216 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



friend, the Reverend Dr. Tremlett. Maury thus hu- 

 morously referred to the occasion: "So you don't know 

 what I mean by the 'coronation', eh? Why boy, I'm a 

 Cambridge LL.D. and am going there, I and Max and 

 the Queen on the 28th — she to unveil the Prince Consort 

 and I to be rigged up in 'died garments from Bozra' in a 

 gown and a cap and a beautiful red silk cowl and hear 

 myself all done up in Latin!" 



The "Max" whom Maury mentioned in this letter 

 was Max Miiller, the famous Sanskrit scholar. Still 

 another distinguished savant received the LL.D. on the 

 same day; this was William Wright, translator of Egyp- 

 tian manuscripts and hieroglyphics at the British 

 Museum.^ He wrote afterwards to Maury of the be- 

 stowal of the degrees as follows: "I have not been at 

 Cambridge lately, but I know that all our friends there 

 are well. Max Miiller is now in Germany; I hope to see 

 him at Kiel at the end of September, when we shall both 

 attend the gathering of the German Orientalists. Lord, 

 what a figure we three of us looked, dressed up like 

 lobsters, in the midst of that big hall, gazed at by such a 

 host of people, 'when shall we three meet again?' Cer- 

 tainly never under the like circumstances. I was glad 

 to see that Oxford conferred its degree the other day on 

 your poet Longfellow". 



During the ceremonies, the Dean made a long oration 

 in Latin, which was addressed to the newly-made 



^ It has often been stated that the poet Tennyson received the LL.D. from 

 Cambridge at this same time. This is incorrect. A letter of May 12, 1926, 

 from the Registrary of Cambridge University states that on May 28, 1868, the 

 "Degree of LL.D. honoris causa was conferred upon: Frederick Max Miiller, 

 Professor of Comparative Philology, Oxford ; William Wright, Assistant in the 

 Department of MSS., British Museum; and Matthew Fontaine Maury of 

 Virginia". 



