Note from The Holst Foundation

 

‘Westhall Hill’ was the house in Burford where Captain and Mrs Kettlewell, leading members of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, lived. The date of the work is not known, but Imogen Holst moved to the address given on the title-page of the manuscript in October 1935, and in later life she herself assigned it to the ‘mid 1930s’. Evidently a tribute to the Kettlewells, the piece was very likely written for one of the many special events for which she directed the EFDSS orchestra at this time, although there is no known performance. The music is based on two folk tunes, not identified.