On June 4 Bute made his maiden speech in Parliament (it was his last as well as his first,) in reference to certain petitions he had occasion to present on the affairs of St. Andrews University. He wrote of this to Dr. Metcalfe: I had a conversation with Lord Salisbury on Saturday, and consequently made my maiden speech in the House of Lords to-day. There were only two {200} or three Peers present, but I was so nervous that I don't know what I said. However, Lord Windsor told me that I had been perfectly smooth and lucid, so I suppose I repeated mechanically the few sentences I had prepared. A sequel, and to himself a very interesting one, to Bute's new and intimate connection with St. Andrews was his acquisition of the site of the ancient priory of canons-regular adjoining the ruined cathedral. Part of this was occupied by a modern villa, around and under which Bute carried out a series of exploratory excavations which must have been somewhat disconcerting to the occupants of the house. The discoveries consequent on these digging operations (_Scoticè_ "howkings"), including that of a hitherto unknown vaulted chamber beneath the old refectory, were a very welcome diversion from the harassing duties of the Lord Rectorship. Bute always undertook and pursued such researches with the acutest zest and interest. "I think," a friend wrote of him with kindly humour, "some of the happiest hours of his life were spent standing by, wrapped in his long cloak and smoking innumerable cigarettes, while a band of workmen, directed by one of his many architects, dug out the foundations of a mediæval lady-chapel, or broke through a nineteenth-century wall in search of a thirteenth-century doorway." How seriously Bute took his unremitting efforts "to save St. Andrews," as his own expression was, is shown in a characteristic passage of one of his letters describing a recent discovery among the priory remains: A head of Christ in stone, seemingly life-size, has just been found under the earth at the Priory. {201} I would I could take this as an intimation of His favour towards the [Greek: _témenos_] of His [Greek: _prôtóklêtos_].[3] I have written for much prayer at the grave of the Apostle, primarily thanksgiving for the graces bestowed upon him in time and eternity. Bute had of course visited more than once the tomb of St. Andrew at Amain, of which he speaks in the striking peroration, already quoted, of his Rectorial address. At his request the Archbishop of Amalfi sent him a large number of photographs, including some of the tomb, and one, specially taken, of the skull of the Apostle, which Bute, who attached much importance to craniological evidence, greatly valued. [Sidenote: 1894, Winter sports in Scotland]