PERSONAL ITEMS.

The Queen of Greece lias the distinction of being the only "lady admiral in the world. Site holds the position iu the Russian navy, having been Appointed by the late Czar because her father was a high admiral. General Sir Robert Biddulph, G.C.8., G.C.M.G., was sixty-seven years of age on August 26, having been bom in London in 1835. He entered the Royal Artillery at the age of eighteen, and has had a distinguished military career, having served in the Crimea and Indian Mutiny. In memory of the late Lord William Beresford Mr. William Whitney, of New York, has endowed with shares "at present yielding an income of £560 a trust for the benefit of persons connected with the turf who are in. reduced circumstances and worthy of assistance. 'Die important post of principal medical officer at Net-ley Hospital is to be taken over by Dr. Edmond Townsend, surgeongeneral. Royal Army Medical Department, who served in South Africa. and' prior to this had a distinguished record in the Abyssinia campaign, Malay Peninsula, and the Egyptian war of 1882.' Lord Dunmore may be said to be the most intrepid traveller of whom the peerage boasts, He has roughed it as much as any man living, and is never so happy as when travelling. On one, expedition he lived in the snow at an altitude of some 17,000 ft to 18,000 ft above the sea level for a fortnight, and on another occasion, while limiting in Asia Minor, brought- down 1600 heat? of game. It is rather a. peculiar coincidence that the early days of two such well-known theatrical celebrities as Mr. .Henry Arthur .Jones and Mr. Wilson Barrett should have been so curiously (similar. Kadi is the sou of a farmer, and the parents of both were so strongly prejudiced against theatres that their sons were forbidden, under heavy penalties, to enter their doors, la spite of such discouragement, however, both have become famous in the theatrical world. The Duke of Cambridge is emphatically a man of method and habit, and partly, pethaps, to this owes the vigour he enjoys in his eighties. Every year he repairs; to Hornburg after the London season, and then goes to his old friend and companion-in-arms. Sir George Wombwell, in Yorkshire. Later on he used always to go to shoot with the late General Hall at his famous preserves at Six Mile Bottom in 'Cambridgeshire. A very large number of Hi's Royal Highness' friends hive now passed away,'

A bronze tablet has been fixed in the small English church at Elu,. Port Moresby, by the European residents in British New Guinea, in memory of the late James Chalmers (" Tatnate") find his young colleague Xomkins who, with a party of eleven mission native:-', were massacred by native* of Goaribari Island, Aird River," Gulf of i Papua, on April 8. 1901. The movement 1 lias been quite spontaneous, and has been j i.L'ufined to those outside iUe mi- -in:, circle. J Laid ( 'adojaii's name u ii) pass into history, writes the King, as having abolished the Kiss or Fealty. !i was ' customary hitherto when debutantes were presented I to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland for him Ito kiss tlieni. It, was tin important func- | tion at .-ill iiie Drawing-rooms. There was jno escaping if. The ladies were nil rn.ar- ! shrilled into line, and one by one obliged to } 20 through the "ordeal'' as they called if. • It is a remarkable coincidence 1 hat since ! the Kiss of Fealty was abolished there has ' been a falling-off in the number of presen- ] tat ions.

](; was with evident pride that Sir Wilfrid Laurier informed t-liv Bailiff oi Jersey and the members of the States lately that he belonged to the old Norman race represented iii the Channel Islands, lie added that he was proud to have been brought under those British institutions which had ensured to evert' British subject liberty and equality in every part of the world. Sir Wilfrid was accorded an official reception at the Royal Court of Jersey, the Bailiff making his speech of welcome in French, and Sir Wilfrid replying both in English and French,