118 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch.xxxh 



of her own father, that it is always the busy man 

 that can make time for everything. It is true 

 that there have been very few in whose hands 

 time has been so elastic or so malleable as in 

 those of Sir John Lubbock. 



It is perhaps the last occasion that it would be 

 correct to write of him by this designation. As it 

 were by way of a Christmas gift, he received a 

 peerage ; for it was on Christmas Day that he had 

 the following letter from the Prime Minister : 



Foreign Office, 23 Dec. 1899. 



My dear Sir John — I am glad to be charged with 

 the duty of informing you that the Queen has been 

 pleased to confer upon you a Peerage of the United 

 Kingdom. 



If you accept Her Majesty's gracious intentions, I 

 am sure the House of Lords will greatly appreciate this 

 addition to its intellectual strength. — Believe me, yours 

 very truly, Salisbury. 



Sir John replied : 



My dear Lord Salisbury — I have duly received 

 your letter and beg that you will convey to Her Majesty 

 my grateful thanks for the great honour which she has 

 been pleased to confer on me. 



May I also thank you most heartily for the most kind 

 manner in which you have been so good as to communi- 

 cate to me the gratifying intimation. — Sincerely yours, 



J. Lubbock. 



