The letter is dated June 10th 1908 and is written on Pageant stationery and includes a list of all the staff involved in the pageant production. Hawtrey thought the practice of requiring actors to purchase their own costumes was causing low attendance at rehearsals, and threatening the success of the entire pageant. The rehearsal attendance figures he provides are illustrative of the scale of these pageants, although he refers only to the performers who form the crowds, "the backbone of the Pageant." In the eight episodes presented, 1,676 people are on the books as having attended rehearsal, and 671 "have not attended a single rehearsal." Hawtrey says he has been "repeatedly told at rehearsal by those present that their friends are staying away because they will not pay for their dresses," and he holds "most strongly that the performers are not the people out of whom we ought to make money. We are conferring no benefit on the town by taking the shillings of working girls, and sending the money away to London, whence not a penny will ever return." Another point addressed by Hawtrey in his letter is the necessity of having enough horses, and of rehearsing them regularly. He has been warned by two of the military men in charge of the horses and riders "that it is absolutely necessary for the horses to be rehearsed regularly. In their opinion the horses require rehearsal more than the riders. This will involve a certain amount of expense, which I ask the Committee to authorize." Cautioning the Committee that they "are in danger of making an artistic failure," Hawtrey ends the letter by stating "I believe it is possible even now at the eleventh hour to remedy the mischief. But you should realize that it really is the eleventh hour, and that if you mean to save the situation now is the time to do it."