PERSONAL NOTES

Otago Witness, Volume 26, Issue 2419, 26 July 1900, Page 63

PERSONAL NOTES

— Lord Belper, who i§ A.D.C. to her Majesty the Queen, and has been captain of the Queen's Gentlemen-at-Arms since 1895, was 60 on May 20. His lordship is chairman of the County Council and of the. Quarter Sessions of 'Nottingham, and was at one time member of Parliament for East Derbyshire, and later on for Berwick, which seat he had to relinquish on the death of his father in 1880.

— Young Siegfried Wagner is one of the few conductors who wield the baton with the left hand, though he writes and fences with his right. Like his mother, he is an excellent linguist — speaking English, French, and Italian, in addition to his native tongue. In the matter of physiognomy the resemblance of son to sire is striking enough. The head, the brow, the none, the chin, are all reproduced so that the least otaserva'nt' may detect the likeness.

— Sir E. Leader Williams, who was 72 on April '2B, is one of the great engineers of the country, having been chief engineer of the Manchester Ship Canal during its construction, and is now consulting; engineer. He has been engaged in engineering all his life, having taken up that profession since he was 18, following in^he wake of his father, who was engineer to the Severn Navigation Commissioners.

— Lord Avebury, whose sixty-sixth birthday occurred on April 30, is one of the most famous men in the country, and although a banker by profession, being the head of Messrs Robarts, Lubbock, and Co., was for nearly 20 years M.P. for the University- of London, and has won a distinguished place in the scientific world. It was he who got the Bank Holiday Act passed, for which reason he has sometimes been called St. Lubbock.

— The Duke of Connaught, whose fiftieth birthday occurred on May 1, is the seventh of the nine children whom the Queen has had. It is by no means improbale that his Royal Highness may in time become Commander-in-Chief, and though he himself is never likely to be called to the throne, his son, Prince Arthur, will in time become Duke of Saxe-Oo-burg-Gotha, succeeding his uncle, who used at one time to be known as the Duke of Edinburgh.

— Miss Marie Cof elli, whose reputation as a novelist is so widespread, kept her birthday on May 1. Her first book. "A Romance of Two Worlds,' 1 which was published -14- years ago, was the result of a curious psychical experience which happened to her, and so great was its success that -she gave up all idea of the musical profession, for which she was studying, in order to devote herself to literature. — Sii Walter G-ilbey, who was 69 on May 2, founded the well-known firm of W. and A. Gilbey, wine merchants. He began life as an estate agent, subsequently going into a parliamentary agent's office; and when the Crimean war broke out he volunteered for service in the Army Pay department, and served in the Convalescent Hospital. Sii Walter is exceedingly fond of horses, has been president of various horse societies, and has written a great 'deal about horses from all points of viswv

" — Sir Erasmus Ommaxmey, who entered the navy as long ago as 1826, was 86 on May 2?,. Although not 13 at the time, he saw nra when. ■the Turkish- fleet -Avas destroyed- at- Nayarino in 1827. in 1850 he served in an expedition to the Arctic regions, and during theHussia'i -war commanded the naval- forces- in-the 'White Sea and in the Gulf of Riga. ! — JFJ.I.M. the Czar of all the Russias celebrated his thirty-second birthday on May IS. FeAV people regard him as the richest man in the world, yet that is undoubtedly his envLpble position, -for -it is -generally understood thai his income amounts to something lik". £2.000,000 a year, derived from mines, forest-:, etc-., his estates covering an area about as large as France. The likeness between the Czur and the Duke of York is really something extraordinary.

• — In the intervals of her professional tours Madame Modjcska is an enthusiastic farmer. She rises at 6 every morning, and as soon as sho has had her coffee is out among her cattlo and bees until breakfast time. After thai &he takes a nap in a hammock, reads or sewoy and in the afternoon makes riding excursions up the mountains which surround her ranch. The house, which is of the bungalow type, 'is overrun with vines and rose 3, and at the side is a flower garden in which the passionate impersonator of Ophelia and Juliet works with rake and hoe in the cool of the morning. — The Duke of Beaufort, who succeeded to the title on the death of his father laßt year, was 53 on May 19. He was at one time a captain of the Tlo3'al Horse Guards, -and is now colonel of the Royal Gloucester-H*ussars, as well as M.F.H. of the famous Badminton Hunt.

