PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2356, 20 April 1899, Page 54

PERSONAL NOTES.

—Mr Arthur J. Balfour has this session forsaken the pince-nez which was regarded as part of himself, and which has figured so prominently in the cartoons of the leader of tho House. He now wears spectacles thinly rimmed with gold. The pince-nez has thick black rims, which emphasised the paleness of Mr Balfour's face.

— Undeterred by the ill-luok 'of Duke Adolph of Mecklenburg-ychworiu, who recently injured his spine in a in such a manner as to cripple him for life, it is said that Prince Siegfried of Bavaria ha« made his debut as a steeplechase rider, being the third royal personage to thus don the silk shirt and cap of a gentleman rider.

—It is not a little singular that every baronet of the house of Knightley has either been a clergyman or the sou of a clergyman. The first baronet, who was a parson, was succeeded by the son of a clerical brother. The last baronet was for 62 years rector of Preston Capes, near Daventry, and the present baronet is the son of the late Rev. H. C. Knightley, of Warwickshire.

— The King of the Belgians is as frugal in his tastes as the Emperor of .Austria. He is rarely in bed after 6 o'clock in the morning, and after the lightest of meals shuts himself in his study for some hours, going with scrupulous care through the pile of official documents awaiting Fiis attention. He usually rides or walks twice a day, often in the company of his youngest daughter, the Princess Clementina. He eats sparingly, rarely drinks wine, 'and has no taate for music or acting. — Lee XIII, in spite of growing infirmities, retains his old passion for chess, which he has practised almost every day for 30 years. His great rival for many years was Father Giulio, •who was a clever if an excitable player, and the Pope attributes many "Victories over the -irascible Florentine to his own coolness and equanimity at critical stages in tho games. _ Chess 'ami snuff are the Pope's 'two remaining amusements, and it is difficult to say which he loves the more.

— Sir Henry Thompson, besides being a recognised authority on surgery and surgical appliances, has attained no little eminence in other fields of endeavour. His spare moments are taken up with the study and practice of art, chiefly painting, and lie has exhibited no fewer than 15 paintings at the Koyal Academy, the Salon, and other artistic centres. He has, besides, written two novels, " Charley Kingston's Aunt" (1885) and "All But" (1886), both of which attained considerable success. At" his own observatory in the country he devotes himself to the study of astronomy.

— The Bishop of Uganda, who was associated with a church in Durham before he received his present appointment, was an artist of some reputation when he entered the church, and still finds opportunity to employ his skill, though he is heavily weighted with the duties of his tremendous diocese. Two years ago he exhibited at the Royal Academy a view on the Victoria Nyanza. and he is sending two pictures for the next Academy exhibition. Bishop Tucker's father, who died at Wmdermere only a few months ago, at an advanced age, was an artist of reputation, and all the bishop's brothers are artists of standing. — Miss Beatrice Harraden, the authoreFS of the strange and fascinating " .Ships That Pasfi in the Night," is a member of a widelygifted family, which has been described as the " family of all the talents." Her father was a linguist of remarkable gifts; her mother, with whom the young authoress live=. is a woman of many accomplishments ; one bister is a poetess of merit ; another an antiquarian ; her brother is a clever musician and composer ; and Miss Harraden herself is writer musician, and scholar in one. In spite of her literary powers, she ia by no means a prolific or industrious writer

—In an account given hv a distinguished man of letters of a recent visit to Mr "Rußkin, this flrentleiaan rlf>Kr.rihe<i Mr Riihkin's anoear-

