[14] The asterisked word is, of course, "Jubilee." Some time before this Bute had written: "I am dabbling, among other things, in astrology, and find it a curious and in some ways fascinating study." See _post_, p. 176. [15] A curious parallel to this curious passage occurs in a letter written by Disraeli to Lady Chesterfield on July 14, 1887 ("Life," vol. vi. p. 169). "Garden parties in London are wells, full of dank air. Sir William Gull told me that if the great garden parties in future are held at Buckingham Palace and Marlboro' House instead of Chiswick and so on, his practice will be doubled." [16] This odd synonym for "discussible" seems almost an [Greek: _hápax legómenon_]. The Oxford Dictionary gives but one example of its use, from an article in the _Saturday Review_ of 1893. [17] Dr. Skene's article did not, as a matter of fact, appear in the _Review_. {137} CHAPTER VIII LITERARY WORK (_CONTINUED_) 1886, 1887 "They will say that we are dull, of course," Bute wrote to his editor in 1887, discussing the contents of a forthcoming number of the _Scottish Review_. "But they say that anyhow, without reading us, whatever we put in or leave out." Bute did not always feel sure that his own contributions, written as they were with an immensity of care and painstaking, were not open to this charge. "I feel rather low about the 'Coronations,'"[1] he wrote a few weeks later. "It seems to me dull, very long, and intensely technical.... It is true that the Lord Lyon has returned my proof with a note calling the article 'most valuable,' and saying he could scarcely suggest any improvement. So far so good; but then he is a professional State Master of Ceremonies."