PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 203, 7 September 1901, Page 4

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) ',i

LONDON, August 2.]

Mr R. Tristram Harper was one:o! the Imperial Yeomen presented witbi medals by the King last week.

In honour of Sir George Grey's c .« ceptional services to . the Empire, the rule' that a decade shall elapse after a celebrity's death before his portrait is thing in the National Portrait Gal. lery has been relaxed. Professou Herkomer's sympathetic portrait sof the old man eloquent is now on view; at the Gallery.

I wrote you some months ago of the! experiments which Sir Tollemacfce Sinclair, of Thurso Castle, Caithness, was making himself, and encouraging his tenants to make, with seed oats. He distributed N.Z. and Ross-shire seeds among his tenants, and samples of tbe oats grown from them, and also j from Caithness . seeds, have been on exhibition. The Caithness "Courier" after an inspection observes that the N.Z. and Ross-shire (especially, the former) oats are much superior to tie Caithness. Sir' Tollemache hinv^lf i tells the Caithness people, that."* quarter of N.Z. oats has been hjade into meal at Halkirk, and. some of those who have tasted it consider tjhat it is as superior in flavour to Caithness meal as barley meal is to' here bleat," Tins fronrth. land of..."fc. rgod fi !1.,"'..,; F-- V.' _W;*-';:; 'J. ______'.7~ o" l '•l,!»'f

Mr B. J. Dudley, Univ. of Camh. and Westminster Hospital, was at a meeting Of the Royal College of Physicians last Thursday granted a license to practise physic.

Sir James Prendergast leaves ti. day iii the Orinuz on his return jo'jit. ney to N.Z. In consequenaje of the plague scare on 'the Orient liner not many • passages have been booked.by her, 'and Sir Jaihes should have pte.fitj; of room. ' , ' j

In the Central Hall of the; County School at Aberystwyth a. meeting jvas held a few days ago to bid farewell to Mr J. H. Howell, 8.A., 8.5 c.,. the new science master in Auckland Grammar School, prior to his departure for the colony. A'.c'ter valedictory speeches from the head-master; and other colleagues, David Jones, a senior pupil, read an address, ai^d Lizzie Jones, senior girl of the school, in'a neat little speech made a presentation to Mr Howell from the staff and scholars of a hand camera, and stand and some excellent pictures of County School and groups. Reference 'was made to the work done by Mr Howell in connection with the workmen's club in the Progress. Hall. He sails about the middle of August.

- Coventry was the scene of another presentation to a pilgrim bound ,X?r your shores, Mir. Walter Arch, president off the Hilifields Philanthropic Society:'« The officers of the society',;;of which Mr Arch is flying buttress, presented him with a silver snuff-box; suitably engraved, and an illuminated 1 list of past and present officers of the society, ..and M . ■;s}%<__ ..- iit^,j*..la^4 companion. ' "' < ■•;.,

A lady corresponded c ofltribli,§t the following pen portrait 6f yosi? "Governess" to/M.A.P.: "Lady Ran . furly is a handsome brunette,.' with large dark eyes and masses of dusky, hair, which she Wore cut across the front in the original straight fringe,, long after everyone else had" discarded J it. Her features are well marked, and' she has a singularly sweet ex• : pression, which harmonises with her. genial, pleasant manners. . There is not a particle "of 'side' about her,"nbr does she allow any undue formality; to mar the success of. her entertainments in N.Z., though no one better, understands how. to maintain, the dignity of her high position.* Well read, and with a cultured mind, she haf neyer been very keen about sport, hut in her younger days delighted in dane-1 ing, and often 'took part in the gay national dance, which from time ijnrnemorial has opened St. Patrick's ball at Dublin Castle."

On Tuesday at Marlborough Houije the King presented war medals won in the Boer and AsKanti wars to some 500 soldiers, including a large number of officers, among.whom were '.th?!.' Duke of Norfolk, Colonel Sir Howard Vincent, Major John Willoughby, a.\\iy Mr Winston Churchill, M.P.j So'iitJi African Light horse, a detachment of ; West Australians, a detachment Of Lumsden's Horse, a detachmentiof the Ist Battalion Central African Regiment, and IQ9 nurses and nursing sisters. A pretty feature of the. cere- . m'ony was 'the interest manifested.by; Prince Edward and princess Victoria in the proceedings. The colonial's who received their medals at the King's hand were: Lieutenant-Colonel E. T. Wallack, Tasmanian, Pexj»aneni «*»"; CJapt^A. Molmes;'isC'linperial Bushmen (TSr.S.W.); Lieutenant. X... f Beatty, Victorian M.1.; Lieut. W;fc A. R. J. Deswar, &th N.Z. RegiflientV Private R^ Smith, Queensland M.J..

In the detachment of West Austplians were: Ist contingent^ Lieutenant B. S. Leasey; 2nd contingent, LieUten.' ant A. H. Barclay, Trooper D. J. Stewart; 3rd con'tiiigent. Captain 78-, Er Hurst, Lieutenant R. R. C. Vernon and six non-coms, and troopers. AmPfl?. the Westralians were an officer, "wi% an artificial leg, and another with, a disabled arm, both of whom "W£r. regarded with marked sympathy bj" the Queen. ......