PERSONAL NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2284, 9 December 1897, Page 52

PERSONAL NOTES,

• . • The the third son of Lord Salisbury, Lord Robert CsciJ, is earning fame as a barrister.

* . * The German Emperor has a new fad. When he is in the hunting field he is followed by a telephone carriage, by the use of which he can communicate with other points in the chase, learning from the foresters and gamekeepers the position of the deer and other game. • . • Mr A. J. Balfour has the good fortune to be able to think out the most abstruse questions when apparently occupied with other concerns. It is said that he planned a considerable portion of his last book while listening to the speeches of his opponents in the House of Commons. • . • M. Ralli, the Greek Premier, beara a name that is almost as well-known in England as in his own country. Several members of the family to which he belongs are wealthy merchants in London and Liverpool, and their combined commercial interests spread all over the civilised world. .• . Mrs Lynn Lynton has settled down for good at Malvern, where ?he still does a good deal of literary and journalistic work. For 80 years she has done the second leading article In the Queen newspaper, and it is a curious fact that for this same space of time Mr Tegetmeier has done the first leading article in the same journal.

* . * Sir Claude de Crespigny has led an adventurous life, having been Bailor, soldier, steeplechaser, war correspondent, and aeronaut. In the last-named capacity he holds the record, for he is the only living balloonist who has crossed the North Sea as distinguished from the Channel, his companion, the professional aeronat Simmons, having been killed soon after.

• . •M. Camille Flammarion, the famous French astronomer, is the owner of a small estate at Juvisy, near Paris, which' was presented to him by a rich old gentleman who admired his work. ML Flammarion's observatory occupies a hill'haviDg an unimpeded view of the surrounding country, and here is kept the collection of astronomical and photographic instruments which the celebrated scientist has been at such pains to bring together. • . • The genealogical tree of Piesideut M Kinley has been traced to its root in the great Duncan M«cDnff, the same Thane of Fife who slew Macbeth, and who was immortalised by Shakespeare. The Mackintosh clan came from the MacDuffc, aud from that clan came the clan Farquharson. One of this clan, Fisdlay, had lour sons, who took the name Maclaola, derived from Findlay, From these sons sprang the clan MacKinley.

• . vOae has heard little lately of Colonel Kelly, -r ho?e march during the last Obitral campaign brought such credit both on himselC and the whole Indian army. It will be remembered that be " was created a C 8., made a Qaeen's A.D.0., and promoted to the rank of colonel in recognition of his services. Letters from India tell of his appointment recently as officiating colonel on the staff commanding the troops at Sialkote.

