PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 64

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Mr W. D. Howells, the American author, after refusing for many years to mount the lecture platform, has at last consented, and is now beginning a course of 50 lectures in the States. — It ifc not very generally known that the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and other members of the Royal Family have their own private solicitor. Sir Henry Arthur White has acted in that capacitj- to the Royal Family for a good many years now. — Among those vho have joined the committee for presenting Professor Skeat with his portrait are the Bishop of Durham, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, the Mpsler of Christ's College, Dr E. A. Abbott, Professor Courtliorpe, Sir Waller Bossant, the Dean of Durham, Professor Hales, Professor W. P. Ker, Professor Clifford Allbutt, Professor Kirkpatrick, and Mr Francis Darwin. — Professor Edwin Ray Lankester, the eminent scientist and Professor of Human and Comparative Anatomy at Oxford, is an enthusiast golfer. He is still a bachelor, but he has a large scientific family in the museum hard by his "residence, of which he is the custodian, and to which ho is extremely devoted. — Lord O'Hagan, of Towneley Hall, Buruley, came of ago on December 4. He is the son of a former Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who married one of the Towneleys. Lord O'Hajgau ie a lieuteM&ftfc. in the 2nd Gxfifi&dier

Guaul-, and has left for South Africa. Owing lo his absence the formal celebration of tlu event has been postponed. — Professor Gardiner, the leading English historian to-day, has now reached his seventieth year. He is a Hampshire man by birth, having been born at the quiet leafy little village of Ropley, near Alre&ford. His first great woi'k was a history of England from the accession of James I to the disgrace of Chief Justice Coke. ■ — The Earl of Leicester, who has given £10,000, in addition to his previous contributions of upwards of £20,000, to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, is "father" of the HouEe of Lords, having occupied a seat in that assembly for 56 years. Older than the noble lord in point of years, however, are the Earl of Tankerville, Lord Gwydyr, and Lord Armstrong, who are 89; the Rev. the Karl of Devon, who is 88; Lord Field, who is 86 : and Vi«count Cranbrook and Lord Norton, who are 85. The Earl of Leicester became a member of the House of Lords on attaining his majority in 184-3. — Here are the exact hours at which several European monarchs rke from their slumbeif. The Kaiser, we are told, rises at 5 o'clock, swallows a cup of coffee, and then begins work. The Emperor Francis Joseph, is about at 7 o'clock, and breakfasts on coffee and buttered toast. The King of Italy, the King of Sweden, the King of the Belgians, the King of Denmark, the Sultan, and the Prince of Bulgaria rise at the same hour as ordinary mortals. The record for indolence is held by the ex-King Milan. He retires to re«t at peep of clay, rises at midday, and takes a*long time over his breakfast. — The late Lord Howard de Walden was the seventh Baron, and was in his seventieth year. His Lordship, who had been in illhealth, was at one time an attache in the diplomatic service at Brussels, but subsequently entered the army, and was major in the 4-th Dragoon Guards. He is succeeded by his son, the Hon. T. E. Ellis, aged 20, an officer in the 10th Hussars, now with his regiment in South Africa. It will be remembered that the Dowasjer Lady Howard de Walden, mother ol the peer now deceased, died in July last at the great age of 92. The family of Lord Howard de Walden is connected with that of the Duke of Portland. — The late Marquis of Winchester was the Premier Marquis of England. He was in. the prime of life, being born in 1858, and succeeded his father to the title in 1887. Educated at Eton, he entered the Colclstreams just whan he had reached manhood. Lord Winchester was the hereditary bearer of the Cap of Maintenance — a cap of dignity carried before the sovereigns of England at their coronation. The deceased peer was unmarried, and will be succeeded by his brother, Lord Henry William Montagu Paulet. .formerly a lieutenant of the 3rd Battalion Hampshire Regiment, who has just attained hi- thirty-seventh year. — Miss Pauline Joran, the charming young American whom playgoers have admired at Covent Garden. Drury Lane, and at the Carl Rosa performances, was married on December 6, in London, to Baron de Bush. Miss Joran, who proposes to quit the stage on her marriage, has had "a very remarkable career. An American by birth, though on the one side of Austrian parentage, she was one of thrae sisters who were all celebrated as musical Drodigies. Pauline was the second sister, and made her debut in public as a piani&t at the age of four. It was not till she was 21 that she made her debut at Covent Garden, and later on sang before the Queen at Windsor. — Some sons of distinguished Canadians are bound for South Africa to fight the Boers. Major Robert Cartwright is a son of Sir Richard Cartwrig'nt. one of the leaders of the I iberal party, and the Minister of Trade and Commerce in Sir Wilfred Laurier's Government. Captain Gustave Joly is a son of Sir Henry Joly. a French- Canadian, who fills the post of Minister of Inland Revenue. A third member of the Liberal Cabinet, of the Dominion, the Hon. R. R. Dobell, is represented by a son who holds the rank of lieutenant, riir Alphonse Pelletier, the President of the Dominion Senate, sends a son of high militiry degree, Lieutenant-colonel Pelletier. — The German Emperor, as a linguist, appeared to advantage during his recent visit to England. Hi's Eilglish is free from all but the slightest accent, and is terse and idiomatic. He talks it a good deal, and without any hesitation. This, of course, is as it ought lo be. His French, which, as a rule, is only u«ed playfully and in inverted commas, as it were, has the genuine Parisian "racle." The Emnress also talks English well, but with a "strcna accsnt, and with an occasional quainfc turn of a phrase. The boys vastly prefer their mother tongue, and are apt to "shy" a little if an unexpected speech is addressed to them in English. But they understand the lanauaste all the same. To hear the Prince of Wales speak German is like hearing a German born and bred. — Sir Henry Tate. first baronet, the creation dalinsr from 1898, died on December 5. P.ecinnino; ]if e a? a grocer in a small way, in Liverpool, he had a successful business carper, and fortune favoured him still more when he turned his attention exclusively to the sugar industry. He generously disbursed his wealth in many useful directions. The library of Liverpool University is indebted to him for books worth more than £5000. and t'We Tate Public Libraries, liko those of Streatham, Lambeth, VVandsworth. Silvertown, and Brixton, dotted about various suburbs of London, lestify still further to the princely generosity which reached its ciowning point in the gift to the nation of the Tate National Gallery of British Art at Yauxlioll, together with more than 60 pictures and sculptures. These were but a few of his benefactions, for ho gave away large sums lhat the public never heard of. In 1897 Sir Henry Tate became a trustee of the National Gallery. Acred 80. — Sir William M'Corrnac, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, who has gone to Scvuth Africa and placed his services at the disposal of the military authorities was born in 1835. and is a son of Dr Henry M'Cormac. of Belfast. He was educated in Belfast. Dublin, and Paris. During the Franco-German vav, 1870-71, he saw service at Metz and Sedan as Surgeon-in- Chief of the Anglo-American Ambulance ; and he also served on the medical staff during the TurcoServian war in 1876. In 1881 he received the honour of knighthood in consideration of his services at Hon. Secretary-general of the International Medical Congress in London. He was created a Baronet in 1897, on the occasion of her Majesty's Jubilee: and was al«o anpoinled SurgPon-in-Ordinary to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. —It is barely a year since the news of Mr Heury Savage Landor's terrible experiences in Tibet, and subsequent tortures at the hands of the Tibetans, reached England. When that monumental work, "In the Forbidden Land," appeared, people were able to recognise the stubborn courage of the man who tackled the most insuperable obstacles «v orclar. tft^ Learn. &. little of the. less-known

