1943, On March 5th we celebrated our 37th year together; quite a span for two people to agree not to disagree too violently. We presented each other with some 18th cent silver forks and knives which though a bit crude, fit in well with Le sabot’s atmosphere. But our celebration took place with Bart’s arrival from Alaska where he has been for the last eight months with the American Air Force. He does not say much but I know he has found it pretty grim. His leave of three weeks was spent mostly in N.Y. & in skiing at Mont Tremblant but it was nice to have him suddenly appear full of energy & steam. Certainly flying has not diminished his figure. He insists on doing the rounds of the family, calling on Peter, his new nephew, & lunching with Fitz Shaw and Stephen Leacock. He also lunches with Ian at his Armory though it is the sort of function Bart (& I) hate.

Monday: Professor Spragne of Boston was here & had dinner with the Randalls. He is a charming person & full of a mellow wisdom not often felt in an Economist. Perhaps this was due to the amount of alcohol consumed – from numerous cocktails to Burgundy, Port & Brandy.

I received a letter from the Royal Trust authorizing me to begin dividing the Van Horne collection in 4 parts one of which is to go to the Gallery under Adie’s will. I therefore telephoned to Mrs. Van Horne – Billy’s wife – whom I had never met & we had tea together. Finally made a rough survey of the house. She has more charm than I had expected & seems most anxious to be cooperative. It is going to be a tremendous job & it is sad to see the dispersal of Sir William’s hopes and ambitions, as I know he wanted to see the collection kept together. Wed. March 17. Board meeting at Office. General Escobar of Mexico phoned to ask me to dine with him & meet his nephew, an official of the Mexican government but I have a Club dinner tonight with a ballot for new members. As Chairman of the Club I must attend. Later: the dinner went very nicely, with an attendance of over fifty. Gordon Macdonald, Dan Steen, (Norwegian minister) Harold Stevenson & Vale of Barclay’s bank sat at my table. We drank South African wine (good consolation) & very good it was. This with cocktails & Brandys made billiards more of game of chance than skill.

We dined with the Randalls & went afterwards to the Little Symphony under the direction of Bernard Naylor, a good programme of Mozart, Teleman & Haydn. Their Ex’s were there with Willie O’Conner but left immediately after the concert. A terrible night with fog & freezing rain & icy streets. We had to walk as no taxis were available & so stopped at Barrots for a drink to break the journey. The trees glistened with ice & were very beautiful. Thursday,  Mar 18th was fine and bright . We are making a survey of the expense account at the Office to try to see where we could make our first attack in the event of business slowing up.  I attended a meeting of the Museum Committee at McGill today. A long discussion re: Adney’s claim on some material in the Ethnographic Museum. It was decided to give him the benefit of the doubt & to return his Indian canoe models. I had a talk with Principal James afterwards. We went to an early movie with the McMasters, McConnells, and Gail Lucas to see Random Harvest; excellently well done with Greer Garson and Ronald Colman co-staring.

Friday, March 19. A letter from the Maritime Women’s Club asking me to lecture them on the Museum & its aims next month – ugh! A nice packet of seeds & letter from Sir William Wilfred Smith of the RBG Edinburgh. Bess has sent his wife a parcel of goodies which was apparently welcome.

April 25 So much for good intentions; I must write less & oftener if this is to be a diary. The latest spring I remember but these warm days are rushing us into real spring. Yesterday, Saturday, Ian drove us to Le Sabot after lunching at home. Bess and young Cleve came along & we called on Peter on the way out. He is now nine months old & has a good crop of hair & a nice disposition. The early bulbs made a fair show among the shrubberies & the ice is still on the lake. Today Bess has taken young Cleve to an Easter service at the cathedral. We are to lunch with the Lenchtenburgs’ & are to be treated to fancy Russian dishes Katia says - plus three kisses. Last week we went at 5:30 to the hermitage to hear Bach’s Passion under Pelletier. Quite well done considering the size of the Hall & the necessary limitation. At 7:30 We went to the  Duncan Hodgsons for a buffet dinner with the Stevensons, Lenchtenburgs, Mckim & Betty Mather, then back to the Hall.

I have spent several evenings with Ludy Randall going over the ms of his book ‘Studies of Invasion” which is to be published in New York very shortly. His purpose is not to prophesy on where it is to come but to point out to the ignorant public what immense preparations are necessary before a second front can even be thought of. He regards quite rightly the great pressure of politically minded men such as Beaverbrook to be potentially dangerous.

