THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

June 6 [1952]

Dear Herbert

I’ve already seen you to say thank you – But I want to write it all the same.
I hope this doesn’t mean that I am laid on the shelf & it is a gentle hint that it is time to retire.
Yrs

RVW

1. This letter was almost certainly the  response to an invitation to a lunch to be given by the Incorporated Society of Musicians, of which Howells was President, in VW’s honour on 6th October 1952, around the time of VW’s 80th birthday. There is a letter from Howells to Alan Frank about it in the Oxford University Press ‘Miscellaneous’ files.