ance as singularly ennobled by tlie long, snow'white beard which descends nearly to the waist, and gives a patriarchal dignity to the finely-moulded face. The end of life finds Mr Ruskin .in a mood of perfeot .serenity; ,the storm and stress have departed, and all that is left is pure sweetness and gentleness. Sis favourite occupation is sitting at his window looking on the calm waters of the lake below. Ho receives great numbers of letters, but the present-day affairs of this troubled world make little impression upon him. — The new Duke of Northumberland is a very quiet and reserved man, although for a short time in his Parliamentary career he was associated with the boisterous young politicians who comprised the Fourth Party. He is 52 years old, and is not a very familiar figure at social gatherings. Tall, thin, with reddish hair and side whiskers, the new Duke has no very striking personality, although each year he seems to grow more like his late father in features. The management of his great property has for some years taken up the major portion of his time, and he has divided his life between Almvick, London, and Albury. The new Ducho6S of Northumberland ia a daughter of the Duko of Argyll. — Mr Swinburne has just lost a sister, Miss Charlotte Jane Swinburne, who died at her house in Onslow square. Admiral and Lady Jane Swinburne had six children in all. four daughters and two- sons, of- whom the eldest, the poet, "was born in the year Queen Victoria began to reign. His only, brother; who married a, lody of Berlin, died eight years ago, and another of his sisters, Alice, has been dead for nearly 40 years. Among Mr Swinburne's near relations are, strange to say, certain Roman Catholic priests — Father Sebastian Bowden, of the Oratory, and his brother being tho poet's first cousins. Another first cousin, the Earl of Achburnham, is a convert to tho Roman Catholic religion — a religion which all the Swinburnes professed until the beginning of this century. — Lord Russell of Killowon, the Lord Chief Justice of England, hails from Newry. the place of " High church and no steeple, dirty streets, and proud people," accordine to Dean Swift. In hia boyhood Lord Russell helonged to a literary society, tho members of which were for the most. \mi\ youths of 15 or 16; and on one occasion they had to write an e93ay on " The Age We Live In — Its Tendencies and Its Exigencies." Lord Russell competed, " and laid the Crescent in tho dußt, played havoc with some venerable dynasties, and proposed reforms which oven in the present day would make the most advancad reformer Fhake in hia shoep." . The essay was actually printed, though the Lord Chief Justice gays he is happy to state that no copy now oxists to rise up in judgment against him.

— No living man has contributed more than Mr Ruskin to that growth of a general and intelligent feeling for art. in all its forms, which is one of the most marked features in the history of British culture during tho last 50 years; not many, if any, have done more for the intelligent* appreciation of Nature or the triumphs of mediaeval architecture and Italian painting; none have dono nearly so much for tho revelation to the ordinary man of the beauties of English landscape art; hone, perhaps,, have delivered their message in nobler or more virile English. And tho ethical and political views of the master, mingled though they bo with a fantastic mediievalism, have, nevertheless, given force to tho salutary reaction against treating economic abstractions as laws of nature, and measuring national prosperity solely by the volume of national trade and the increase of national wealth ; and they have laid down linos which have boon followed by some of tho ablest among the younger of professed economists. — Spectator.

—Mr Itudyard Kipling is claimed as a product of Methodism by the "Puritan," a new monthly magazine. His mother, it says, was Miss Mary Macdonald, daughter of a -Methodist minister. She met her future husband, Mr John Lockwood BSpling, at a picnic near a little lake called Rudyard, near Burslem. Mr Kipling was the son of the Rev. Joseph Kipling, and had been educated at Woodhouse Grove School. He was at that time a designer in the potteries of Pinder, Bourne, and Co., Burnlem. He and his wife went to India, whero he had obtained an appointment in the educational service. Rudyard was born in Bombay, and for sentimental reasons was named after the lnke where his parents first met. Mrs Kipling, sen., had two sisters. One of them married a young painter named Poynter. He is now president of the Royal Academy. The other married an unknown artist named Jones. He became tho famous Sir Edward Burne- Jones, Bart. Her brother. Rudyard's uncle, the Rev. F. W. Alacdonald, is still in the Methodist ministry.

— It seems rather an irony of fate that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman should be elected Leader of tho .Liberal party, since it was on the vote for his salary — on a question of tho amount of ammunition then in hand — that the Rosebery Ministry fell; but no one who knows him will doubt his personal qualifications for the post. Sir Henry, who is iust over 62 years of age, is second son of the lato .Sir James Campbell, of Forfarshire ; he assumed the additional surname of Bannerman in 1872, he being a descendant on the maternal side of the family, who were hereditary ban-ner-bearers to the Kings of Scotland. His service in the House of Commons is of long duration, for as far back as 1871 he was Financial Secretary to the War Office. Ho continued to hold office until 1874; and he held the same appointment from 1880 to 1882, when he became Secretary to the Admiralty. This position he held until his appointment in 1884 as Chief Secretary for Ireland. In Mr Gladstone's third administration he was appointed Secretary of State for War; and in 1892 he was appointed president of the Local Government Board. His last official act was to purchase from Sir Joseph Savory, M.P., the new Undcr-Hilton Rifle Range, in Westmoreland, which comprises several miles of Hilton Fells.