WCP5760

[1] [p. 222]

I have not seen the Standard. But I suppose it is about the offer of a degree by the University of Wales. You will not be surprised to hear that I have declined it "with thanks." The bother, the ceremony, the having perhaps to get a blue or yellow or scarlet gown! and at all events new black clothes and a new topper! such as I have not worn this twenty years. Luckily I have a good excuse in having committed the same offence before. Some ten years back I declined the offer of a degree from Cambridge, so that settled it.

P.S. — Having already degrees two — LL.D. (Dublin) and D.C.L. (Oxford) — I might have quoted Shakespeare: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily," etc. But I didn’t! — A.R.W.