2110-1-6-10

All Souls College, Oxford

Nov. 3. 1900.

Dear Buchan

Probably you have already heard the result of our election. I am sincerely sorry that you were not elected and my sorrow is shared by a very large number of the Fellows, indeed I think I may say by all. There was a very striking desire to elect you, and to press every point in your favour. But for all the good desire in the world, a majority felt that the examination placed a limit. And I will tell you frankly how you stood in regard to the examination. I think you will like, & that you ought, to know though I must ask you

to treat anything I may say as confidential. It was very plain that in the special History papers you had not done justice to your abilities. The examiners – who are asked to give a special detailed report – put one or two others in front of you in this respect. It was your General work – the General Paper & the Essay, that brought you forward & gave you a leading place. Had your specially historical work been up to that level, you wd have been undoubtedly elected. It only shows that you wd have been wise to have read more definitely and systematically for this examination.

I am afraid literary & other work & inevitable distractions have been allowed to take up too much of the time that ought to have been given to general historical reading. I did everything that I wisely could do to support your admission, both on personal grounds and on the grounds of the examination. But though I knew with much difficulty and with no little regret, the College as a whole felt that the claims of others on their actual work were far too strong to be passed over. What is more, Harrison, & some others wished me specially to express to you their great regret that we cannot congratulate you and ourselves on your election.

So there it is. I know it will be a real disappointment to you. It is a very real one to me. But all

the future is before you, & you have more than the usual stock of ability & spirit to meet it, and more than usual encouragement in the successes over a wide field w. you have already achieved.

I hope that we may meet again, & not infrequently. Perhaps at some General Assembly of the Free Kirk! Meanwhile, I hope that this disappointment will only temporarily affect that "alertness & greatness of spirit" which you rightly describe as the best endowment of man. Your sincerely

C. G. Lang [Cosmo Lang, later Archbishop of Canterbury]