On Sunday next Ambassador Grew[?] is to speak at a luncheon launching the new Victory Loan. Geo Spinney is giving him a dinner at the Mount Royal Club that night to which I am invited.

A cable from Don for Lorraine from Cairo. He has just returned from a tour of inspection of his various posts spread all over North Africa & the East. On Tuesday I attended the lunch at the Windsor – a huge affair of some 1200. Grew spoke well & was introduced by McNutt & thanked by Spinny & Brais. I worked at the Van Horne’s in the later afternoon. I have the Japanese pottery nearly in shape for Currelly’s (Toronto) criticism. Talked to Mrs. Van Horne who asked me to give a message from Mrs. Bruce who is in the Hospital with a broken hip. The Bruce’s were in Tokyo with the Grews. The dinner at the Mount Royal Club was unusually nice & informal. Had a chance of a chat with Grew & delivered my message & sent on best to his daughter who has a new flat in Washington.

Henry had to go to Ottawa on Price Board business & so our meeting was postponed till Thursday at the Office. Roditi’s man Schloss was here & we signed a renewal of contract for European and American business.

Jack McConnell & Matheson, the Provincial Treasurer have agreed to buy the farm Stoneycroft for McDonald College. This will mean that the gift of the Woods at Senneville and an Arboretum will at last be accomplished. It has been my ambition for years to shave these woods for posterity & I cannot imagine a more fitting memorial to Dad, M. & Harold.

The light new cases have been installed in the hall at the Art Gallery & I have arranged with Fred Cowans to loan us a collection of his fine English China. This will occupy the nicely until the Van Horne collection is turned over to the Museum.

I went with Anderson and Wilson to see the Easter show at the Botanical Gardens. Tenscher was there & did the honours. I must say the way he has kept the plants in shape is very creditable & I must remember to say a word to Matheson (Provincial Treasurer) on that score. Everything is in apple pie order & the plants in the greenhouses beautifully cared for. It is a pity that the Rock Garden is so badly designed but it is on a completely flat site & presents quite a problem.

May 1st blew in with a snow storm & was cold and miserable, nevertheless we motored to Le Sabot as I had a painter touching up & much to see about in the garden. On the way we called at Dorval to look over Le Manoir, the late Mrs. Scofield’s old stone house. Harvey Stihemian has asked me if I wanted any of the furniture which was sold separately. We felt very sad to see so charming an ensemble broken up. It is a delightful house  & beautifully furnished with great taste. The Victory Parade on Sunday was on a big scale & voted very good by Cleveland. He went with his grandfather to the grand saluting stand at the McGill entrance where I had two seats reserved for me. I saw a part of it from the van Horne steps. One misses the colour of prewar days but the tanks & anti-aircraft guns were impressive while airplanes supplied the roar over head. Harry Norton has sent the Museum another box of great Roman glass from Boston. The collections are growing! I am having a series of bouts with Mr. Payne, who is trying to unravel my nerves from the muscles of my back. This with appointments with the Dentist keep all spare time occupied.

We went to a cocktail party at the McConnell’s yesterday – a cosmopolitan gathering – Greece, Yugoslavia, France, Belgium, England, all represented. Victor Drury, the McMasters, Norman Dawes, Marian Majors & ourselves filling the Canadian role.

Today May 5th. Bess had a ladies lunch which I honoured with my presence: Katherine Hart, Mary Stoker, Betty Brainard, Elspeth Dawes.

The results for April business were given out at a Board Meeting this morning. It showed what volume can do to […] gross prompts into net. Our ratio is down to 24 ½% of sales & the net almost equals a years retainable earnings under the law & 70% of standard earnings allowed by law. So we work for the Government with a vengeance!

Bob Steele brought me a ‘new’ plant for my thoughts ‘Talinum spinescens’ from B.C. Tomorrow we go to Senneville for the day, & dine with the Randal’s at night.

May 7th. The final smash is on in Tunis. Tonight we dined with Norman Dewes & Jack McConnell told us news had come in that Bizerte & Tunis had just fallen. How quick the end came – personally I thought Bizerte would stand along siege. It now remains to mop up the rest of the army which is retreating into Cap Bon area. Walter Weston who was also present told me Principal James had asked him to head a small committee regarding the future boundaries of the park at Senneville Saturday morning I motored out to St- Bruno with Dunbar to see what happened to Raymond Pears’ place since the fire in which he had lost his life. We found Martin still in charge & he has kept the grounds up remarkably well. The Rhododendrons were looking in good health & will make a fine show[….] by the number of buds they bore. The shrubs & trees have grown up quite a bit since I saw they last & there are far too many of them for good landscaping. The natural site is quite fine & could be made  charming with more open spaces & fewer neighbours.
The air was filled with the roar of planes  which are continuously overhead from the airport at St-Hubert. I carried away a few plants as loot including a lovely pot of Ranunculus crenatus in full bloom.

