Eric Sams Letters to Andrew Porter

7.

14th May 1966

Dear Andrew,

   Thank you for letting me see this. It seems agreeably scholarly and lucid, and I hope you can publish it.

   I liked in particular the interesting parallels. First Godwin finds a cipher of which he borrows the general idea but changes the variables, in order to be if different; then Wilkins proposes a solution the discrepancies or which are insufficient to throw doubt on his assertion. All good gravy.

   I must say that the idea of your readers trying their luck at detecting the cipher in use seems pretty far-fetched to me; however, one never knows, and it would certainly be interesting to discover (say) that cipher accents in the overture to Raymond and Agnes spell out those names in the first and second subject respectively.

   Should I ask Methuen to consider a book on cryptography in music, containing inter alia Neville Davies, Thurston Dart on John Bull and the King of the Netherlands, Peter Dranscombe on Josquin's solmisation, and a dazzling piece by you illuminating  everything, including that communication system you were telling me about? Meanwhile I am thinking of starting a move to replace the word "literature" by the more exact expression "composition with twenty-six letters related only to one another."

   I enclose some notes on Neville Davies' piece in case they are of interest to you or to him. I'd be interested to see his earlier article if you were getting a copy.