THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking.

June 3 [1944]

Dear Margaret,¹

Thank you very much for your letter. I am glad you liked Leith Hill Place – but I think the old life there can never be relived – & it had better go – but I hope worthily of her.²
Hervey lent me your delightful life of Leonard & Mildred  – Thank you very much for it.³
Yrs

R. Vaughan Williams

1. Margaret Keynes was a Darwin cousin, married to Geoffrey Keynes and sister of Gwen Raverat.
2. VW refers to his mother, who had lived at Leith Hill Place from the death of her husband until her own death in 1937. VW’s brother Hervey had lived at Leith Hill Place since 1933 and, having inherited the house on Hervey’s death, VW was offering it to the National Trust.
3. Leonard Darwin, fourth son of Charles Darwin, who married as his second wife Mildred Massingberd, 1868-1940.