1894 



HIS CHAPTER IN OWEN'S ' LIFE ' 321 



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 Rosebery for having unintentionally kept him 

 waiting : — 



HODESLEA, EaSTBOXJRNE, 

 May 28, 1894. 



Dear Lord Rosebery — I had hoped that my diffi- 

 culties 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 was 

 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 unwonted affliction. — I am, dear Lord 

 Rosebery, yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



All through the spring he had been busy complet- 

 ing 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. 



He sent the MS. to Sir M. Foster on June 16 ; 

 the book itself appeared in December. The chapter 

 VOL. Ill Y 



