[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 faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

4 Melville Street, Edinburgh, July 1, 1876.

My dear Skelton,

Very many thanks for the copy of the “Comedy of the Noctes,” 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 Gilman’s note asking me to give the inaugural discourse at the Johns Hopkins University, and offering 100 pounds sterling on the part of the trustees?  I am minded to do it on our way back from the south, but don’t much like taking money for the performance.  Tell me what you think about this at once, as I must reply.

[This visit to America had been under discussion for some time.  It is mentioned as a possibility in a letter to Darwin two years before.  Early in 1876 Mr. Frederic Harrison was commissioned by an American correspondent—­who, by the way, had named his son Thomas Huxley—­to give my father the following message:—­“The whole nation is electrified by the announcement that Professor Huxley is to visit us next fall.  We will make infinitely more of him than we did of the Prince of Wales and his retinue of lords and dukes.”  Certainly the people of the States gave him an enthusiastic welcome; his writings had made him known far and wide; as the manager of the Californian department at the Philadelphia Exhibition told him, the very miners of California read his books over their camp fires; and his visit was so far like a royal progress, that unless he entered a city disguised under the name of Jones or Smith, he was liable not merely to be interviewed, but to be called upon to “address a few words” to the citizens.