492 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxxi 



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 hypo- 

 chondriacal state of mind, and I will see if this course of medi- 

 cine will drive the seven devils out. 



One of the chief friendships which sprang from this 

 residence in Edinburgh was that with Dr. (afterwards 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 particularly 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 my Saturdays and 

 Sundays are mortgaged to one or other of your judges (good 

 judges, obviously). 



Shall you be at home on Monday or Tuesday? If so, I 

 would put on a kilt (to be as little dressed as possible), and find 

 my way out and back; happily improving my mind on the 

 journey with the tracts you mention. — Ever yours very faith- 

 fully, T. H. Huxley. 



4 Melville Street, Edinburgh, July i, 1876. 

 My dear Skelton — Very many thanks for the copy of the 

 Comedy of the Nodes, which reached me two or three days ago. 

 Turning over the pages I came upon the Shepherd's " Terrible 

 Journey of Timbuctoo," which I enjoyed as much as when I first 

 read it thirty odd years ago. — Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 

 On June 23 he writes home : — 



Did you read Oilman's note asking me to give the inaugural 

 discourse at the Johns Hopkins University, and offering £100 on 



