THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[1940]

My Dear

It is time I wrote you a letter
(wartime saving excuses this paper & envelope)
How are you & have you read “The discovery of poetry” by Lyons.¹ It is written for schoolboys but as far as I have got it seems good.
I went up to Nottingham on Sunday to lecture for Roy Henderson – he has a wonderful old father, a scottish D.D. (Congregational). He (Roy) says I must come to the B. opera²  & as you say it is good perhaps we will go together one day – if you can bear it again.
It’s no good shutting oneself up at present – things must come as they can – I can hardly read the papers at present.
Goodbye my dear & take care of yourself & let me know when you come up to London (Fridays remember)
Yrs

RVW

1. P.H.B. Lyon, The Discovery of Poetry (London: Edward Arnold, 1930). This passage is quoted in R.V.W.: a biography, p.234
2. i.e. The Beggar’s Opera.