1892 CREATED A PRIVY COUNCILLOR 251 



before leaving Saundersfoot,^ as the letter was dated 16th. 

 It must be a month since Lord Cranbrook desired Donnelly 

 to find out if I would accept the P.O., and as I heard no 

 more about it up to the time of dissolution, I imagined 

 there was a hitch somewhere. And really, the more I 

 think of it the queerer does it seem, that a Tory and 

 Church Government should have delighted to honour the 

 worst-famed heretic in the three kingdoms. 



I am sure Donnelly has been at the bottom of it, as 

 he is the only person to whom I ever spoke of the fitness 

 of the P.C. for men of science and letters. 



The queer thing is that his chief and Lord Salisbury 

 listened to the suggestion. 



Tell Jack he is simply snuffed out — younger sons of 

 peers go with the herd of Barts. and knights, I believe. 

 But a table of precedence is not to be had for love or 

 money — and my anxiety is wearing. 



This place is as perfectly delightful as Aberystwith was 

 t'other. . . . With best love to you all — Ever your 



Pater 



To Mrs. W. K. Clifford 



Cors-t-Gedol Hotel, Barmouth, 

 Aug. 22, 1892. 



My dear Lucy — I am glad to think that it is the 

 honours that blush and not the recipient, for I am past 

 that form of vascular congestion. 



It was known that the only peerage I would accept 

 was a spiritual one ; and as H.M. shares the not unnatural 

 prejudice which led her illustrious predecessor (now some 

 time dead) to object to give a bishopric to Dean Swift, it 

 was thought she could not stand the promotion of Dean 

 Huxley ; would see * him in fact ... * This is a pun. 



^ Where he had been staying with his daughter. 



