HOME GOSSIP.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5335, 20 March 1879, Page 3

HOME GOSSIP.

' (By " Atlas," in the " World.") I hear that there is little or no hope of another novel from the pen of George Eliot, at least for years. George Henry Lewes left at hia death an additional work on positive Philosophy, to the completion of George Eliot has already begun to uevote all her time and energies, Her readrj^ will hear with mixed feelings of the Employment of a fine originative genins on the work of repetition, interpretation, and explanation. It has been very generally stated in the English and Irish press that the proceeds of the subscription raised in Ireland to offer a wedding-gift to the Duke of Connaught are to be devoted to the purchase of Monaven Castle, in the county of Galway, belonging to the Ffrench family. As the estate, which is of about fifteen thousand acres, is valued at from £160,000 to £180,000, while the subscription for the marriage-gift of the Eoyal Duke amounts to some £3000, the owner must be credited with an amount of loyalty and patriotism unusual even in Ireland if he be disposed to sell his birthright for so small a mess of pottageproud as, of course, he might be at seeing the home of his ancestors "pass into such noble hands as those of the first of the Princes of our realm who will have become a landed proprietor in Ireland. The entire report is, I need scarcely say, absolutely, without foundation. A German physician, whoso position precludes any doubt of his_ veracity, writes to assure me that there is no ti-uth whatever in the statement published last week to the effect that Sir William Jenner on his arrival at Darmstadt desired the removal of his illustrious patient, the late Princess Alice, or that his wish, in this respect was overruled by the German doctors; nor is there any truth in the announcement that the ac.couchemenei of an English lady of title, now resident in Berlin, is to be conducted by an English physician on account of the Avant of faith "in German skill : the fact being that the services of an English accoucheur of the highest eminence — not the gentleman named last week — were retained long before the illness which proved fatal to the Princess set in. The Patent Office is choked with plans from all manner of invontors for all manner of utilising the electric light. There is hardly a useful purpose of life to which some inventer does not intend to apply the electric spark, but one of the latest is likely soon to be revealed. It is an invention by one of the most distinguished scenic artistes to apply the Edisonian principle to exceedingly novel stage effects. I do not suppose that any of the Apostles left six thousand pounds' worth of property behind him in the world ; but the amount is an exceedingly small fortune for a prosperous Cardinal to have accumulated. It represents all the worldly goods of the late Cardinal Cullen, however ; and yet considerably more than a million of money was bequeathed to him, one way or another. Nearly half of the amount was found in cash, and would probably have disappeared in unheard-of charity, had the Cardinal lived a few jbojiths longer. From the British fleet in Eastern waters : A young midshipman went out to join his ship, commanded by a gallant officer, otherwise rather a don. He was met on deck by the captain, who said, " Well, youngster, so you've come to join us. I suppose it's the old story — the fool of the family, eh ! Haw, haw !" To which the middy replied, in a squeaky voice, " O no, sir ; it's all changed since your day. " Exit captain. Two tall Englishmen at Rome made an appointment to meet each other in St. Peter's at the high mass on Christmas Day, but missed each other in the crowd of visitors. They waited patiently for the elevation of the Host, when these tall champions of Protestantism immediately discovered each other, for everyone else had the grace to kneel down. At this same mass a Scotch countess in a tribune w^s talking and laughing as if she were in a theatre. The chamberlain on duty happened to be an Englishman, and told her, yin her own tongue, that talking was forbidden. " But lam a Protestant," said ' the countess. "I am sorry for you, madam," answered the chamberlain ; but still you must not talk." I have a friend, a prima donna, who , gays very quaint things sometimes. It so happened she crossed the tumbling waves of the Irish Channel recently, in the middle of one of those vile storms they ■wire to us nowadays from America. She described' the unutterable miseries of the voyage, and finally assured me most solemnly that at one moment she was so wretched that she " all but threw up her operatic engagement for next season at —— ; " at which statement I foolishly began to laugh, and consequently heard no more. What luck some babies have ! A gallant colonel in the Guards, returning the other night to his chambers in Hawickplace, found on the doorstep an interest-ing-looking parcel, and on getting the porter to examine the contents, a fine boy about eighteen months old was revealed. What could the colonel do in such weather but give the little fellow shelter and protection? What followed was this : A charming lady, who has no famiiyof her own, hearing of the incident went to see the little foundling, who/ captivated no doubt by her beauty and brightness, immediately put out its little arms and encircled her neck with ■« them. After such an ebullition, can any • one b'esurpised thatithas ended in the lady permanently adopting this waif, and this with the entire approval and consent of her husband, who is delighted witli the acquisition? # During this severe weather many people have begun to realise the scandalous way in which houses have been built in and about London during the last twenty years. They find mansions that they are paying one hundred and fifty and two hundred pounds rent for are as full of holes as a colander, No amount of fires,

* hot-Water pipes, and! gas-stoves' is sufficient to keep them warm, and tie whole 3 place is as draughty as behind the scenes c at Drury Lane Theatre on Boxing-nightJ * He was a simple sportsman who did not often go to church, but he had been much impressed with the parable of Lazarus and 3 > Dives, notably with that portion of it in . wliich the attentions of the dogs to the 3 cripple are set forth. Months after he 1 went with his she-cousins to a concert at 5 St. James's Hally and heard a man play 1 the clarionet wonderfully. "What's his ! name ?" he asked. They replied L " Lazarus." He pondered a moment, and ! then muttered, ' ( It would take a eleven ! dog to lick that beggar." 1 A letter from Cyprus tells me that Sir Garnet is not likeiy to remain much longer [ as ruler, and that his recall, at his own , desire, is imminent. He has nothing to do, and is sick of ennui. As for transforming the island into an abode of tho blessed, if it could be done at all, Sir Garnet has not the men to do it. The natives will not improve their style of agriculture, nor will they make roads nor build cities which they do not want. The Royal Engineers are worked* to* death, have made any number of surveys and models and maps, and done a good deal of delving ; but they have thrown up no impregnable fortresses, and are rather tired of their work as unacknowledged tillers of the soil. Indeed, a despairing individual on the staff, whose wish is occasionally father to the thought, has arrived at the conclusion that the place is to be abandoned by and by altogether.