 He also gave the first performance of Arthur Somervell's "A Shropshire Lad" cycle, at the Aeolian Hall on 3 February 1904, and so had the distinction of being the first to sing settings of A. E. Housman's lyrics, which afterwards became so fundamental an inspiration to the composers associated with the English song revival of that period.Plunket Greene included a selection from the "Songs of Travel" by Ralph Vaughan Williams in recital in February 1905.Then (or soon afterwards) the composer heard him and dedicated the songs to him, and Greene afterwards quoted from them, and from "Silent Noon" (from the "House of Life" cycle), in his work on "Interpretation in Song".