THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[17th July 1938]

My Dear
I am here¹ in the Wiltshire Downs – & the hermitage is succeeding I think²
– But I must confess that the other thing has taken precedence of Epithal:.³ You know I can’t do things unless I think I ought to be doing something else. I read right through your letter – so there!
I have been [for] wonderful walks on the downs – they were perfect – sun, high wind & wonderful July field flowers, the kind I like best
Love yr
RVW

1.  Rose Cottage at Stapleford near Salisbury. See VWL1334.
2.  i.e. in breaking his writer’s block.
3. VW’s The Bridal Day; the ballet, which Ursula and VW initially called Epithalamion while they were creating it (see R.V.W.: a biography, p. 335: ‘the masque Epithalamion, now called The Bridal Day’). The ‘other thing’ was the work which would eventually emerge as the Fifth Symphony.