BOY EARL'S ROMANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21784, 25 October 1932, Page 10

BOY EARL'S ROMANCE

LORD EGMONT'S MARRIAGE

SECKETLY WEDDED TO COUSIN.

It was revealed at Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on August 31, that the 18-year-old Earl of Eginont, son of the " rancher earl," was married recently to his cousin, Miss Ann Geraldine Moodie, daughter of Mr D. G. Moodie. The date and circumstances of the wedding had not then been made known. The couple were spending their honeymoon in British Columbia. The secret marriage of the young ea»l is the latest dramatic episode in one of the most remarkable romances of the peerage. It is only three months since he left England to return to his homestead in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, which he and his father had abandoned three years before to go to England and inherit the title and fortune of the earldom of Egmont. While they were in England the rancher earl, as he was known, and his young son, lived in Avon Castle, the family seat in Hampshire, using only one room and doing their own cooking. In May of this year the father died after a motoring accident. The son, disconsolate at the tragedy, locked himself up in his -castle and became almost a hermit, declining to receive any visitors. Five or six weeks later Avon Castle was put up for sale, and the young earl hurried back to his ranch at Priddis. in Alberta, accompanied by his uncle, Mr George Perceval, who also owns a ranch there. A typical western greeting was given by the neighbouring ranchers when the orphan earl arrived back in Alberta. There was no demonstration, but all the nearby "outfits" rode over to say " howdy." Losing no time to get back to the old life, the boy donned his cowboy outfit and rode off for a long gallop on his horse. He was back once again to the life that he loved.