• . • Thomas Ken/yon, a veteran of the \ Crimea and Indian Mutiny, was buried at Blackburn Cemetery recently. The old man : joined the 38th Regiment when only 17 years of age, and passed through the Crimea ana the Mutiny without receiving a scratch. The story he liked best to tell was that when he returned from the Crimea the Queen stopped in front of him at the review and remarked, wonderingly, " How young you are ! " • . • Lord Randolph Churchill had an existence fully as tragic as any portrayed on the stage. At an age when most young men are thinking of nothing more momentous than their own amusement, he was the leader of the House of Common?, sometimes admired and at all times feared by the Opposition, always dominant, every remark and action recorded in every London newspaper. And then quite sudden lycamo failure, illness, loss of office, despair, and a quick death, which was perhaps merciful under tha sad circumstances. — St. Paul's. • . • When Mr Chamberlain first came to Birmingham (says Sir Walter Foster in an interview in the • Young Man ' for October) he entered the firm of Nettlefolds. . He was looked upon as a smart young Londoner, and so was introduced to Bdgbaston society. He made himself very agreeable in those days by takiog part in amateur theatrioals and adapting little playß. He became a .remarkably good amateur ac^or — one of the beet I have ever seen. I remember seeing him play Puff. in "The Critic" splendidly. Then ha married, and I used to see him a good deal at a debating society — afc which, indeed, he learned to speak. • . • Abonfc Sir Arthur Sullivan there is no trace of Bohemia. His rather short, wellknit figure and genial face are familiar ornaments at all smart theatrical gatherings. Sir Arthur has combined great artistic with great business gifts more successfully than most musicians. Although he ifi the most admired of latter-day masters of oratorio, he has at command a fund of pjpular melody for light opera such as no one has had since Off-eu-bach. He made £90,000 out of the Savoy Theatre during its first ten yeare, and his copyrights are worth a handsome income in themselvei. Few have been so generous with their money, and innumerable relations i and friends have shared his good fortune. I . XlivoS are in the inner circle of European politics declare that the German Emperor has succeeded in becoming very unpopular in his own country. For a short time after his accession to the throne he enjoyed the enthusiastic loyalty of his people, but this has gradually faded away, and at the present moment his only admirers and supporters are to be found among the Koman Catholic contingent in Bavaria and Southern Germany. The German Empire itself is rapidly becoming as unpopular among the other European powers as Great Britain herself. In both instances Italy appears in the welcome, if unprofitable, role of an only friend. Hatred of the Jews, or judenhitzc, is a dominant feelirgin Germany, in spite of the fact that their presence and practices have converted a poor country into a rich one ; but this racial prejudice seems indigenous to Russian and German soil. • . ■ Two highly-diatinguished officers have been appointed to command the reserve brigade now concentrated at Rawal Pindi. The senior. Brigadier-general A, Q, Yeatman

Biggs, C.8., is a gunner of nearly 2Z years' service, who served as brigade major, Royal Artillery, in Egypt in 1882, and at Aldershot in the same capacity from 1884 to 1888. General Yeatman Biggs has two campaigns to his credit besides the Egyptian expedition of 1882, having served in tbe operations against tbe TaepiDg rebels in 1862 and in the South African war in 1879. Both in Egypt and South Africa this officer obtained mention in despatches and brevet promotion. Brigadier-general R. Westmacotb, 0.8., D.5.0., joined the Bombay infantry in 1859, and saw service in the last phase of the Indian Mutiny operations. In the Afghan war, the Soudan expedition of 1885, and the Ohin-Lushai expedition of 1889 90 General Westmacott obtained mention in despatches, and for his services in the lastnamed campaign was gazetted to the DS.O.

• . • A remarkable instance of the practical and levelling spirit of the age is that afforded by the present Lord Normanby's self-chosen position of proprietor and head master of a boys' school established by him at bis ancestral home, Mulgrave Castle, near Whitby, Yorkshire. The character of marquis and schoolmaster played at the same time by the same .person is an anomaly that coulehonly have been evolved by the Zeitgeist of the last decade of oar century. The Phipps family was founded fa the early part of . the seventeenth century by Colonel William Phipps, who raised a regiment of horee for tbe service of King Cileries I during the Civil Wars. Another Sir' William. Phippp, in the reign of James 11, was the inventor of the diving bell*, by means of which he succeeded in recovering an immense treasure from the wreck of a Spanish galleon. The present Lord Normanby, 'when Lord Mulgrave, though born of an historic house, celebrated in the world of politics and diplomacy, yet eleoted to devote himself to the service of the church, and at the. early age of 24 was curate of Lythe, and soon afterwards vicar of Worsley, near Manchester. He succeeded bis father J in the inarquisate at the age of 51, and was before long appointed to the canonry of j Windsor. The situation of Mulgrave Castle is fxiremely fine, commanding a magnificent proppecb over the North Sea, viewed 500 ft above its level, with a rock- bound coastline and a distant glimpse of the old A-bbey of Whitby. One small piece of the lawn near the house is called the " quarter deck," the views from which are so varied and delightful that Charles Dickens is said to hare " literally danced with ecstasy " at the eight of so perfect a scene. Southwards are the famous Mulgrave Woods, over 1000 acres in oxt.enf, which are intersected by several becks. By the way, it is curious to note that small rivers are styled in Scotland burns ; in Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, becks; and in the south of England, streams.