself of E. J. Dent, Gerald Finzi, Arthur Bliss, Ernest Irving, and Roy Douglas, who will be playing.³
I am so glad you can come to lunch with Mrs. Wood⁴ afterwards.
R. Vaughan Williams

1. Music Editor at Oxford University Press in succession to Norman Peterkin (1947); Head of Music from 1954 until his retirement in 1975.
2. The work in question is Sinfonia Antartica (Catalogue of Works 1952/2).
3. On the occasion see R.V.W.: a biography, p.315.
4. Ursula Wood, later Ursula Vaughan Williams.