ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 6 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[FROM THE SOCIKTT riPEKS.I

As a thanks-offering on the coming-of-age of their elder son, the Marquis of Titchfield, and to mark their silver wedding, the Duke and Duchess of Portland have written asking the committee of management of the Mansfield Hospital to accept a sum of between £4000 and £5000 to liquidate the debt on the King Edward Memorial wing that is being erected. The Marquis of Titcheld will attain his majority on March 16. He is a lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards. The Dutchess of Portland is the only daughter of Mr. Thomas York* Dallas-Yorke, of Walmgate, Lough, and is mistress of the robes to Queen Alexandra.

Mr. and Mrs. Francis Bowes Sayre, sonin law and daughter of Dr. Woodrow Wilson enjoyed their visit to England. They were the guests of the American Ambassador and Mrs. Page. The bride is, like the majority of Americans, well turned out, and wears in the evening some beautifully jewellery; much of it she is very proud of, as it was part of her wedding presents, notably a lovely yellow and white diamond pendant, given to her by the Government officials. They are both much interested in all matters relating to 6ocial reform, and although they have enjoyed dinner and play parties, have also done some serious sight-seeing. The visit was a short one, owing to their desire to spend Christmas in Washington. Prince and Princess Arthur of Connaught will start the new year in a new home. They have taken Hutton Hall from Captain and Mrs. Edward York- It is a comfortable spacious house, within easy distance of York, where Prince Arthur's regiment is stationed. It is also convenient for hunting, and has historical associations in that it is close to Marston Moor, and relics of the fight are in the house itself. Captain York married Sir Frederick Miner's older daughter; her sister is the Marchioness of Linlithgow. They have long been friends of Prince Arthur, and Princess Arthur made her one country-house visit previous to her marriage to Lord and Lady Linlithgow at Hopetoun House. Captain and Mrs. York are going abroad for some time. Lady Napier and Ettrick, whose husband has succeeded his father in the title, is the third of the seven daughters of Lady Belhaven and Stenton. There is a family of three sons and one daughter. The Scot* a Barony is an old one, dating from 16//7. The new Lord Napier is a member of the Royal Company of Archers, King's Body Guard for Scotland. He lias been living for some time at the family seat, Thirlestane Castle, Selkirk. His grandfather, the 10th Baron, was a famous diplomatist, who was Ambassador in Russia and in Prussia. Governor of Madras, and acting Viceroy in India in 1672. The late Lord Napier was also a diplomatist, and a friend of the German Emperor when he was a member of the Embassy at Berlin. . His Majesty sent a wreath to the funeral by Herr Von Kuhlmann, Charge d'Affairs at the German Embassy. . Sir Herbert Tree was sixty years old last month, a fact remembered by count-1 less friends. Telegraph boys were walking into His Majesty's Theatre like bees into a hive, the telephone bell was perpetually ringing, and gifts and flowers crowded the dome room, which is the great actor's special apartment in the building. To a representative, who having duly congratulated Sir Herbert on looking so well, ventured to ask the secret of being well-preserved, Sir Herbert said: *' Our life is a very healthy, one. Constantly being somebody else .'so many hours of the day, day after day for several years, your own life is prolonged by not being yourself as it were. You are emancipated from yourself. Then again," he pursued, "ours is » regular life, a life of abstinence. It is one in which yon are in the electric current of living, you don't, drift into backwaters. And I believe in sleep; it is more important than anything, it links up the ravelled sleeve of life—as I frequently observe upon the stage." Sir Herbert bad just come from "Joseph and His Brethren," with the grease paints still" upon his face— blacked hollow in his cheek—and his tell - form enveloped in" a'' flowing robe. He glanced at the bowls Of fresh roses on the tables and at the rows' of books against the wall, and he declared he had not read more than ten books in twenty years. The neglect of books is Sir Herbert's prescription for retaining youthfulnees of mind. " Otherwise," he says, "you think in quotations. But," he said, slowly, "I have experienced many books." The Grand Duchess Vladimir and the Grand Duke Boris have left London for Paris. Russian Imperial affairs are somewhat strained just now. Differences of opinion exist as to the treatment which should be meted out to the Grand Duke Mitchael Alexandrovitcb. the Tsar's only brother, and his morganatic wife, and differences exist, too, on the subject of the Grand Duchess Mario Paulovna, who has parted, it is said permanently, from her husband, Prince William of Sweden. This young lady (she is only twenty-three) is the only daughter of Queen Alexandra's favourite niece, and god-daughter of the late Princess Alexandra of Greece, who married the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, the Tsar's youngest and only surviving uncle, when she was not eighteen, and died a few days after the birth of her second child, the Grand Duke Dimitri. The two child ren were brought up by an aunt in St. Petersburg, and the young Grand Duchess was married a few days after hei eighteenth birthday to Prince William oi .Sweden. The bride, who had been strict]} brought up, was full of high spirits ant enjoyment of life. The Swedish Court i serious, and misunderstandings, which havi unhappily ripened into something worse have ended in the regrettable separation o the young people. The Grand Duke Pau followed the fashion of several Russiai Grand Dukes and married morganatically to the displeasure of the late Tsar, hi first cousin, and he lias since lived ii France and Belgium.