GOSSIP AND NEWS ITEMS.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7611, 23 July 1890, Page 6

GOSSIP AND NEWS ITEMS.

The Rev. Marquis of Normanby, who succeeds his late father in the marquisate a couple of months since, has decided to retire from the living of Worsley, in Lancashire, and to accept definitely the chaplaincy of the English church at San Hemp. He is now forty-four years of age. His brother, Lord Henry Phipps, who is Aye years his junior, has long been a resident .of Queensland. Newsvendors (says a Home paper) occa--BionaUyfabricatesenß_tionalitems of information in order to seU their copies. That is, of course, unpardonable. But there is at least some excuse for the man who was heard bawling "Arrest of the Sultan" the other night. The first entry in the contents bUlof the paper in question ran, "ILMJS. Sultan in Dock." It is stated that some of the Rothschild family have purchased, at the high figure of __>,Qoofr, or about £33,600 sterling, the identical clock manufactured by the Royal hands of the ill-fated Louis XVL in the days when he was more actively and congenially employed in his workshop than in the, Council Chamber. This curious timepiece for a long time was an historic heirloom in the possession of an English famUy, and it has been bought at St. Petersburg. * Avery unfortunate incident, resulting in an Englishman being shot dead by a sentry,, is reported from Genoa. The unfortunate man was walking apparently, and no doubt ignorantly, where tne pubUc, are not aUowed admittance, and the-; sentry states that he challenged him three times in the usual way. To these challenges the man is alleged to have made no j reply, probably because he did not under- ] stand them, and the sentry thereupon fired, killing the man on the spot. The name of the victim of this excess of mUitary ardour is said to be Henry Layds (?>. He is described as being a stoker oa an English ship with the impossible name of Trawanjao. These, however, are the names given by the Italian papers. The smallness of the amount of personal estate left behind by the late Marquis of Normanby, who was successively Governor of Nova Scotia, New Zealand and Victoria, has come as a surprise to most people. The exact amount is £39213s 2d. It is also notified as passing strange that this septuagenarian peer dia not make his will until March 28th last—six days, in fact, before he died. His son, the Bey. Constantine Charles Henry, who succeeds to the title, also comes in for " the whole of the property," the value of which is not given. The £592 odd is subject to specific bequests of certain effects ac Oakdale and Bridgewater House to the testator's daughters, Lady Laura Hampton, and ____herine, Countess of EUesmere. It is clear that the deceased Marquis could have saved nothing at aU out of his salary as Colonial Governor, and that he must have Uved up to his pension. A curious incident occurred at the Royal MUitary Exhibition recently. In the buUding thsre is an automatic machine which suppUes a photographic portrait of some " celebrity" or other to anyone who "puts a penny in the slot," An elderly and matronly lady, being under the impression that this was the new contrivance for taking photographs, of which she had heard so much, duly inserted a bronxe coin in the aperture; then, posing herself before the machine, and assuming her most pleasing expression, calmly awaited .he result. After an interval of a i few seconds the result came; but, alas 1 when the lady opened the drawer the photograph she extracted therefrom displayed, not her own form and features, but the figure of a female acrobat in full professional costume 1