'Each of its five brief movements is based on an English folk song and between them they encompass a wide range of moods, extending from the high-spirited dance, 'Hunt the Squirrel', to the wistful melancholy of 'The Bitter Withy'...the key to the work's title, 'A time there was...when all went well' (Hardy), perhaps lies in its finale, 'Lord Melbourne'.  Here an elegiac lament on a solo English horn is build up to a powerful climax.  Then there comes a brief but impassioned cry on obeo, clarinets and muted trumpet, after which the work sinks to a subdued close.'
Peter Heyworth, The Observer, 15 June 1975