A LETTER revealing world-famous Worcestershire composer Sir Edward Elgar was scraping the pennies in later life has fetched £200 at auction.
In the correspondence, dating from 1922, the Lower Broadheath-born composer admits he is "hard up".
It was written at a time when Elgar was desperate to extract money for an arrangement he had made of a work by J S Bach. His publishers baulked at the money Elgar demanded and in the letter he writes, somewhat bitterly "I am of course, hard up (more or less) but I didn't want my memory to be cursed by generations of impoverished shareholders."
It was one of several auctioned off at the Mullock Madeley specialist sale of historical documents, autographs and ephemera at Ludlow Racecourse. Also included were a letter signed to his publishers Novello in June 1922, which fetched £210, a letter signed to Henry Clayton, director of Novello ( £240) and a signed postcard from Elgar to his friend A J Jaeger that fetched £70.
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