PERSONAL NOTES.

— Baron Nathaniel Rothschild, one of the two brothers of that ho-.is-e settled in Tienrn. died in Juno lasi at his lesidence m the Thoreiianumgass-.'. He had been more or less of an invalid all his life, though he h\cd to bo nearly 70, and tried e v ery imaginable cure, and applied to every doctor of any not( j . Th s, however, did not mtorfere wiih his great pa=sion for coilpotinp- works of art, with which he filled his bachelor, home, nor diminish his interest in th« tu-f. — Sir William Mua\ ox-Principal of I'.diahnrqh University, died in Edinburgh on July 11, aged 87. Owing; to increasing years, Sir" William retired frjrn his high office in 1902, and f-ince then lie las taken no part i.i public affairs. JSotwithstardmg that he was a very old man, his death was unexpected, "a* he was fairly free from any active dise-ise. The son of a Glasgow merchant he entered the Bengal Civil Ser-. vico and held the orrt?2 of Lieutenantgpoueral of the- North- West Provinces, and , afterwards for two years was Fn.ancial Sec- I retary for India. In 1885 he was appointed Yico-Chancolloe and Principal ot Edin- , burgh University. j — Duke Robert of Parma has had another addition If his already over-numerous family — th : .s makes his twenty-first child! Pius X, who ib its godfaoher. was represented at the bapt'sm by Monsignor Maffei. lhe name of Pius was given to tile infant, ' and many more besides. Twenty children | of the Duke are still 'alive. The Duke's '' first wife was the Duchess Maria Pia, of j the Na.ples House, by whom he had 10 j children. His »eoand wife is Marie Antoin- | ette of Braganza, and by her hf has had , 11 children. J — Earl Cowner died at Panshanger on July 19, aged 71. On May 5. 1880, he was | installed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland at Dnb- , lin Ca-tle, and he held that post till April 28, 1832, when ha and Mr Forster resigned . together, he being succeeded by Earl Spencer. It was only a few days ifter j his resignation that the Phoenix Park murders occurred. Earl Cowpe/ after this did not take much pait in public affairs until Mr Gladstone promulgated his Home Rule policy, which he opposed. There is no Loir to the earldom, but Mr Auberon Thomas Herbert, a nephew of the Earl, is heir to 1 the Barony of Lucas and ot Dingwall, and ; is heir to the Barony of Butlei', held by the late Earl. I — .Mr J. F. X. O'Brien, 1V1.P., whe died , recently, was one of the best-known pariia- ' in-eni.ariH.iis, and j^rdminentlj- connected with ' Irish affairs for 4C years. Jn the Civil War in America M» O'Brien bore his part as a toldier for the North, but he can-e back 10 Ireland at the time of the Fenian movement conducted by James Stephens, 3rd was then put in command of a very "irregular" body of men from Cork, and ! it was this detachment that he led against the police barracks. The police made an unexpectedly stubborn and stout defence, pnd "then the peasants from the south, ; ignorant of the rules of civilised warfare, j piled up straw around tT.e building and fivtd it with tits object of smoking the eiiGniy intr. surrender or retreat. These methods aid not. however, meet with the approval of the leader of the party, who had flic fire extinguished before it had injured tha inmates, and then he success- • fully dLarmcd the little garrison. For this "high treison" Mr O'Brisa was sentenced to ba hanged, drawn and quartered, though he was soon reprieved. I — One of the pioneer pastoralists of Vie- 1 tcria died on August 7 m the person of j Mr Thcs. Ferrier Hamilton, at the advanced age of S5 years. The deceased gentleman was the «on of Colonel John < Ferrie"r Hamilton and the Hon. Gsorgina ' Veieker, daughter of Viscount Gort. He vas educated at the Edinburgh Military Acs den I'/.1 '/. He cim^ out to Australia in the ( ship Abington in 1839, and after landing in Sydney rode over to Melbourne, where he bought Cairnhill Station, near Ricldoll's Creek, and also Elderslie, reai Gisborne. H<3 became president of the Gisborne Road Poard, and was a member of the Legislative Council for many years, representing the Southern Province, and was one of tie first magistrates appcirted by Governor Leitrobe. He was president of lhe West Bourko Agricultural Society for many j years, and was one of the original members I of the Melbourne Club, and its president j foi a term. He was an enthusiastic sportsman, and was one of the founders of the M.C.C., of which he was president for nine years. He played in the match against j the firsfc English eleven in Victoria. Before sailing' for Australir he won the 1 racket championship of Great Britain. He married, in 1851 the daughter of Mr Sydney Stephen. Chief Just-ice of New Zealand, who predeceased him. He leaves three sons and six daughte-s. — Pastorali&ts' Review — "Queensberry Rules," when first tabula te.d, did not take into account the possibihtj- of motors or motorists who run amok. Hence thj application the other day of the Marques of Queensberry for permission to carry and use firearms for the discomfiture of these too-speedy ones. It is not the first curious application made by representatives of this old line. One such affected their title in the most singular fashion. James, second Duke of Queensberry, resigned into the keeping of the Crown his dukedom and various other titles, then obtained another patent. As the result, of this, at the death of the fourth Duke of Queensberry, he«e titles devolved upon the Duke of Buccleuch. But it had been overlooked that the raarquisate and earldom of Queensberry had not been included in the surrender. Therefore they continued to Ciist, unaffected by the new patent, and de\olved on Ibe heir-male of the faraily. This was not the only queer thing in connection with the houa«. "Old Q." so hated bis heir that he cut down the grand old timbers on his estatie, >an incident commemorated by Wadswori-h in an indignant sonnet. The wicked '"OM Q." died worth, a million, and lies buried beneath the ocmmtmion table of Sit. James's, Piccadilly. — There is a famous history behind the cesk at which President Roosevelt is writing all his despatches fiom White House

