THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking,

29th December, 1948.

Dear Lilburn

Thank you so much for your wonderful parcel.¹  You are one ahead of me with the honey because I have only just started on the tin you sent before. 
I must tell you that R. O. Morris² died just before Xmas. I think that both you and Page³ were pupils of R.O. Morris his.  Certainly those who came under him have had the privilege of being under one of the best teachers there have ever been, and I think the most distinguished musical theoritician in this country, but people do not entirely realise his quality as a composer, and of course he made no effort to make his work known – in fact he did his best to prevent it.
I have been urging the BBC to give a programme of his work so that people may realise its unobtrusive beauty and the wonderful quality clarity of its texture, especially, I think the “Sinfonietta|”, suite and the short pieces for string quartet and also a delightful choral work “Corinna”, which we did at Dorking two years ago.
Please give my kind remembrances to Page when next you see him.
Yrs
R Vaughan Williams

(R. Vaughan Williams).

Douglas Lilburn, Esq.,
Victoria University College

1. Lilburn was a former pupil of VW, living in New Zealand, and one was of several wellwishers who regularly sent parcels of food to the VWs during and after the war when rationing was still in force in Britain.
2. Reginald Owen Morris, who had lived with the VWs since the death of his wife.
3. Frederick Page, another former pupil of VW who lived in New Zealand.