COUNTESS OF SEAFIELD

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 19

COUNTESS OF SEAFIELD

HER ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED

(From "Th« Post's" Representative) LONDON, 16th-January. " The engagement of the Countess of Seafield, which was recently reported ana immediately denied, has now been announced officially. The notice says: "An engagement is announced between Mr. Derek Herbert Studley Herbert, son of Mr. and Mrs. John-Tatchell Studley, of Scarborough Court, Dorsetshire, late of the Grenadier Guards, and Nina Caroline Countess of Seafield, daughter of James, 11th Earl of Seafield, 30th Chief of the Clan Grant, who died of wounds received in action on 12th November, 1915, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Nina, of Cullen House, Banffshire, and Castle Grant. Mr. D. H. Studley Herbert was the'heir of Captain H. Herbert, and took his name" and arms by deed poll when he attained his majority. The marriage will take place at the end of April on,' the return of the Dowager Countess of ■ Seafield, x mother of the Countess'of Seafield, from tho White Nile."-, ■" :■• ' ' -' •-• ■■■ ' • The Countess, now 23 years of age, is; in a rather unusual position as regards a.modern girl, because she does not come of age with respect to much of her Scotch property until she is 35, and the permission of her trustees is actually necessary .before her marriage can take place/ This .explains the de-. nial that had to be issued when rumours' of the romance began to spread before the trustees had .official cognisance of tho fact. :•" ■■..'■'■ ;■ . : The "Daily' Telegraph" comments: "Mr. Studley Herbert will have a very lovely and very accomplished bride, who has not allowed great possessions to dazzle her, and who has always1 been efficiently chaperoned by her mother. Her travels have extended to Burma, Africa, and Australia, and almost invariably her cousin, Mark Ogilvie Grant, was of:the party. He is a clever young man, a great botanist, a clever caricaturist, and very like his 'cousin in appearance. Lady Seafield plays both the 'cello and piano well. According to' "The Daily Chronicle" if the Countess married before attaining the age of thirty-five and without obtaining the consent of her trustees she would forfeit much of her capital. The writer continues: "It is still quite a common precaution ; for girls with large estates or fortunes in. trust not to come into control until a later age than 21. Although 21 is-the legal time of coming of age, it is possible for estates to be held in trust for. a woman until she attains any reasonable age. Twenty-five, the most common, and 30, until recently the age at which women obtained the right to exercise the vote, are ages often chosen by people v who do not believe that women are sufficiently responsible to control large sums of money at 21. Thirty-five is certainly rather a late age, and there is no doubt that should the heiress be able to prove that her trustees were entertaining only frivolous objections to her fiance, their ' objection could bo overruled in Court." For a good many years the young Countess has been much in the limelight of the Press, for her position as Countess in her own right has made her more than usually interesting, and her appearance has given an added interest. Until about a year ago she possessed a great wealth.of golden hair worn in becoming coils; now it is shingled. Times without number it has been said of Lady Seafield that she bears a marked facial resemblance to Queen Victoria in her young days. She has lately been among leaders of the revival of m.di-Victorian fashions, including longer skirts. ■ •