THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking
Surrey.

24th August, 1949

Dear Mr. Vercoe,

The order of my “Songs of Travel” is as you state in your letter.¹
When they were first published Messrs. Boosey would only take three of them –  “The Vagabond”, “Roadside Fire” and “Let Beauty Awake”. The others were published later and “Whither must I wander” had already been published.
That is why, in the published version, the order is all wrong.²
Yours sincerely
R Vaughan Williams

(R. Vaughan Williams).

1.  Anthony Vercoe was at the time a student at the Royal College of Music. He was to perform the Songs of Travel (Catalogue of Works 1904/10) at a student concert and had written to VW about the order in which they should be performed, as he had heard a BBC broadcast in which they were differently ordered.
2.  The cycle was re-published in 1960 in the correct order. On the whole question of the publication of Songs of Travel see Catalogue of Works pp. 27-9.