THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[1899?]

[Dear Herr Gatty

I have received your article and am sending it to the “Pilot” – a very sedate weekly paper. Nicholas advised it. I think the new spelling is horridly ugly and looks like a drunkards writing. If adopted surely it would tend to make English more slipshod that it is at  this moment? I find it very difficult to write. You ought not to have sent me five shillings for it is too much. But I shall keep the remainder till I see you.
I hope you are really coming back.
We have seen your brothers. Ivor and his friend [?]Mercer are photographing with energy and success.
I like many lines in your poem. Thank you for sending it.
I hope you won’t want all my letters written like this!
Your affectionate

A. Vaughan Williams]