THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking,

24th March, 1949.

Dear Adrian
I am very sorry, but I cannot bring out my immature work into the public gaze like this.
As a matter of fact, most of what is not already published is destroyed. Of course some of the orchestral scores are not printed, and I shall be pleased if the lady would care to examine those at the Oxford University Press. If they give permission.¹
Yrs RVW

(R. Vaughan Williams).

1. The letter is accompanied by a letter from Boult to Gerald Abraham, dated 28 March 1949, as follows: “Here is Vaughan Williams’s reply. I am afraid he is most unhelpful in these matters.
I do not suppose that the “London” Symphony comes quite into your friend’s field as there is no folk-song in it; but the MS, which I can easily extract from the bank if she wishes, definitely gives a clear sight of the different versions, particularly of the whole big third subject in the last movement, so please ask for it if you like it, and I will send it along.”  The ‘lady’ referred to was a postgraduate student of Abraham’s at Liverpool University.