THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking.

[12 June 1943]

My Dear Cedric
I like to be remembered in this way – one is as nervous, or even more, about one’s pupils compositions as one’s own – I like No 2 the best but should like No. 3 the best – but I can’t quite stomach that opening which does not seem to me to fit the rest (that is of course your favourite bit).¹
My love to Bruno & Anthony
When shall we meet?
Uncle Ralph

1. Probably three anthems by Cedric Thorpe Davie for mixed choir and organ. On 10 June 1943 the Liverpool Daily Post reported their publication by Oxford University Press “These, if not uninfluenced by Vaughan Williams, are finely conceived settings with a strength and density that befits the texts.”