Last night we dined with the McMasters; their rock garden looked particularly charming in the evening light as it is just coming into bloom. Ross read a letter from London from McKenzie, saying that he had just been calling on Margaret Purvis & that Don Patterson had been there. Sunday I go for the day to Senneville. With Dunbar & Kellert the painter to do odd jobs as we hope to move out for weekends very soon. Mrs. Wilson has had a series of heart attacks & has been ordered to bed for several months. Daphne Megereum [?] in both with & try purple were in Fall bloom as well as Hamamlis vernalis & Forsythia ovata. Primula raser & P. denticlata make a charming picture together  - a larger patch of several varieties of P. Ialias fortunate of name with its blue lavender and yellow eyes.

Thurs May 11- I played ‘hockey’ & went to Senneville as there were many young trees & shrubs which needed planting. The water a bit higher & much of the country around the ‘red’ bridge under water. It rained in the afternoon but fortunately there was little wind. The War news continued good & one could almost pity the Axis army which are taking a terrible punishment. A cable from Rita Flower thanking me for sending silk stockings I sent her from New York – a rarity in Ireland just now.

Oct. Again so much for good resolutions. Here we are in October & not a line all summer. The garden is such an exacting task master that my evenings are fully occupied with notes and seeds when we are free from visitors.  A quiet summer on the whole & a very wet one for this district. The lawns were beautifully green of course but the vegetables suffered & the potato crop was more or less a failure.

Lady Byng stayed with us for a few days on her way home from Nassau where she had spent the winter. She was full of amusing gossip on Island affairs & looked much better for her holiday. She is dying to get back to England as she dreads being put on charity rations again at Ottawa. His Ex. & Princess Alice came down for a visit to the garden & had lunch with us. They brought the Hon. [?] Stanley with them & Miss Vera Grenfell & Willy O’Connor. Mary Stoker brought out Capt. Ferrah one night. He is an Irishman now settled in B.C. who has wondered over most of the globe in his short life. I understand he is something of an artist and is altogether very Irish with his countrymen’s charm of manner. It is nice having Graystaines occupied again. We saw quite a lot of Ylonde & Douglas but war times have cut into social life at Senneville & there was little dinning & less wining than usual. I found bicycling very tiring & the lack of gas kept ones friends in town. Domestic troubles were all too common & cooks as scarce as hens teeth. Gail Lucas spent week ends only at her new house. It is going to be very charming but is at present over crowded & experimental, like the less sophisticated furnishings of Edith Henderson’s little stone house.

Montreal is full of new Consuls and ministers mostly from Latin America. As an official of the Canadian Inter-American Society I get bids to plenty of dinners & receptions – which I rarely attend. As I grow older functions appeal less and less though I still like meeting new people in small doses. I close my years as chairman of the Mount Royal Club recently & at the meeting had the satisfaction of reporting the best annual results in the history of the Club.  I still remain on the committee for another season.  This prosperity is largely the result of minor domestic troubles whereby all entertaining is done at the Club. We are busy organizing an Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Dutch paintings. Rather an ambitious title & I only hope we can get enough really important stuff to make a good show. I am also rearranging the Norton glass into new cases. So as to get  a room for our small but now  scattered Gothic collection. I was talking it over today with Henry Norton & I am glad to say he seems very pleased with my efforts. I paid a call on Teuscher yesterday at the Botanical Gardens to see the Mum show. He took me through the greenhouses again. They are beautifully kept & a great credit to the City. He is now at work on a project to organize Civic Centres for would-be gardeners with proper supervision and instruction. These are to be planned, ploughed and fenced & owned by the civic authorities & the plots rented to workers so that some sort of continuity can be counted on. At present much unsuitable ground is begged from private owners which is often wanted the next year for building purposes. A great deal of night thieving is also indulged in.

Business continues at peak level with some signs of contraction but more from shortages of stocks than of customers. Of course with the present 100% excess profits tax we work entirely for the Government for the best part of the year. The price control has now left our ‘mark on’ at so low a level that it now equals our expense figure of two years ago. Volume alone saves us & when this is reduced it will be up to the Government to act quickly or there will be plenty of failures.

The Allans celebrated their 50th anniversary recently. They received in the Chateau & a great crowd thronged their apt. for hours on end, a grand tribute to them. Lady Allan was very conscious of the tragedy of her children & looked tired out but Sir Montague insisted on seeing it through on his feet. We had celebrated his 80th birthday a few days before at Sidney Davis house.

