Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood
My Dear
I write on this fine note paper out of economy!
I am so thankful your foot is getting better - I could not bear to think of your pretty foot all swollen1 & I was afraid it might develop into something worse. But what a hard time you've had - Yes we will meet soon & drown our cares in beer.
I am pleased with the film music2 on the whole - though it was all rather against the collar.3 Of course I will take you to it my dear.
Is dill a sort of feathery plant? If so some of it is coming up.4
Hens do an average of 2 a day which I suppose is all one can expect. Today I've been spreading their droppings out in the sun to dry.
I've been reading Patmore5 lately in a certain place - v good and each poem takes about the right time.
[No signature]
1. UW had had a broken needle removed from her foot.
2. UVW's note says The Loves of Joanna Godden (Catalogue of Works 1946/2) but Coastal Command (Catalogue of Works 1942/1) seems more likely for 1942. The film was to receive its premier in October.
3. a ploughing metaphor.
4. See VWL1663.
5. Coventry Patmore, the Victorian poet.
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Written on the reverse of a letter from Boosey & Hawkes dated 16th July 1942.