WALLACE.
* * * * *
In 1902 the _Standard_ announced that the degree of D.C.L. was to be
conferred upon him by the University of Wales. He wrote to Miss Dora
Best, who had sent him the information:
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 had 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.
* * * * *
In 1908 he received the Order of Merit, the highest honour conferred
upon him. To his friend Mrs. Fisher he wrote:
Dear Mrs. Fisher,--Is it not awful--two more now! I should think very
few men have had three such honours within six months! I have never felt
myself worthy of the Copley Medal--and as to the Order of Merit--to be
given to a red-hot Radical, Land Nationaliser, Socialist,
Anti-Militarist, etc.
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