PERSONAL NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 36

PERSONAL NOTES,

The Trollope family have written 275 books, as follows :— Mrs Trollope, senior, 115; Anthony Troliope, 100, Adolphus Trollope, 50 ; Mrs Theodore Trollope, 10. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps is suffering from an affection of the eyes, and is obliged to do her literary work by the aid of an amanuensis. She is living quietly at Andover, Mass. Lord Tennyson receives an income of from £4000 to £5000 a year from the sale of his books ; but not a cent of it comes from an American publisher, despite the fact that his poetry is nearly as popular there as in England. Miss Augusta Holmes, the composer ol the rhapsody entitled " Ireland," which was received with an ovation when it was played by the matchless orchestra of the Cirque d'Ete, in the Champs Elysees (Paris), on Sunday, 27th November, is of Irish descent on her father's side, though born and bred a Frenchwoman, and, by naturalisation, a French subject. Here is the portrait of the Princess of Metternich penned by Rossi : "If grace, wit, and talents constitute the principal charms of a lady, the Princess of Metternich is one

of the most beautiful women of aristocratic Vienna." It would be difficult to express with greater courtesy that the Princess is not a Venus. Christina, the Queen Regent of Spam, may now fairly be counted among the able women-sovereigns of the world. The firmness of het government has been rendered acceptable by the feminine tacb with which it has been administered, and ifc has been declared by Senor Castelar, the greatest and most powerful of the Republican leaders, to be endorsed by the approbation of the entire nation. Captain Ross, of Bladensburg, who is to be a member of the Duke of Norfolk's Special Congratulatory Mission" to the Pope, joined the Church of Rome a few years ago. His father was General Ross, the hero of Sladensburg (not far from Washington, U.S.A.), on whom the Prince Regent conferred this unique territorial affix, of which the family are justly proud.— Vanity Fair. The two coloured ladies whose presence as delegates to the Woman's Congress at its recent session in New York occasioned some little stir, are among the best known and most cultivated women of their race. Mrs M. S. Carey is one of the two coloured lawyers among women, the other being Miss Florence Ray, of Brooklyn. Mrs Frances E. Harper, the temperance lecturer, is probably the most prominent Afro-American woman in America. The death is announced of Miss Jane Gibson, of Blytheswood square, Glasgow, at the age of 102 years and six months. She was the daughter of Mr John Gibson, of Johnstone and Oakbank, and moved in the literary circles of Edinburgh in the early years of the present century. The deceased lady was deeply interested in education, and founded the John Gibson Bursaries in Glasgow University. Her physical faculties, with the exception of her hearing, remained unimpaired until a few days before her death, and she took a lively interest in current literature and in the events of the day.

M. Carnot has had the best training France can just now give, that of the Polytechnic. He is a man accounted " pious "in France, because lie upholds strongly the idea o£ a God who governs directly though ho may not have revealed himself. He is free from suspicion in pecuniary matters to the English degree, and those who know France best just now will most value that qualification. And he is a man suspected by friends and enemies alike of a determined will— a will which can, on occasion, withstand any pressure whatever, and go on indifferent to results. Those qualities or attributes, if guided by adequate intelligence, make up a strong man. — Spectator. M. Albert Wolff, the typical Figaro writer, is called a Parisian of the Parisians, and he thinks himself the absolute quintessence of the boulevards, but by birth he is a German. As a boy in Cologne he met that other typical Parisian, Offenbach, and became possessed of the idea that Paris was the centre of the solar system. He made his first appearance in literature with a book of comic travels on the Rhine, illustrated by his own rough woodcuts. Then he wrote sentimental tales for children. Suddenly he gave up Germany and German for Paris and French. In Paris he had to begin at the bottom; but he had wit and will, and in time he began to be noticed as a writer of flashing brilliancy. He toiled at bis trade of acquired cleverness, and he learned the art of being a Parisian. By dint of hard labour he made himself a Frenchman, as his fellowGerman Grimm, as the Englishman Hamilton, as tho Italians Galiani and Florentine had done before him. He is as clever as Florentine and as much feared.