Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 382, 3 September 1903, Page 2

Personalities.

HE IE TO TITLES AND WEALTH. JKTKHE little sob who has been horn to |it'(\fc the Dnke and Duchess of HamilOsL* ton is beir to a most imposing array of titles besides the dukedom of Hamilton, his father being, so to speak, two or three dukes (amongst the number he claims a Fronch dukedom), two marquises, four earls and a baron. The Duge, who is a premier peer of Scot* land, is a good deal of an invalid, and was looked upon as a confirmed bachelor until he astonished his friends by marrying pretty Miss Nina Poore, the younger sister of Major Poore of cricketing fairhe. The major, who is not only the beet cricketer tut one of the finest all-round athletes in the army, had previcusly married the Duke's sister, L&dy Flora, so that the two families are quite inextricably related. The Duke of Hamilton, by the way, is descended from the fourth duke, so that he was only a very distant connection of the twelfth cuke, whom he succeeded. His father was a captain in the navy, and hia mother a clergyman's daughter. The estate of the Hamiltons comprises 157 000 acres, worth Js74,COQ a year, plus ,£67 000 from minerals, EDNA LYALL. Miss Ada Eilen Bayly more familiarly known to her many readers as Edna- Lyall, c»,me of a legal rather than of a literary family. Her Grandfather was a Bencher and treasurer of Grey's Inn, her father a barrister of the Inner Temple, her orily brother, the R&v. R. Burgess Bayly, though a member of th.3 Inner Temple, and still retaining bis grandfather's chambers, is the Vicar of the beautiful parish of Bosbnry, in Herefordshire, On her mother's Bide she was descended from that distinguished divine Thomasj Bradbury, who was known as 'Bold Bradbury/ in Queen Anne's time. Prom a Brighton boarding school Edna Lyall, .having lost both father'and mother, went to the home •: f her brcther-in-law, who was in holy orders ab Lincoln. Lincoln is generally supposed to be the Ilchester of ' Won by Waitinsr,' which she wrote when about eighteen years of age. At Lincoln 'We Two' was alto written, as well as the greater part cf 'Donovan,' which was finished during a visit to Italy. In 1887, her bretber-inlaw, the Sev. H. G. Jame son, accepted a curacy at Eastborne, and has since become vicar of St. Peter's in that town j and here in a pretty parson age heme all Eina Lyall's other stories were written. Even the salubrious air of Eastbourne, however, was of no avail to a constitution naturally delicate, and several times her literary labours were suspended by severe attacks of illness. The popularity of Edna Lyall's works, although it is not disproportionate to their literary merits, is doubtlessly partly owing to the lofty purpose with which they have been written, THE DUC D ORLEANS. , Now fully reconciled with the English Court, the Dae d'Orleans ia becoming a figure in Society. Thirty-four years of age, he is a mighty hunter and a particularly fine shot. At York House is a regular museum filled with the trophies of his rifle, get in many lands. In Sicily, where he possesses vast estates left to him by bis great-üßcle, the late Dae d'Aumale, the Dae interests himself in wine-growing, sometimes dressing is the picture? qae costume of the Sicilian peasants, and helping to get in the ' 'vendange* with"his own hands. The Due d'Orleans is the brother of the handsome and stately Duchess d'Aosta, who is an immense favourite ia England, and with the royal family generally. The Duehesee d'Orleans is also a fries<2 ..of Queen Alexandra, and there exists a charming photograph of the two 103 al ladies taken at the time of Princess Isabette d'Orleans mariiage to the Dae de Gu ; sa, DOM PEEOSI. The y< ung Italian priest-composer, Dom Pore si, who has been appointed to the post of Chief of the Sehola Cantorum at the Vatican, has followed up his appoii tment by the interesting announcement that he expects to produce a new oratorio. The title of the woik is ' The Last Judgment,' and the composer has shrunk from none of the responsibilities inseparable from a theme so full of awful associations. The composer is jast over thirty jearß of age, but he was only six-and-twenty when Borne went wild over his oratorio, 'The Resurrection of Christ,' and he wa3 proclaimed one of the greatest of mcd;>rn musicians. Even at that early age he had composed twenty-five Masses, aTe Deum, and hymns, psalms, and so forth without .number. Dom Peroai is anything but an ce jthetic-looking priest, being rather plump of face, with crisp, dark hair. He ia absolutely devoted to his art, but jloes not care for public applause. When he has conducted his works in public the enthusiasm of his audiences has generally had the effect of scaring him. Hia happiest hours are spent in his Tuscan home, where he finds recreation in gardening. SIR JAMES PERGUSSON, MP. The latest victim to cib travelling in the rush and roar of London's streets, Sir James Fergueeon, is ore of the oldest members of the House of Commons. He sat by the Dake of Wellington's ceffia in the hall of Chelsea Hospital, aad took part in the great funeral pageant wiiich lasted for him from six o'clock on a winter morning until six o'clock on a winier night. He was called home by telegraph to sail in the procession of the allied fleets to the Crimea, and while in the Crimea his friends at home sent him to Parliament in the place of a brother officer who had fallen in the war. The Parliaments of Palmers ton and Lord John Russell—in which the great figures who fill the pages of history were making the names* which will not die-—were all real to Sir James Fergusson. He knew Lord Palmerston as Premier —popular, ready, witty; Lord Russell —experienced, rude,influential; Disraeli, Gladstone, and Peel, Bright, Cobden, and Lord Robert Cecil 'fast making their reputations.' Pergusson is the third wife of Sir James, who married over fifty years age a daughter of the first Marquis of Dalhousie, who was Governor-General of India, and whose raarquisate of the United Kingdom became extinct with hira. Sir James's second wife was the daughter of a coloaiet in South Australia, and the Lady Pergusson of to-day is the daughter of a clergyman and the widow of Mr. Chas. Hoare, who died ten years ago;BREEZY LORD CHARLIE. Lord Charles Beresford's appointment to the command of the Channel Squadron once more breads his Parliamentary career. One of the breeziest sailors in the British Navy, Lord Charles first entered the House of Commons as member for Waterford in 1874, and he retained hia seat till lfiSO. Five years later he again entered the l'sts, and was returned for East Maryiebone. for which constituency he sat from 18S5 to 1889. After a further spell of service with his fleet he secured a seat at York. His tenure of Woolwich is he shortest of all,