PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2396, 1 February 1900, Page 66

PERSONAL NOTES.

—Mr Emanuel Laslcer, the world's champion at chess, is only 31, yet he has been conspicuous in the chess world for the past 10 years.

—In Lord Ampthill, Mr Chamberlain has as right-hand man during the present crisis one of the most famous oarsmen of the decade. Lord Ampthill, who is Mr Chamberlain's private secretary, was president of the Oxford iOniversity Boat Club. — Bishop Ryle is one of the two living occupants of the Episcopal Bench — the Arch■bishoj) of York being the other — who began life as a soldier, he having served as captain in the Cheshire Yeomanry for a year or two before making up his mind to seek ordination.

— Lord Bridport, who is also Duke of •■ Bronte, makes a point of paying; a visit every ■ year to his estates in Sicily, despite bis ad-

I vanced age. The dukedom, it will be remembered, was bestowed upon Lord Nelson by the Neapolitan King for his expulsion of the French from Naples. — In striking contrast to President Kruger, who is only sft 7in in height, and of an unI gainly figure, General Joubert is a tall, soldierly man, "bearded like the pard," and his j burly, well-knit frame conveys the impression of great strength. He talks English i fluently, and, like Mr Kruger, has paicl <i visit to England. i — One of our most venerable peers. Earl Fitzwilliam, who has just celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday, having been born in 1815, succeeded his father, the fifth Earl, in October, 1857, and the present heir is his grandson, Viscount Milton, the member for Wakefield, who was born in 1872. He is the youngest member of the House of Commons. Lord Fitzwilliam is one of the two members now living who were in the House of Commons when the Queen came to the throne in 1837. , = Tiie Princess of Wales is a jjliotpgim&jai'

of more ihan ordinary ability. She and her daughters keep their kodaks biwly employed on every possible occn.-sion, and were the royal portlolio of views to bo thrown open to public- \iew, the biographical work of our iutuie historians and writers would be substantially assisted, and, ooe vcntuico to think, uniquely benefited. At the time of Prince Clmrlc- of Denmark's M^it to 32 n gland, before his marriage, Princca-s Maud's camera WJ- kept continually bu-y. — Perhaps the mo 5 t -jtrikinj* personality timong the war coi"o'-poiidenls now at the front ia Mr Bcnr.et Jkirlci^h, who represents the Duily Telegraph. He has been all ovoi the world for hi? paper — wherever, indeed, there has been war going on — and he has had more pdventure< than usually fall to the lot of c\en the soldier scribe. At one time — it was elm ing the Civil War in the United Slate — his career was nearly brought to an early and abrupt end, and he experienced the sensation of being twice sentenced to death. — The expert of the Tailor and Cutter had his eng'.e eye on the House of Commons during the lost, few days of 'the war session. We are told, for instance, that Sir Charles Dilkia's light grey angola trou-.ers ought to be reverently laid to rest betore another session begm=. Tne best-dressed member who appeared in the Lobby was Mr Yerburg. If he had stepped out of a modern fashion plate he could not have better interpreted the current style of aristocratic British dress. Mr Trevelyan's coat fitted very well, but his trousers were badly cut, and baggy, adds the oracle. — Mr Conyngham Greene,, C.8., the British Charge d' Affaires who wa/s recalled from Pretor'a at the commencement of the war, is an

Irishman, and the grandson of two eminent Irish judges, Baron Greene and Baron Plunket. He is married to a charming Irish lady, a daughter of the Earl of Courtown. Mr Conyngham Greene entered the Foreign Office at the age of 25 — he is now 45 — and has filled various diplomatic posts at the Hague, Brussels, Teheran, and elsewhere. Mr Harry Plunket Greene, the well-known

