"I am much honoured by your suggestion that I should become an Honorary Member of the Union ... For many years I have refused all invitations to either Oxford or Cambridge because so many different Bodies invite me and I fear to give offence if I accept some invitations and refuse others. ... I cannot come to Cambridge." "P.S. I was an ordinary member for some 20 years, beginning in 1890 or early 1891, and I do not know whether I became a life member during that time." Did he, he asks.