foundations of an Honours School able to compete on equal terms with
those of the other colleges which were federated in the then Victoria
University of the north. It was a really surprising feat for so young a
man--he was little over twenty-five when appointed--to have accomplished
in so short a time; the more so as he was working single-handed: in
other words, was doing unaided the work, both literary and linguistic,
which in other colleges was commonly distributed between two or three.
And I speak with intimate knowledge when I say that the Leeds students
who presented themselves for their Honours Degree at the end of that
time bore every mark of having been most thoroughly and efficiently
prepared.

In 1904, six years after Moorman's appointment to the lectureship, the
Yorkshire College was reconstituted as a separate and independent
university, the University of Leeds; and in the rearrangement which
followed, an older man was invited to come in as official chief of the
department for which Moorman had hitherto been solely responsible. This
invitation was not accepted until Moorman had generously made it clear
that the proposed appointment would not be personally unwelcome to him.
Nevertheless, it was clearly an invidious position for the new-comer:
and a position which, but for the exceptional generosity and loyalty of
the former chief of the department, would manifestly have been
untenable. In fact, no proof of Moorman's unselfishness could be more
conclusive than that, for the nine years during which the two men worked
together, the harmony between them remained unbroken, untroubled by even
the most passing cloud. Near the close of this time, in recognition of
his distinction as a scholar and of his great services to the
University, a separate post, as Professor of the English Language, was
created for him.