Some of Pierrepont Morgan’s pictures have recently been offered to the Art Gallery by Knoedler’s in New York. They include a very fine Hobbema, some superb Frans Hals, a Cuyp & some English portraits. It was decided to my surprise and relief to dig deep and buy the Hobbema. I hope to balance this purchase with a fine Renoir or Cezanne even if we exhaust all our funds. It may seem queer to be buying pictures during war times but the funds are given for this purpose & this alone. It is useless waiting for the possible division of the van Horne pictures. I had a letter of thanks from Billy Van H. recently thanking me for my “Herculanean” efforts to divide the collection but ----

Ramsey Traquair has written me that he has completed his Ms. on the History of French Canadian Architecture in the Province of Quebec & could I get some help locally towards its publication. I saw Dr. Martin & Principal James & put the case to them, urging funds.

Oct. 15th Traquair has come to town & is full of gratitude as McGill has given him $500.00 towards his book. I urged him to include a chapter on French Canadian Furniture & Crafts to justify the Art Gallery doing something also & will provide illustrations from our collections. I saw Martin again today and asked for a token grant of $100.00.

At the Office we begin to try to pierce the fog of tomorrow – to plan for the future – Escalators – youth centre etc. etc. We celebrate our 100th anniversary in 1945 & it would be nice to feel it could be done without a wartime backdrop. I may have to make a tour of Chicago, Cleveland,  Detroit, Toledo, Philadelphia & of course New York. I think the Museums will share my time with the stores however.

Nov. 20 Bart’s 32nd birthday. I sent him a letter & enclosure; wish he was back in business. It will take a lot of experience and cool heads to get through the next few years of adjustment – perhaps with the C.C.F. to contend with!

The Leuchtenbergs asked us to go to the Faculty Club to hear Prof. Karpovitch, now of Harvard, lecture on certain aspects of recent Russian history. A brilliant lecture & I thought on the whole unbiased. After a question period we went to the Duke’s house for a vodka supper where again I had a chance to talk to Karpovitch. I am just reading Arthur Upham Pope’s Life of Litvinoff which he has sent me. He certainly sees things from the Soviet point of view.

Dec 1st, 1943, Wed. 62nd Birthday – Damn!

Dec 1st, 1944, 63nd Birthday – And nothing written this year. I resign as a diarist.

Dec. 2nd 1949 I succeeded in surviving another milestone yesterday. We celebrated by dining at the St. James Club. Don & Lorraine being hosts with Bart & Mimi attending The Randalls asked us to cocktails first & I was presented with a copy of Verve “Le Livre du Coer d’Amour Epris de Roi René” a lovely publication with beautiful miniatures in full colour. I plan to go to New York again on the 11th to see the Persian Exhibition at the Asian Institute  & the Metropolitan. Possibly to Washington also as I want to see George Myers & his textile Museum. & to meet  __________ at the Bliss Collection. We had a Directors meeting yesterday to discuss the advisability of opening a Toronto branch; agreed. The factory building on Beaver Hall has been sold & we will move into new warehouses at Côte-de-Liesse in January. We have nearly 30 acres at that location with plenty of room to spread ourselves. We are to  open a small “neighbourhood” store at Snowden this spring to carry children’s supplies – meeting the mothers to save them coming into crowded town streets. The Museum still keeps active & two exhibitions open this week end: Paul Nash & a collection of British drawings belonging to Sir Robert Witt. I had met him in London some years ago when he showed me his house and collection (and of photographs of pictures so arranged as to be available to students.) Tomorrow we motor to Le Sabot for the afternoon.     

1949 In cleaning my desk this autumn I came across a penciled diary commenced 1943. Bits and pieces were written later on in the year but nothing has been recorded since except for the very brief jottings on our trips to Europe in 1946, to Mexico & Guatemala in 47 & to Italy etc. in 1948. Now we are planning a visit to Lisbon & other parts next Feb. so it would seem reasonable to illuminate the dark ages by a flash of what is going on in the immediate present. I’ve received today a cheque from Dr. Kaye Lamb of the Archives for $1500.00 for a collection of papers on early Canada which Dimetri Leuchtenberg had brought to me. They consisted of early documents & letters from and to the French Governor of Canada Beauharnois a direct ancestor of Dimitri’s. I was glad to have the opportunity of killing two birds with one stone as the papers have considerable value as Canadiana & Dimitri can certainly use the money.

