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Otago Witness, Issue 2318, 4 August 1898, Page 48

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Mr Henry Wilde, of Manchester, has presented to the University of Oxford £10,000 to found a Readership in Mental Philosophy; and a further £3000 as the endowment of a John Locke Scholarship in the same subject, open to Bachelors of Arts. — A devout believer in the Koran, the Khedive of Egypt has never taken advantage of the provision that allows four wives. He is a monogamist, as was his father, and it is largely owing to his example that polygamy is now little practised by the more progressive Egyptians.

— If a mixture of blood tends to perfection, the Duke of Manchester has everything in his favour, for his great-great-grand-mother (a sister of the Duke of Gordon, who raised the Gordon Highlanders) was a. thoroughbred Scot ; his great-grandmother, wiio afterwards married the late Sir Stevenson Blaekwood, is Irish; his grandmother, who is now Duchess of Devonshire, is a German ; and his own mother is a Cuban Spaniard. The last three Duchesses are all living. — Lord Ashburnham, who has just sold his library for something like £60,000 is himself a book lover, though he never was, like the former earl, a book-collector. A man who is still full of activities, he is not a familiar figure in society, nor has he taken in public life quite the place to which his considerable talents entitle him. One of the small handful of hereditary legislators who support Home Rule— which he did in a very able little essay as' Avell as by his votes — he has sliongly Conservative leanings in the matter of dynasties. — There are, perhaps, few families of gw.ter or more diverse talents than that of the Thorn yeroft.s. Mr Thornycroft, sen., was a s«'uJptor of remarkable power, as his spirited group, '" Boadicea," at Westminster testifies. His second son, Mr Hamo Thornycroft, so deitinguished himself in his father's art as to reich the rank of Royal Academician at the age of 38. He is responsible for some of the finest statuary in England. Another son is known throughout the world as the builder of some of the fleetest torpedo boats afloat.

— Mr Cecil Rhodes considers himself a very good character reader from facial expression, and has declared that he hardly ever varies his first opinion of a person. 2v T ot many months ago a friend of his presented a young man to him, in the hope that the youth might find favour and so secure a good post of some kind or other. The youth was considerably gratified by Mr Rhodes's kind reception of him, but the friend was not satisfied. " The chief never smiles like that at a face he fancies," was his comment.. Au r l it subsequently proved a true forecast.

Mr Evelyn Ashley, who has recently denied that Lord Palmerston, 'as is generally supposed, was a Russophobe, probably knows more than any living man about the great Minister's private views of political questions. Mr Ashley was Lady Palmerston's grandson, and lie was Lord Palmerston's most confidential private secretary during the whole of his second premiership. It was to him that Lord Palmerston '' willed " his estates subject to Mr William Cowper's life tenure of the Broadlands property. Mr Cowper was Lady Palmerston's son. — On an outlying portion of Lord Rosebery's estate at Dalmeny there are shale mines which for many years have paid large dividends to the company working them. When the wind is in a certain direction the smoke and smell from tho works are occasionally carried as far as the mansion. One day, when they were exceptionally perceptible, a visitor ventured to express to his loidship his surprise at his permitting such a nuisance to exist in the locality. The prompt reply of Lord Rosebery was : " Ah, mv friend, however unpleasant it may be to you, to me it is the smell of 25 per cent." — The death of Mr Spencer Walpole, at the age of 91, follows with tragic rajidity the death of Mr Glad-tone. Three years older than the Grand Old Man, Mr Walpole was his contemporary at Eton, and went up to Trinity, Cambridge, when Me Gladstone was leaving Oxford. Mr Walpolo enteicd Parliament in 1346. For 10 years he represented Mulhur&t, and for 26 years the University of Cambridge. He was three limes Home Secretary, but after leaving his p irty on the Reform "Bill he never again took office. Mr Walpolo was great -grandson of the famous Sir Robert, fircst earl of Oxford, and married the fourth daughter of Mr ■Spencer Perceval, -ulio was murdered by licllingham in 1812. — Mr (Jcorge Meredith has won the' gratitude of many youmj authors by his kindly counsel. It wns in his capacity of reader to a publishing firm that the manuscript of " The Story of an African Farm " came into his hands. Tie was quick to discern the genius in it, and was anxious to see its author. When in "Ralph Iron" he disco\ered a young and attractive girl still in her 'teens, his conquest and surprise were complete ; and from that first interview dated the fame and fortune of Miss Olive Schreiner. No monument, Mr Meredith has been heard to say, could give him a tithe of the pleasure which he derives from the grateful affection of the many young writers whom he has been' able to advise and help.

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