singer, is his brother. — The sudden death of Sir Arthur Blomfield, A.R.A., fourth son of the great Bishop of London, much of whose tact and wit he inherited, deprives the church of her foremost architect. Educated at Rußby, under Arnold, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied architecture under Mr P. C. Hardwick, and soon rose to a high position in the profession. He succeeded Sir Gilbert Scott as the cathedral architect, and Mr Street as architect of the Law Courts, while he built the Church House, and was architect to the Bank of England. Pie was an inimitable actor, and no mean raconteur, while few men travelled so much. — Major-general the Hon. Neville Lyttelton, C.8., who is commanding a brigade of the First Army Corps in South Africa, belongs to the famous cricketing family, which numbers the Bishop of Southampton, Canon Edward Lyttelton, headmaster of Haileybury College, and the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton, M.P., among its members. An old Etonian, like all his seven brothers, he entered the Rifle Brigade more than 30 years ago, and served with it in Canada and India; but his best work was done in the Egyptian campaign of 1882, which gained him mention in dispatches, and in the Soudan war of last year, when with ■ his brigade he helped Kitchener to win the battle of Omdurman. General Lyttelton has been Assistant Military Secretary to the War Office since 1897. — Mrs Beerbohm Tree, who is reciting Mr Rudyard Kipling's war poem, "The Absentminded Beggar" at the London Palace Theatre every evening, and devoting the remuneration she receives. — £100 per week— to the fund for the benefit of the wives and children of our soldiers in South Africa, is the wife of the well-known actor-manager, and herself an actress of considerable ability. Mrs Tree is a lady of wide reading, and is probably more deeply versed in scholarly subjects than any other living actress. Previous to_ her marriage she was a member of the educational staff at Queen's College, where she cultivated a passion for Greek, and acted in a Greek play before Mr Gladstone. In 1884 die married Mr Tree, and adopted her husband's profession. She has been seen in most of the plays produced by him during the last 10 years. —By no means the least interesting incident of the war session of the House of Commons, as it has been termed, was the resignation of Mr Michael Davitt as a protest against the war in South Africa. The leading features of Mr Davitt's pviblic life, which dates from 1865, are well known. Few men have had such a chequered career, but still the ex-member for Kerry and Mayo cannot be said to have made any bitter enemies, although so far as the House of Commons is concerned his friends were not very numerous. His opinions and the expression thereof have cost him his liberty on more than one occasion. Mr Davitt is 53 years of age and the son of a Mayo peasant. In private life he is one of the simplest of men, and, when at home, resides in one of the prettiest localities in Ireland. "Land League Cottage," Ballybrack — which was given him as a national wedding present in 1887 — is a small one-storied hotise over-looking Dublin Bay. He has travelled extensively, and was in Australia when elected at the last general election. — Lieutenant-general Lord Methuen enjoys the distinction of being the youngest Lieutc-nant-genei'al in the army. Since his Lordship joined the Scots Guards in 1864, his service has been one long series of regimental and Staff appointments. In Ashantee, in 1873-74, he was at the battle of Amoagul. In, Egypt he held command at the actions at Malvuta and Tel-el-Kebir, 1882, and during the Bechuanaland expedition, 1884-85, he commanded the Ist Cape Mounted Rifles. He also took part in the operations on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897-98, and as

General Commanding the Home District from 1892 to 1897, Lord Methuen devoted himself to promoting the professional education and efficiency of the Metropolitan Volunteer Corps, and at all volunteer gatherings in London he is a welcome visitor. He served as attache at Berlin for three years, and is a personal friend of the Emperoi William and several German officers. He is in his fifty-fifth year. — Lord Hardwicke's ferocious opposition to Cromwell's statue reminds me, writes a correspondent in the Leeds Mercury, of a racy story I heard related some 40 odd years ago at Wimpole, the family seat of his naval grandfather. As the crusty old earl, 4 by no means a bad landlord, was one morning kneeling before a window that overlooked the park, reading family prayers, he espied a tramp taking a short cut across the lawn to the servants' hall. With the instincts of a sailor of the old school, the irate earl jumped off his knees, threw up the" window, and cannonaded furiously the ragged trespasser with a few volleys of choice naval expletives. Having scared the enemy, who took to his heels, the pious earl closed the window, resumed his devout attitude, and finished the

Lord's Prayer, recommencing where he left off: "And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." —-Though M*. Jacob Bright, wliQ djted re-

cently, was at no time a commanding figure on the political stage, lie was something more thpn merely magni noiuinis umbra. Lacking the eloquence, the ability, and the rugged force of character of his more distinguished brother, he yet possessed sufficient strength of will to resist his brother's influence at the time of the Hoaie Rule split, and to adhere to Mr Gladstone after the political head of the faniily had become one of the most formidable leaders of Liberal Unionism. In general politics Jacob Bright was a typical representathe of that "Manchester school" which to-day has few survivors and no pupils. As a lpjplator, hir, specially was the removal of "feminine disabilities" ; and he earned the undying- gratitude of the emancipators by his ■«ei vices in securing for women the municipal franchise. Be wos personally popular in the House of Commons, and hi-, retirement into private life at the last general election was very generally regretted.