198 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VIII 



have a cover with IHS on. the Communion Table or not 

 After three hours' discussion the IHSers were beaten. I 

 was introduced to the Commissioner Lord Galloway, and 

 asked to dine to-night. So I felt bound to go to the 

 special levee at Holyrood with my colleagues this morning, 

 and I shall have to go to my Lady Galloway's reception 

 in honour of the Queen's birthday to-morrow. Luckily 

 there will be no more of it. Vanity of Vanities ! 

 Saturday afternoon I go out to Lord Young's place to 

 spend Sunday. I have been in rather a hypochondriacal 

 state of mind, and I will see if this course of medicine 

 will drive the seven devils out. 



One of the chief friendships which sprang from 

 this residence in Edinburgh was that with Dr. (after- 

 wards Sir John) Skelton, widely known under his 

 literary pseudonym of " Shirley." A Civil Servant 

 as well as a man of letters, he united practical life 

 with literature, a combination that appealed particu- 

 larly to Huxley, so that he was a constant visitor 

 at Dr. Skelton's picturesque house, the Hermitage 

 of Braid, near Edinburgh. A number of letters 

 addressed to Skelton from 1875 to 1891 show that 

 with him Huxley felt the stimulus of an appreciative 

 correspondent. 



4 MELVILLE STREET, EDINBURGH, 

 June 23, 1876. 



MY DEAR SKELTON I do not understand how it is 

 that your note has been so long in reaching me ; but I 

 hasten to repel the libellous insinuation that I have 

 vowed a vow against dining at the Hermitage. 



I wish I could support that repudiation by at once 

 accepting your invitation for Saturday or Sunday, but 