Field Marshal Wavell has been here & has been much feted by the Black Watch. Henry gave a dinner for him at the Mount Royal Club to which I was asked & we had a very interesting informal account of the early phases of the Egyptian campaign.

I have been elected president of the Club this year & it is with a certain feeling of regret or misgiving that I accepted. So many presidents take a bow to the world during or shortly after their term of office. I shall have to watch the traffic lights more carefully.

I had lunch with Dr. James to talk over what we were going to do with Davis. His position as Director of the Art Gallery plus Professor of Fine Arts at McGill is an impossible one. He pleases neither party – and complains himself. As President of the Museum I am forced to do a lot that should be attended to by the Director. Anyway certain members of the Council will do anything to get rid of him & the mess will be dumped on my lap. We have had a couple of exhibitions of a major sort at the Gallery this year. The first an exchange of masterpieces between the National Gallery in Ottawa and ourselves & now the 70th Annual show of the R.C.A. Casson & Bob Pilot gave a dinner at the Arts Club at which I was guest speaker. Pilot also entertained before the opening night, Friday, Nov. 11th. A fair show better by being smaller & therefore more selective. We had a meeting of the Canadian Acquisition Committee but decided against buying a picture.

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir Andrew Murray has been here. I was asked to a lunch for him by Rosanna Todd at Senneville & to a cocktail party held in is honour at the Ritz. There I met Franklin (Gelinas) who I think is being persuaded to perform next year in Scotland. He is a serious little man for a comedian & a great actor.

We have been preparing & sending a brief from the Museum to the Commission of Fine Arts headed by Vincent Massey. The Commission has been appointed by the Federal Government for the purpose of enquiring into the state of culture & the disability of fostering various activities throughout the Dominion. They have already been at it for several weeks & are to sit in Montreal this week. Davis & myself will represent the Museum at a hearing on Thursday. I had a talk with McCurrey yesterday who was on his way through from Washington to Ottawa. He agrees with me that though the enquiry may be of value that the government is not going to hand out grants to the numerous bodies submitting briefs from one coast to another. It would be better to support a useful & capable central body such as the National Gallery & there develop a training school for executives and technicians upon whom we could all call then to spread ourselves thin upon a series of local projects which ought to be supported by their own people & municipalities. But we shall see!

A lot of new material has been coming to the Museum, mostly bought by me when in New York recently: textiles, Chinese bronzes and pottery, some early European illuminated pages. We are trying to spread our wings in the picture end too & spend some of the funds which were given many years ago for that purpose. Too cumbersome committees defeated this & only by long & repeated pressure were we able to appoint and give powers to a committee of reasonable size. Under consideration is a Degas, a Renoir, a Carpaccio, an El Greco & a Tiepolo . We turned down a Rembrandt on the advice of Paul Rosenberg of the Fogg. We already acquired a Martini, a Lehmbruck & a Maillol, so our modern group is growing. But we mustn’t count our chickens yet. In my 1943 notes I came across the recorded purchase of a Hobbema which never materialized.

A word of record regarding the business: this has progressed steadily & is now largely in the hands of the next generation, though the Board still has some of the old officers. Henry is President & I am Vice while Bart is now General Manager & a very good one too. We are fortunate in having Don Patterson on the board & he is also manager of the Morgan Trust & the Realties. Pollack & Nixon are gone but Jack, the latter’s son is steadily climbing up the ladder & is now Division Manager. The newly formed Morgan Agencies is progressing well & has taken over all the Insurance end of the Trust both Life & Accident. The warehouse business has been subdivided & the sales room and the old house (442) on Sherbrooke Street under the direction of the Morgan Galleries Ltd.

A new company the North American Management Corporation has been formed in which Don has taken a prominent part & is on the Board. This will investigate and purchase good companies with large capital reserves which they cannot distribute owing to heavy taxation. They will then be either carried on if profitable or liquidated according to circumstances. This is a baby of Heward Stikeman’s who has also been added to our board in the Trust Co. He is an authority on taxation matters. Henry Morgan & Co. has added Aubrey Elder to its directors & General Walford is doing wonderful work as Controller of our various companies.

An event of some importance has finally come to pass as the official opening took place in October of the Morgan Arboretum. How long it takes to get a job done. I see the first steps of the negotiations mentioned in my 1943 notes and talked of as a ‘fait accomplis’ – six years too soon! Also other events have taken place also: my Wilson is gone & now Lady Byng. We stayed with her in England last spring & she seemed so well. A silver sugar shaker 1703 has been sent by Eva Sandford in remembrance of her.