THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Thursday [16th October 1941]

My Dear

I am spending the day in bed as the cold has recrudesced  – not bad but I thought this would be the quickest way of getting back to normal – I have a lot to do Saturday & Sunday – I have been reading through the Gardener’s Calendar¹ again. I think it is lovely – it reminds me of Virgil sometimes.
I like October v. much
& I see metrical experiments in November.
March is v. good.
I quite disagree with May! What I like about it all is that the poetry grows out of real knowledge.
It’s great fun you [are] going to be [at] Shiffoles² – Bessy is very intelligent & cultivated but quite homely in her domestic methods. I feel sure they don’t dress for dinner if that is what you were wondering.
Make Bob show you Leith Hill Place.
Love from

RVW

1. Written by UW for RVW.
2. Shiffolds was the house of Robert C. Trevelyan and his wife Elizabeth (Bob and Bessy). See VWL1602.