iS 9 4 BANQUET WITH THE PRIME MINISTER 



395 



I had a letter from a fellow yesterday morning who must 

 be a lunatic, to the effect that he had been reading my essays, 

 thought I was just the man to spend a month with, and was 

 coming down by the five o'clock train, attended by his seven 

 children and his mother-in-law! 



Frost being over, there was lots of boiling water ready for 

 him, but he did not turn up ! 



Wife and servants expected nothing less than assassination. 



Later he notes with dismay an invitation as a Privy 

 Councillor to a State evening party : 



It is at 10.30 P.M., just the time this poor old septuagenarian 

 goes to bed. 



My swellness is an awful burden, for as it is I am going to 

 dine with the Prime Minister on Saturday. 



The banquet with the Prime Minister here alluded to 

 was the occasion of a brief note of apology to Lord Rose- 

 bery for having unintentionally kept him waiting: 



HODESLEA, EASTBOURNE, May 28, 1894. 



DEAR LORD ROSEBERY I had hoped that my difficulties in 

 dealing with an overtight scabbard stud, as we sat down to 

 dinner on Saturday, had inconvenienced no one but myself, until 

 it flashed across my mind after I had parted from you that, as 

 you had observed them, it w^as only too probable that I had the 

 misfortune to keep you waiting. 



I have been in a state of permanent blush ever since, and I 

 feel sure you will forgive me for troubling you with this apology 

 as the only remedy to which I can look for relief from that un- 

 wonted affliction. I am, dear Lord Rosebery, yours very faith- 

 fully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



All through the spring he had been busy completing 

 the chapter on Sir Richard Owen's work, which he had 

 been asked to write by the biographer of his old opponent, 

 and on February 4 tells Sir J. D. Hooker : 



I am toiling over my chapter about Owen, and I believe his 

 ghost in Hades is grinning over my difficulties. 



The thing that strikes me most is, how he and I and all the 

 things we fought about belong to antiquity. 



It is almost impertinent to trouble the modern world with 

 such antiquarian business. 



