ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13948, 2 January 1909, Page 6 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.]

LujitEY Castle, the seat of the Earl of Scarborough, is a beautiful mansion situated above the River Wear. In tlio great hail may be seen a series of portraits of the Lumleys, whoso ancestry goes back hundred's of years. There is a good anecdote told concerning a visit paid by King James I. to Lnmley Castle. The owner of the castle was somewhat boastful, and also very proud of his pedigree, and ho commenced retailing the glory and antiquity of the Lumloys at such length that James, who was intensely bored, turned to him and begged him to desist, adding, "By my soul. I did not know before that Adam was a Lualley!"

The Queen of Hanover, wife of King Ernest Augusta*; of Hanover (betterknown as the Duke of Cumberland, son of George III.), died at Hanover about 1842 of an illness which baffled the skilL of her doctors as to its real cause. During her illness a clairvoyant was" consulted, who wrote certain curious signs and words on the door of her bedroom, but although the**) mystic words were repeated over and over again the Queen died. The King of Hanover after his wife's death gave orders that her bedroom should always be kept as though the Queen would sleep there at night. The bed was turned down, the pillows rosh;uken, "hot water brought, and the daintiest slippers laid in readiness for her.

The Maud Allan craze is spreading from the stage to the drawing-room. At the house of a certain well-known North Country hostess the other night (says a London exchange), where a large shooting party was being entertained, a lady well known In London society as an "original," volunteered to do an imitation of the Spring" dance. Clad in a diaphanous costume "do naif kirtled to her knees and wreathed in flowers, she gave a spirited and most graceful performance, to the delight of all concerned. Really if the "living statunry". craze comes back again dull ana exhausted s|K>rtsnien may yet have provided for them by considerate hostesses some amateur after-dinner performance which may open their tired eyes.

The Duke of Wellington's third son, Lord Gerald Wellesley, has just been gazetted on his entrance into the diplomatic service, to which he should be an acquisition. 'According to the present practice he is available either for the "post of attache abroad or for a clerkship at the Foreign Office. In the same gazette appears the name of Sir Coleridge Kennard, on whose father Queen Victoria intended to confer a baronetcy in 1891, but as he died before the patent could be made out the honour was bestowed instead on his infant grandson, while his widow was allowed to assume the rank of precedence of a ...baronet's widow-. The present Sir Coleridge is an excellent linguist, and since he left Eton has been preparing for a diplomatic career by a sojourn on the Continent.

A curious place indeed is the Sultan of Turkey's kitchen, more like a fortress than a place where one would expect the Imperial meals to be cooked, for it ha 6 an armour-plated door, and is fitted with locks which can only be opened by one man. As each course is prepared* it is placed on a silver dish, which is then sealed by the kelardjhi. the official responsible for the Sultan's food, and then. a black velvet .cover is put over the dish to keep it warm. A procession of people follow the meal into the Imperial chamber, where the seals are broken in the Sultans presence, and the kelardjhi is often required to taste one or other of the dishes. Ono thousand pounds covers the yearly cost of the Sultan's food, which consists mainly of entrees and boiled eggs, but to feed his,household and pay all domestic expenses reduces his annual income of £2,000,000 by £14,000 a week. .

Incredible as the statement may sound, the old English silver plate- in the possession of the Tsar of Russia surpasses the enormous collection *of plate at Windsor Castle, both in'historical interest and intrinsic value. Plate of the • Elizabetlian period is represented by no fewer than 12 pieces of great rarity*, beginning with a pair of the largo vase-shaped bottles known as "pilgrim bottles," dated 1580-1, and believed to have formed part of Queen Elizabeth's presents to Ivan the Terrible. The wonderful State carriage given by her to the same monarch is also preserved in the Kremlin. There are also two gigantic leopards made of English silver, and many other unique- and splendid pieces which have been presented at different times by our Sovereigns, the like of which we do not possess nowadays since Charles I. melted all the finest specimens belonging to the Crown to replenish his coffers. In the coronation year King Edward had a replica made for Queen. Alexandra of a certain massive pair of silver jugs over 2ft in height and lavishly decorated which she had long coveted and which are in the possession of the present Tsar.

_A' story is told of a newly-made millionaire who lias distinct social aspirations, but was ever an affectionate and dutiful son to the plain old farmer and his wife who gave ham his first start in the world. One of his inheritances, when they died, was a pair of portraits, done by a rural painter, 6tartlingly alike, as such daubs often are, with the homely Sunday clothes of the wearers realistically represented, and bis first impulse on receiving these staring and unmistakably bourgeois portraits was to relegate them to the garrot. Filial affection, however, pleaded for the familiar old figures, and in the midst of his perplexity a brilliant idea struck him. Heeent for a famous artist, and induced him to dress up his old parents in the most aristocratic garments of their day, leaving the faces intact, but even going to the length of arranging the old lady's hair, so that when the picture was hung in his magnificent hall she might have been taken for a duchess, so regal was her attire and surroundings; while the old gentleman, fondling the head of the setter between his knees, looked like " a real old English gentleman all of the olden time.".

j Professor John Milne, who has recently been awarded a medal of the Royal Society for his eminent services in the modern development of eeismological science, is tho leading earthquake expert of tho day. The professor has been a great traveller, hut he now lives quietly in the Isle of Wight, where he keeps "his seismograph, tli(J wonderful instrument that records an earthquake, no matter at what part of the globe it may occur. Professor Milne is also one of the' greatest living authorities on Japan, .and was, for 20 years engaged by the Japanese Government as a geologist* and mining engineer. Like the late Sir Edwin Arnold, the professor married a Japanese lady, and their wedded life has been ideally happy. Had. it not been for chance, Professor Milne might never have seriously taken up'the study of earthquakes at all. He was .quite a young man when Field, the famous American cable-layer, sent to the School of Mines for a man to go out to Japan, and it happened that young Milne was selected for tho post. ''Can you start on Tuesday?" asked Mr. Field. "Well, to-day is Friday; I am afraid I cannot get my things ready in so short a time," was the reply. "Look here, young 'man," eaid Field, "it only took six days to make the world, and if a whole world can be'made in that'time', 'your things'can be got ! ready in less." So the future professor went to Japan, and it was while in the land of the chrysanthemum that lie invented the wonderful apparatus that has made his name famous.