PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11200, 21 October 1899, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

The Queen dislikes the smell of furs, and especially of sealskins, very much indeed, and when she invites anybody for a drive they have to leave such wraps behind. Mr. Maurice Grau, the director of the Metropolitan Opera House Company, New York, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, has just been made a Knight of the Legion of Honour by the French Government. Sir W. H. Russell, the doyen of war correspondents, possesses an interesting trophy of his first Russian campaign. It is the little brass eagle from the shako of a Russian soldier who attempted to carry off the standard of the Guards in circumstances of exceptional bravery. Russell preserves it as a memento of one of the most striking examples of dauntless pluck he ever witnessed.

The Marquis of Bute has purchased from the Duke of Fife the ancient Priory of Pluscarden, which he proposes to restore on an elaborate scale, involving an outlay of £100,000. Part of the Priory, which is about six miles from Elgin, is occupied by the Free Church. The restoration of Old Greyfriars Church in Elgin, which the Marquis undertook some time ago, is rapidly approaching completion.

The Queen lias often expressed a great desire to go to the Holy Land, and, standing on the Mount of Olives, to look down upon the ruins of Jerusalem. So only does she think it would be possible to picture the past. With advancing years the longing grows more upon her, and it is said that none of the Royal Household would be in the least surprised if Her Majesty suddenly made up her mind to go out to Palestine.

Karl Hendrik ICruger, nephew of the Transvaal President, who was capped M.D. at the recent graduation ceremony in Edinburgh, is now in Dublin completing his professional education under the training of Irish specialists. Dr. Kruger is a fluent speaker in English, and, responding to the toast of his fellow-guests at a dinner of the Corinthian Club in Dublin the other evening, lie expressed his earnest hope and strong belief that peaceful relations would be maintained between Great Britain and his fatherland.

Mr. Charles "Wyndham, when he is studying a part, often soliloquises. He finds it is a great help in committing his lines to memory to repeat them out loud to himself. Upon one occasion he was walking in Hnmpstead Wood, shrieking out at the top of his voice some very incriminating words from a murder scene. All of a sudden a policeman, who had been watching him with some suspicion, unexpectedly sprang from behind a tree, and, seizing him by the collar, announced his intention of carrying him off to the police station.

A quaint individuality has passed away in Gloucestershire in the person of Mr. J. H. Prowde, who was at one time the leading clown in Hengler's Circus. At the zenith of his career lie accomplished the aquatic feat of navigating the Thames in o tub drawn by swans. Mr. Prowde married advantageously, became a landowner, and a major in the Volunteer Artillery. Content at first'with reading the lessons in the parish church, he subsequently started a mission hall of his own, where he preached, not without occasional relapses into former humourisms.

Mr. Sidney Cooper, R.A., is now 96 years of age, and yet- can paint without the use of spectacles. In an interview with Mr. Raymod Blathwayt, in Great Thoughts, Mr. Cooper, in reply to a question, attributed his longevity!—'" To God's providence and- mercy, for I consider myself a monument of His mercy ; and also to a certain extent to my own industry; to my system of always living temperately and living out of London! I have drunk neither tea nor coffee for over 10 years; porridge I find very sustaining, and at the same time very provocative of good appetite, whilst it keeps the head clear for a morning's work. But daily exercise and regularity in all one's habits, especially as to the hour of meals; is a great, help to good health and a long' life."