Autograph letter signed : Cambridge, to Belle da Costa Greene, 1919 November 3.

Record ID: 
206506
Accession number: 
MA 9396
Author: 
Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, Sir, 1867-1962.
Description: 
1 item (6 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.2 cm
Notes: 

On stationery with the letterhead: "Wayside, / Cavendish Avenue, / Cambridge." Cockerell has crossed out the street address and substituted "3 Shaftesbury Rd" instead.
From PML Archives.

Summary: 

Concerning the awarding of honorary degrees by the University of Cambridge to J.P. Morgan and General Armando Diaz, for their contributions to the Allied victory in World War I: describing the ceremony and surrounding festivities; assuring Greene of his restraint when he was seated at a dinner next to Morgan: "I hope you will believe me when I say that on such an occasion I should not have dreamt of giving rein to my predatory instincts, whatever I might have done when J.P.M., on some later occasion, was not a guest of the University"; listing the subjects they discussed, including a recent sale of items owned by the manuscript collector Henry Yates Thompson; describing how Morgan offered to put up part of the money for an acquisition from the sale, which the Fitzwilliam Museum was intending to raise through subscriptions; writing of the degree: "It was meant by the University as the highest compliment and recognition of public service that it is in its power to bestow, and he said that he regarded it as the greatest honour that had ever been conferred upon him"; mentioning that he had chatted with Jane Morgan after dinner as well; promising to send in a few days "a formal acknowledgment of the Catalogues, which are a noble gift."