ABOUT PEOPLE. NOTES AND REMINISCENCES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 11

ABOUT PEOPLE.

NOTES AND REMINISCENCES.

"There is nothing showy in the appearance or the debating style of Sir Edward Grey," says the Parliamentary correspondent of the British Weekly. ''Some members dres,s carefully when they are to deliver an important speech, but Sir Edward's attire is certainly not fastidious. Everything about him is unpretentious. lie is not eloquent; his humour is restrained ; he is never ornate, and his sentences, indeed, are not always well finishod. Yet, as a rule M'hen he speaks he gradually wins the interest and sympathy of the House ; and at the close, for instance, of his last speech he was cheered with as sustained and deep a cheer as if ho had spoken with the voice of John Bright. His success is tho more notable seeing that he is seldom seen on the Treasury Bench, and the House is an exacting master. It is only the strong man who is allowed to maintain nn air of aloofness. Out of a. full mind Sir Edward Grey speaks, and the charm which ho exercises may be due partly to his. stiong, distinguished individuality, and the frankness and courage of his speech. The bold candour of his words is set off by the reserve of his temperament." When the reformers who intend to "nationalise everything" roach the question of how to redistribute hereditary properties they will probably give early; attention to the several splendid estate's of the Marquis of Bute, to whom a son and heir has just been born (writes a London correspondent). The young Marquis's slice of this little .country amounts to 117,000 acres, and he owns a great deal of town and industrial property as well. He is obliged to employ a small army of managers, and hi 3 general supervision of their work keeps him almost as busy and worried as a Cabinet Minister. Historically his position is a remarkable one. In addition to his marquisate he holdft three earldoms, three viseounties and four baronies. His personal acquaintances among London clubmen say he would be regarded in any sphere as a "sound man," and they think ho oupht to take eomc share in public life. When he married, a couple of years ago, he professed a taste for political work, but he has apparently not found himself able to combine 'it with his multiplicity of private interests. Mr. Burdett-Coutts is selling Holly Lodge, Hishgnte. It is within four miles of Charing Cross, and comprises sixty acres. Mr, Burdott-Coutts, addressing some visitors to the estate, said that every ,part of the estate was filled with memories of the baroness, who made a noble and-. gracious use of it for the enjoyment of others. It was her home for very many years, ' and -t was a tremendous wrench to him to have to part with it. Holly Lodge had been very little seen by the rising generation, but, broadly speiking, durirjr the last 6ixty years it had been a place where genuine and typical hospitality had been extended to visitors from tno colonies and from foreign parts, and they were welcomed there with a kindliness and grace of which they would not expect him to speak. The num«s of Holly Lodge was familiar to tbouteiindn in the outer parts of the Empiru. He could imagine no more grntiful and, from an Imperial point oi view, more creditable position than that of a purchaser who could and would carry on those traditions in which that estate overlooking and yet right within the capital city was so rich." The King has been pleased to confer a knighthood of the Most Honourable Or der of the Bath. Civil Division, upi.n Sir Archibald Geikie, secretary of the Royal Society. Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S.. F.G.S., is one of the most distinguished of British geologists. He ia in his seventy-second year, and has been successively Director *of the Geological Survey of Scotland and Director-Gene-ral of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. From this last office he' retired in 1901, the event being celebrated by a banquet at which muny of the leading men o$ scitnee of the day were present. Sir Archibald has been one of the most voluminous of living writers on his favourito study, more than ono of his works being a classic of geologic science, as, for example, his "TeAt Book of Geology," "Geological Sketches," "The Scenery of Scotlan-1," and "Tho Ancient Volcanoes of Britain." He has received many honours. He was F.K.b. before he was thirty ; he received one of the society's Royal medals, and the Wolbston and Murchison medals of the Geological Society; and is an associate of n-.ost of the chief academies of Europe and America. Sir Archibald was knighted in 1891. The honour now conferred is a further distinction. The GeiVies nre a geological family. Sir Archibald's younger brother, Dr. James Goikio, F.R,.5. , is professor of geology and mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh, and author of several well-known works, among them that fine story of the glacial epoch, "Tho Great Ice Age." Field-Marshal Sir Frederick Paul Haines, G.C.8., received many congratulations on his eighty-eighth birthday, the gallant veteran having boen born on 10th August. 1819. Sir Frederick, who is the senior Field-Marshal, recently completed his cixty-eighth year of activo service, and he is one of the small band of survivors of the memorable Sutlej campaign of 1845, in which ho acted as military secretary to Sir Hugh Goucjh, then commanding the Army in India. In this capacity ho took part in the battles of MoodVec and Feimeßhah, being severely wounded in tho latter- Ip the campaign which shortly afterwards occurred in the Punjaub, Sir Frederick scarcely misled an action of importance ; arid in the Crimean War he purticipnted in all the principal battles, including Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, and the siege of Sebastopol, for which he wears many decorations. In 1876 ho was tip pointed Comm.inder-in-Chief of the It. dian Army, with the rank of General, and three years later earned the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, "for the ability and judgment with which ho <3i rected operations" in tho second Afghan War. Awarded tho Grand Cross of the Bnth in 1877, he received a Field-Mar-shal's baton in 1890. Sir Frederick has been colonel of the Bth Foot, the 104 th Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and is «t present Hon. Chief of ths Royal Scots Fusiliers. "Newfoundlanders are very proud," says the Glasgow Herald, "of the knighthood which has been conferred by the King upon their distinguished citizen, Mi 1 . Robert Gillospit Reid, of St. John's, N.F., whose nchiovements in the fields of constructive cnterpiiao ami of general commerce have been notable beyond common, and havo done much to promote tho expansion of the Domfnion, and in later yeais of tho cilony of Newfoundland. Born m Coupar'-Anfjus in 1844, Robert Reid served his apprenticeship to the trade of a stone, mason and building contractor, and with the culling at his finger-ends ho early sought n wider field for his energies. Proceeding to Australia ho joined a ramp of gold-diggers, with whom he wrought for a timt, but he soon found that )>a could employ hU tuleucm to better 7,<ivuntttg© by .pructisiiuz hib akUI as a builder."