THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[Just after 10 June 1897]

Dear Randolph

Thank the Lord you’re not Sanger¹ but something as much better as the Sun is to a halfpenny dip;²  and so that you think that it is possible for people to care for each other and when they do find it out they ought to tell each other – That is what Adeline Fisher and I have done and we have agreed to marry.
There now you have my news – take a long breath and then read on.
She is two years older than I am; you know, I think, that for many years we have been great friends and for about the last three I have known my mind on the matter.
It is sometimes said that when a person is going to be married his relations with his friends alter – do not let this be so in this case because she cannot hold more the first place than she has done before with me because that is impossible and you and I have never been greater friends than we are now – may I think so at all events – and now you and she will be cousins and great friends too
Write to me and give me your blessing
You and Adeline must meet as soon as possible
Yours always

Ralph Vaughan Williams

P.S.  I saw Felix³ the other day and he wished me to assure you of his esteem and affection.

1. Charles Percy Sanger, a fellow ‘Apostle’ at Cambridge with Wedgwood.
2. A cheap candle.
3. Arthur Felix Wedgwood, youngest brother of Ralph Wedgwood. He was a civil engineer specialising in the purchase and recovery of wrecks; he wrote amongst other works The Shadow of a Titan (London 1910). See also Gwen Raverat, Period Piece, pp. 233-235 where there is an account of the brothers’ visits to the Darwins while undergraduates at Cambridge. (Inf. from Sir Martin Wedgwood 6/2/91 via UVW).