I wrote this many years ago, in the early 1960s, when I was at Oxford, though I was never happy with the piano part. The tune, however, haunted me, so I recycled part of it into my Advent Anthem Christina Rossetti setting. It still wouldn’t go away, and became the Shropshire Pastorale for oboe and strings. Here, for anyone who might like to try it, is the original (revised!) version, tinkered with finally up to 2005 or so. A melancholy tune for a wistful,strange, and typically Housman, poem.