— Edward FitzGerald, of "Omar Khayyam"' renown, was born in 1809, at Bredfieid House in Suffolk, but his father afterwards moved to Boulge Hall, close to the churchyard in which his son now lies buried- In 1826, FitzGerald went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he formed a life-long friendship with Thackeray. • Perhaps his greatest friend Avas the Rev. George Crabbe, Vicar of Bredfieid, and eldest &on of the poet. A charming picture of the home life of the vicarage and of FitzGerald's visits is given by Miss Crabbe, the only surviving member of the family. It Avas at her brother's house, Merton Rectory, in .Norfolk, that FitzGerald peacefully passed away in 1883. — Major-general A. Fitz-Roy Hart, who - commands a brigade at the Cape, has had adistinguished record. Son of a general, he entered the army as an ensign in 186" — ai the age of 20 — and nine years later saAV fighting in the Ashanti Avar. Subsequently he served through the Zulu war, the first Boer war, the Egyptian campaign of 1882, being wounded at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. and later held a regimental command in India. In addition to being the author of a practical manual on "Camping," he is the editor of the -well-known "Hart's Army List."

— Colonel Horace Ricardo, Avho is to be temporary colonel of the Irish Guards, was born in London in 1850, and is the eldebt son of the late Mr Percy Ricardo, J.P., D.L. He joined the Grenadier Guards on leaving Eton in 1869. He first 1 saw service in the Soudan in 1885J receiA'ing the medal and clasp and the bronze star for his services at Svakin.He married the eldest daughter of Colonel Goulburn, also of the Grenadier Guards, and he lives at Bramley Park, Guildford. He is a grandson of the famous David Ricardo, author of the "Theory of Rent."

— His Honor Judge William Willis." Q.C., who was 65 on April 29, has had a distinguished career at the bar, although he began life in business at Luton, AA'here his-father was a straw hat manufacturer. He did not matriculate at the University of London invtil he - was -22, soon after which he became; a student • at the Inner Temple, and'" in d"ue course AA - as called to the bar". "While at the University of London he got the gold',medal at the- LL.D.. examination, subsequently becoming one of the examiners in Common Law. He is a great authority on Mikon. — The Bishop of Durham, the Right P.<w.~ Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D., ife nerhaps the most learned bishop ' on' the bench. It is well known that Dr Westcott refused over and OA'er again to be made a bishop. However, after much persuasion, he accepted the Bishopric of Durham. The salary attached to this soe is £7000, and of this Dr Westcott gives away £5000. Dr Westcott is a great favourite with the Prince of Wales, Avho recently said to the Duke of Devonshire: "There are only thiee people living whom I alloAV to 'lecture' me — my mother (the. Queen), my wife (the Princess), and the Bishop of Durham." - — Commandant Olivier, the Boer leader in the Free State, is a typical specimen of the Boer fighting farmer, % man who xnay be described as a patriarch in peace and a warrior in war. He is of a restless iiature, and is absolutely unscrupulous to friend or foe alike, being as stern to inflict as stubborn to endure, and quite as quick to shoot one of his own men for trivial disobedience as he is to snipe a foe. Olivier is the most anti-British of Boers. He is rich, as Boer farmers go, and may be classed Avith Snymari, the commander at Mafeking, as a ruthless foe, and not Avith Daniel Botha, who- is a courteous, civil, and scrupulously fair enemy.

— Vice-admiral * Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, whose sixtieth birthday Avas celebrated on April 30, has had a distinguished career since he entered the navy 48 years ago. Ho served in the Black Sea and during the Crimean Avar, Ava& present at the bombardment o3 ■ Sebastopol and other places, receiving a medal' ! and clasp, like honours coming to him afteiS i the China war. He served on the coast 05 , ' Africa in -1870. and was wounded in action... and was in the Egyptian war of 1882, when htjt got a modal. Sir Edward, who was secpm* in command of the Channel Squadron in 189Z-* , 94-, ' has been - Commander-in-Chief on '_th&» ■ China' station sines 1857. % - ---,-•