PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11986, 7 June 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

/-',.,-' -: i.;" '• —-—*- - ; ?.,.;'•'..; ; The death is announced at the age of sixty-. eight of Mr. Morris, Honorary Retired Associate of the Royal Academy. ~ !.\\ ./ • Queen Alexandra, : as head and chief qf the - Royal Nursing J Service; * has;' by " special desire," consented to have per name asso- ; ; ciated with this, branch of the Royal Navy, .henceforth it is :to; be known a« "Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing, Service." * Trooper the Rev. C. Pierrepoiyt Edwards, Essex * Imperial Yeomanry, who; is vicar of West Mersen, and known; as' the'" Fighting Parson." was presented, to | the /King' at the late levee. 5 - It is stated that' His Majesty specially "desired-to see-the only Clerk in Holy Orders who had enlisted as a trooper. .'Professor. T. W. Rhys Dacids. LL.D., , who has been elected a member of the Royal ■ Society of Sciences of Denmark, has ; been Professor of Pali and Buddhist Literature in University College, London. since 1882. He is the author of many works, including "Buddhist Birth',Stories," "Ancient Coins arid' Measures' of Ceylon." " Sacred Books of "the Buddhists.',; and " Dialogues of the ■- Buddha." ' ' 1 A somewhat backhanded compliment has ! ■ just beep paid to Lord Ampthill, the Governor of Madras, the people of a* Southern Indian State. '.His lordship is a man of immense physical proportions.' Whether by accident pi' design the authorities at the railway station at which ! ,he arrived laid down on the platform a carpet bearing the figure of an elephant, and beneath' it the words, "Good morning, Jumbo." . ~ / Professor Aripiqius Vambery, upon whom the -King has recently conferred the Victorian Order, has had one of; the most romantic records of modern times. At twelve he was apprppticed to a ladies' dressmaker,', but afterwards took to teaching. Next he entered a school at St. Georgp. Presbrirg, helped , ( by various friends, ■ and was soon able to speak Latin with fluency. - In 1846 ' he; entered school at i Coronation, where he struggled lo support himself, und.auqted by want and privations. J ; His holidays were spent in tramping through the country. At, sixteen he vras conversant witlv*several lan- I guages. ' r ßy. u the time he hal reached his twe'pt,jptlp/.ye;ir ho Jiacl become one of the most Accomplished linguists in Europe. Professor Vambery -is now in , his seventy-first year.;,; " .;;;'';' .' : ". •".'. : /'/../;-, j ',".- :■ , The new Earl of ..' Kimberley will,,*it is presumed, take his seat in due course jn the Chamber which , his ; distinguished father adorned tor so long a" period, but the time was when, to the consternation .of .' his friends, -he publicly expressed his wish that the august, assembly should be swept a\yay altogether. As Lord. Wodehouse he entertained at one time 'the idea of -contest? ing East Norfolk against Ifr. (now' Sir ; Edward) .Birkheck, from whp otmhe seat was subsequently; wrested by the present jf\e«\-her,-Mr,, R. J. J Price. Curiously, ope of tl'(p(-Jat'e Earl;of Kimherley's. ancestors— John Wodehouse. who died ip , 1465 —was actuallvj fined for declining the' honour , of i knighthood, although two other; ancestors ' received, that honour —one from Henry I. ' and the 1 other from -Queen Elizabeth. V The family, motto, " Agincourt," was granted by Henry V, as (i reword for valour on the part of one of his lordship's, ancestors'.' .._ .'">- . From classical professor in a colon cql- ! lege tc: a . seat on" the .crimson benches of tqe House of Lords;is a big jump, "but; it wijs accomplished bv the Earl of ■ Stamford. His succession recalls r 01m of tjie most re- j cent:' romances of flip i peerage. * How far ; away he was removed frpni the direct line is shown by the fact that, tyliereas lie "is the ninth earl/his lather, 'the- Rev. William Grey, was the great-grandson of the fourth' eat-l/ The last Lord Stanford was an eccentric character, who never took his seat at; Westminster, •but' lived Jl for ( forty years in South' • Africa,; where he " married a Zulu belle, and became practically a 1; Zulu himself. / At hjs death the opponents of the hereditary hopse were pleased at the'prpspect of a ! half-caste, woolly-headed pper presenting himself to the Lord Chancellor, but the ,' Committee, ot Privilege found the rightful heir in Mr. William Grey, a native qf Newfoundland, and ' professor :of classic? arid ; . philosophy in Codringtorj College, Barba-' , does* ; , ■ ' /::.-;,- -