parts of the globe. One would have conjectured that in future Mr Landor would have left Tibet severely alone, and very few people are aware of the fact that so as he had recovered sufficiently from the effects of his tortures he journeyed back again to Tibet, and in the course of the last few month'has experienced enough hairbreadth adventures to fill another volume. He only arm ed in London a few days ago, and when lie has written this last book, will probably be off again to the ends of the earth. —It was to an ancestor of the commander of the Guards Brigade on the Modder River that Steele dedicated a volume of the "Spectator." The Methuen thus distinguished was Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Steele praises Sir Paul Methuen for "the frank entertainment at his table, his easy condescension in the little incidents of mirth, and general complacency of manners." Sir Paul wos also a man of pluck, as was proved on more than oue occasion. The hero of Belmont and Modder is said to be a terribly severe commanding officer. The series of route marches with which he inaugurated his reign as Ma-jor-general Commanding the Home District was so prolific of ca°es of overstrain that it ca-^ie to be known as "Methuen murders." Lord Methuen is not a familiar figure in England. He is one of the youngest generals in the field, and has not hitherto had an opportunity of proving his mettle on a great battlefield. -Like his friend Sir "Redvers Bul-_ lev, he might, if he cored to. have lived a, life of luxury and ease. He has a beautiful place at Corsham Court, in Wiltshire, and is" a peer of the realm. But Lord -Methuen was not content to lest satisfied with the wealth and position his father had provided for him; he pref erred to work for his country. —Of Li Hung Chang, whose appointment as Minister of Commerce has just been announced, and whose naive remarks caused such amusement in London some few 3-ears ago, numberless stories are told. One of the most characteristic hap just reached us. Our old friend was having a, bitter fight with •some of the more conservative members of the T c unc--li-Yamen when he received as a present a magnificent, but. as he had every reason to believe, a poisoned cake. He put thft cake aside, and set all his powerful machinery to work to find ou). who was at the bottom of the plot. The investigation was partly successful, the crimo being traced to three men. of whom one. at least, was absolutely guilty. Li had the trio arrested and brought to hiiv. The cake was produced, with fho remark that "politeness forbade his tasting it until the three generous donors had had an opportunity to onioy its excellence." Li cut the cake, and one of his servitors handed it to the unwilling Quests. "E?ch took a piec.° and ate, or pretended to pat. One crumbled the pieces nnd let them fall upon the floor, bui the other two ate r-almlv. without rainif eating any emotion. Ten minute--! and the two men be ear to show symptoms of suffering. Li smiled benisrnantlv. and said to the man who had not eaten : "Your wisdom is so sroat that lam compelled to prpserve your head as a souvenir to transcendent gcri'is." The man was removed raid prmmptlv decapitated. To the other tv/o the Premier remarked : "The cake that you a' - e eating is not the one you but one which T had my cook imitate. The poison from which you are sufferir>c,- exists only in your imagination. I knov o?no way to cure your present pain except lotting you share the same fatp as your friend who has just left the room,"