Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood
Letter No. VWL1362
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood
Letter No.: VWL1362
[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.
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General Notes:
Date added in pencil in another hand.
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Shelfmark:MS Mus. 1714/1/11, f.31
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Citation:Cobbe 298