XX Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
This splendid record of good work done was duly acknowledged 
at home and abroad. As was natural, Celtic societies in Ireland 
and Wales, as well as in Scotland, felt pride in honouring the dis- 
tinguished historian. The University of Edinburgh conferred the 
degree of LL.D. upon Mr Skene in 1865. He became D.C.L. of 
Oxford in 1879. Upon the death of Mr Hill Burton in 1881, the 
Government of the day, with the full approval of educated Scotsmen 
of all classes and creeds, made him Historiographer-Royal for Scot- 
land. And in 1888, friends and admirers commissioned Sir George 
Reid, now President of the Royal Scottish Academy, to paint his 
portrait ; the portrait to remain with Mr Skene during his lifetime, 
and at his death to he sent to the National Portrait Gallery, 
