Item 130 - Letter from J. Venn to Nora Sidgwick

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Refers to a passage in a letter in Henry Sidgwick: A Memoir, which 'seems to have been written under a slight misapprehension.' States that Henry 'not unnaturally supposed that he had been summarily passed over [in 1881] for a junior, and former pupil, but says that it was 'not quite so abrupt as this'. Explains that the then Vice Chancellor, Dr Perowne, had firstly offered the post [as deputy to the incapacitated Birks, Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy] to Venn, who responded that he could not accept it and considered that no one but Henry ought to be appointed. Perowne explained that 'as he was choosing a deputy for Mr Birks he could not [ ] select any one whose opinions were so entirely opposed to his.' Claims that he again declined the post, and thinks that it was then offered to Keynes. The offer to Cunningham 'was therefore not so abrupt as may have been supposed.'