PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9157, 25 March 1893, Page 12 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Dr. Wielobycki, President of the Society for the Study of Inebriety in London, is one hundred years old. Mr. J. O. Westward, M.A., Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford, has just died in that city. Mr. W. T. Koden, a portrait painter well known in the Midlands, died at Birmingham on Christmas Day at the advanced age of 75. Nasr-ed-Din, Shah of Persia, has reigned for 44 years. He is the only Persian potentate who has ventured to leave those dominions for protracted European tours. The death is announced of the eminent engraver Paul Le Rat. Many of Meissonier's pictures were engraved by him, as also some portraits drawn by himself. He obtained a gold medal at the 1888 exhibition. All musicians will learn with regret that it has been found necessary to shut up the celebrated pianist Hans von Biilow in a lunatic asylum at Pankow, in the environs of Berlin. For somo time past Herr von Biilow had shown signs of mental derangement. Mr. T. E. Brown, the author of " Fo'c's'le Yarns," recently resigned his mastership at Clifton, is now settled in the Isle of Man, and is engaged upon a new volume of poems. We understand that the forthcoming unlike Mr. Brown's previous books, will not be devoted entirely to Manx subjects, bub will contain a selection from his lyrics. Lord Wontwortb, who opposes tho retention of Uganda, is tho only surviving male descendant of Byron. He is the son of the poet's daughter Ada, who married tho Earl of Lovelace, and had three children, of whom ono is dead and another is married to Mr. Wilfred Sea wen Blunt. Lord Wentworth is a Radical of very strong convictions. At one time he held opinions on the duty of working with one's own hands for a living not unlike Tolstoi's ; and, indeed, he is said at one time to have earned his bread by the sweat of his brow for his own amusement.

Mr. W. K. Vanderbilfc, the American millionaire, has just built for himself a marble palace at Newport, U.S. The staircase alone cost somo £30,000. The feature of tho interior is said to be the carved woodwork oxtending almost to tho ceiling in tho main rooms. It took six skilled workmon all the winter to adjuet the woodwork in the grand salon alone, although it came from Franco, as all the rest did, in

sections, It is entirely gilded, and the upper corners are of papier-mache. The bronze figures, life size, holding the mantelshelf represent Night and Morning. Another of our minor poets has passed to his rest. Born at Haddenly, a small village on the uplands of tho broad-acred shire, John Swain sang with all the breeziness of his native hills, and though his stylo was homely it had ever an honest and manly ring. His earlier efforts found ephemeral publication in the poet's corner of tho local press, but some of them came under tho notice of the late Lord Houghton, who helped the writer to a comfortable berth in tho Post Office, from which he retired some years ago on a pension. The best known of his works are "Cottage Carols" and "Tho Harp of the Hills." Many years ago, as an ancestor of tho present Sir Watkin Williams Wynn was riding in the neighbourhood of Wrexham, he heard someone sing in a coopor's workshop with whose voice ho was very much struck. It was Mr. Meredith. Sir Watkin had him instructed, and he became celebrated as a singor of sacred music. Having once hoard that a parish olerk in tho Valo of Clwyd, of the name of Griffiths, could sing down to double C, ho was detormined to visit him. Ho accordingly started and walked forty miles. When ho arrived in tho village he inquired for Griffiths A very littlo fellow digging potatoes in a garden was pointed to him. " What," said Meredith to himself, " that shrimp of a fellow sing lower than 1 can ! Impossible !" Meredith was a fine, tall man, upwards of six feet high. Ho walked around tbo gardon, eyeing Griffiths disdainfully. At length ho said upon low (',, "Good day to you, sir." Griffiths, resting upon his spade, replied upon double low 0, "Good day to you, sir." Upon which the disconcerted Meredith marked off with double C ringing l in his ears all the way to Liverpool.