'tc the entent that peace may come. Vtc lot the Alabama get out of hand, and aei" cruise ' coat us three and a-quarter millions; sterling. We let another ship, the Resolute, alsD get out of our hand Her we left stuck in the ice. and :t was an Amer'can skipper that rescued her. There was a nice prospect of trouble cier tho claims as to ownership, bar w*_ gave her up to the Yankee skipper. Thoq the lomanoe com-ni-cnood. America bought the whilom derelict, and spent no less than £4-0,000 in fitting her up. Her equipment and adornment completed they .*ent her bade <ncr the Atlantic, a present to Queen Victoria. Five-and-lwenty years passed, and the old boat came to the end of hei days. We broke her up. But fiom the stoutest of her timbers we fashioned a magnificent desk, and that in turn rent across the Atlantic as a gift to the President of 11. & VrAtcr\ States. At White House it remains, the desk at which the President writes his official letters. — Another delightfully characteristic anecdote is being related of the premier Duke and Earl Marshal. A Bnghtor woman, it teems took her little girl on an excursion to Arund^l. Th~y had third-class tickers, ; but as the tram was crowded they were | put into ? first-cla«s carriage. The little giri at once made frieads with the only occupant of (he compartment, ? gentleman who had been reading a paper, out put it __^ away* "to talk to the child. They became • so friendly that she opened her basket and gave him banana. He accepted it, an; , amiably ate it. so the little girl became I more chatty than ever about what <=be - meant oi expected to do at Arundel. Ho , asked whether she would like to see inside I the castle, and as the train pulled up at i the station he gave the mothei a card, tellj ing her that it would admit them to all' ' parts of the castle The kind gentleman £»ot * out and quickly disappeared, and th« astonished mother discovered Irom the eaid ' that he was the Duke of Norfolk. I — Major-general Sir Henry Trotter, 1 G.C.V.0., died on Sunday, July 16, at I Mortonhall, Midlothian. The veteran com1 mander came of a military stock, for b:s ! mother was the eldest daughter of the late General Sir John Oswald, of Dunnikier, i who commanded a British division through- ' out the Peninsula «var. Major-general > Trotter obtained his commission in the ' Grenadier Guards in 1862. He was pro- ' meted to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel in 1871, and steadily rose until be was made Major-general in 1895, and two years later ! he was raised to the post of Commanding f Officer of the Home District. Unfortunately for his country, however, he never had the "hanee of . distinguishing himself in the field, a bad accident preventing him being sent out to the Boer war, or cther1 wise he would in all probability have been ; entrusted with the command which was ) conferred en General Gatacre and ended so ' disastrously at Stormberg. He was the I owner of the Mortonhall estate in Midlothian and Chesterhall estate in BerwickI shire, and was Deputy-lieutenant of Ber- , wicksliire since 1880. As a landlord ho was nofc only just but generous, and his . policy in these respects "was worthily carried out by his factor, Mr D. F. Mackenzie., The Major-general's four sons ar© all following their father's profession — that of arms. His eldest son, Algernon Richard' ■ Trover, M.V.0.. by whom he is succeeded • ' in the estates, was aide-de-camp to General Sir Redvers Buller during the South I African war, and his second son, Captain 1 Gsr-ald Trotter, is aide-d-e-camp to Earl j GJ-rey. Gov-arnor-greneral of Canada. — One of the best-known and most popular pastor-alists in New South Wales 13 Mr Charles Hunter, of Haddon Rig. Ar1 riving in Australia, he first of all went on to a cattle station in Queensland, and. gained great practical bush experience. In 1891 he took charge of Haddon Rig, the property of Mr James Richmond, in whose employ he had been for some years, and he- has remained in charge ever since. The I station at that time was 270,000 acres in I extent, but it has gradually been reduced. j until now it is what Mr Hunter calls a j stud farm, oniy 42,000 acres, with about I 20,000 sheep. There was a time when be , shore 150.000 there. Mr Hunter is ( a staunch advocate of the good! old smooth-coated merino, with folds only at tba neck; he has what he calls a great down on wrinkly sheep. JHia , fat sheep at Homebush are ever eon"spieuous, and generally fetch top proe. The quality of the Haddon Rig sheep would be hard to beat. " The flock was started in 1875 with sheep from Mr John' Sange-r, of Wangamong, and in. 1879 Mr Richmond introduced the Wanganella strain, buying many valuable drafts from Messrs Austin and Mi Hear during the" next few years. These are the only two .strains of blocd on the station. Deep culLing and rareful selection have raised the ■ flock to ih> present great reputation. Many years ago, when Mr Sanger visited Haddonv Rig. ha expressed the opinion that the Haddon Rig sheep had even beaten kiff sheep, from whom they ware descendedMr Hunter is a man everyone is always p'eased to meet, and certainly onp of out 1 representative pastoralists. — Review.

— A farmer recently paid a visit to a" neighbour, and as he passed along by the side of the fields he made a mental note of the fact that no scarecrows were visible. Meeting his neighbour almost, immediately, he opened conversation as follows: — "Good morning, Mr Oates. I see you have no scarecrows in your fields. How do you manage to do without them?" — "Oh, well enough," was the innocent reply. "You 6ee, I don't need 'em, for Fm in the fields all day myself."

— Carried to Extremes.— She : "Mr Flaxfean is unusually stingy." He: "I should Bay bo. Why, he wouldn't laugb at a. joke unless it w^s a± soo^abodv else's

— ELallow: "Yes; I'm trying to raise a moustache, and I'm wondering what colour it will be when it comes out." Miss Peppery: "Grey, I should say, a,t the xate it appeal's to be growing"