PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8842, 2 April 1892, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Tut many admirers of " Edna Lyall' will be glad to hear that she has now quite recovered from her long illness, and that though attacked by the influenza just after Christmas, she was soon able to resume work, and is now writing a novel, which will appear as a serial in one of the magazines next year. Mr. and Mrs. Rudyard Kipling, who have been spending their honeymoon quietly in London, intend, the Bookman says, to pioceed by and-by to America, accompanied by Mrs. and Miss Balestier. Thereafter they go on a journey round the world, paying in the course of it a visit to Mr. Stevenson at Samoa. Mr. Rider Haggard usually writes three or four thousand words a day, sitting down about half-past four, working on till dinnertime, and again resuming the thread of his story at night for an hour or two. An important residen"' of Ids working-room is Jack, a tame rat, who l- 1 liberally supplied with nuts, which he readily cracks. \\ hen members began to enter the House of Commons one day lately they found the long-absent wanderer, Lord Randolph Churchill, returned, lie occupied his old place in the corner seat behind the Treasury bench. He has now grown a large beard, which is tinned with grey, and lie looks healthy and sunburnt. The noble lord used assiduously to pull and curl his moustache, but this attention he now bestows on his beard, which he stroked with paternal affection. ' His presence attracted little attention.

Walt Whitman was the recipient of a tomb which was specially built for and presented to him. It is in Harleigh Cemetery, near Camden, and is " set in a side hill under a gnarled oak." The poet himself selected the design, which was afterwards executed in granite. An idea of the ponderous nature of the structure can be forme from the statement that the front alone weighs seventy tons. hitman drove out occasionally to see the tomb while it was being erected, and lie recently gave directions about planting ivy, which he whishes to cover it.

The Bishop of Salisbury recently offered to an old labourer at the episcopal palace the post of lodge-keeper, intimating at tho same time that it was a life appointment. The labourer, however, declined the office, on tho ground that he would bo expected to attend church if he took it, and, as he had always gone to chapel, so he meant to continue doing to the end. Dr. Wordsworth openly and cordially expressed admiration at the man's honest independence, installed him at once in the office and told him he was free to worship where his conscience dictated.

Mr. Gladstone, in spite of his weight of years, continues to be the youngest and healthiest of us all. At St. Raphael, where he is now staying, he exhibits the same physical vitality and exuberance of spirits that were noted with such satisfaction at Biarritz. He is up early, and out exploring in tho congenial companionship of Mr. Stuart Rondel, and exhausting his host by his quick, nervous stride and impetuous energy. Mrs. Gladstone is in better health than she has been for some time, and, indeed, since the death of her eldest son; bub age demands a greater consideration from her than ib does from her husband.

A Copenhagen correspondent of the Hungarian publication, Salon et Sport, supplies that journal with some interesting details of the Czar's visit to Fredensbor. His Majesty is described as a capital boxer, and is said to take a keen interest in pugilistic sports, in which he often figures as a redoubtable combatant. During a recent representation of Wagner's " Waikure," at the Theatre Royal at Copenhagen, his Majesty, whose detestation of Wagner's works is well known, left the playhouse in disgust, and repaired, in tympany with his brother-in-law, Prince Waldemar, to a private apartment in the theatre. Here the two men drew up their coat sleeves, and boxed with much dexterity. The Czar, who is possessed of prodigious strength, after a while floored his rival so cleanly that the Prince was stunned by the fail. His Majesty called for ice, which he applied, and on the restoration of the Prince the royal boxers returned to the royal box.