THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[22 November 1931]

Dearest Harriet

How can I say ‘no’ – when such a reward will be mine if I say “yes”?  I shall claim it to the full (and the 1580th)¹
Yrs

RVW

1. This letter was a response to a request by Harriet Cohen for the Choral and Chorale Prelude, which VW wrote for A Bach Book for Harriet Cohen. See Cohen’s memoir, A Bundle of Time (Faber, 1969), p.183. The reward was 10,000 kisses, the gradual paying off of which became a standing joke in VW’s letters to Harriet Cohen.