THE VICEROY OF INDIA'S HOME AND CONNECTIONS.

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 63

THE VICEROY OF INDIA'S HOME AND CONNECTIONS.

Baron Searsdale, the venerable father (A the Indian Viceroy, has sent a letter to the Derbyshire papers appealing tor aid for the iaiiiine-&triei:en peoples ct our great Asiatic Empire. R'is words are so naive and simple that they can scarcely fail to make their way to the hearts o£ nis friends and neighbours. " I know from my son, the Viceroy," he writes, " that there are literally millions destitute of food, and the worst, is noi, yet come. Many ol us have already, sent contributions to the Lord -Mayor's fund, still, I am quite sure there must be many others who would like to give, and it will be a great pleasure to myself to send gifts from Derby and Derbyshire to the Viceroy. I hope no delicacy will be felt by any in sending small sums or postal orders. I shall be glad to receive any sums directed to myself at Kedleston, and they shall be promptly acknowledged." Kedleston Hall is a very interesting old house in itself ; but it has a sort of reflected glory just now, as it was the model after which the Calcutta Government House was built. The Viceroy himself mentioned that fact at a complimentary farewell dinner given in his honour on the eve of his departure for India ; and he confessed that on his first visit to Calcutta, when still a very young man, with untried powers and unproved merits, he stood on the steps of that Calcutta palace, the antitype of his Derbyshire home, and conceived in his heart of hearts the daring_ idea o£ returning one day to this Indian Ivedleston as the master of it, and of India !

People smiled at George Curzon then, and called him a prig and a pedant, and other unsympathetic names. But they have learned his worth now ; and his Derbyshire neighbours, who carped at his- youthful earnestness and ponderosity, are proud to see how splendidly he has justified the Queen's choice and ir,ust. He is, proving himself a really great administrator. He spares no pains see for himself what is needed for the right government of the vast dependency over which he rules. And this famine has. stirred his very soul. "It a rich man is in doubt whether he should subscribe," he said, after a visit to- the stricken territories, "I. will gladly give him. a railway ticket' to a famine district, and accept what he chooses to give me on his return. He might go with a hard heart ; he would come back with a broken one."

Lord Scarsdale is. proud of his son. He has every right so to be. The family circle at Kedleston is sliriukog — grown-up children marry and take flight in the ordinary, course of things — but it has been a singiii larly united and secluded one. Lady Scars.-. l dale loved the place, and aftei her death,in 1875, her husband shut up his Londoa house and resolved never again to leave Kedleston. He has kept his resolution, although it pressed a little hardly on his six daughters. They were tiny children then,but as they grew up days must have hung rather heavily — passed, as they were, year after year, in the lea-fy recesses of \b,% deer park, or in driving and riding through the quiet lanes that border on -ihe Peak country. The eldest Miss Curzon married a "noor curate" — the Rev_ Charles MacMichael, now the rector of Walpole, Norfolk. Another daughter is tlie wife of Sir James Miller, one of the richest and most popular of Lothian magnates. The young<s?t son, Afsheton Nathaniel (all the men in this branch of the Curzon family are Nathaniels), married Lillian, daughter of Mr Okeover of Okeover, and granddaughter o£ Lady Waterpark, her Majesty's old friend and servant.

Lord Scarsdale is in Holy Orders ; indeed, he is rector of Kedleston, the parish' church , forming one side of the west quadrangle of the "house itself. The church is - very ancient, and contains curious effigies r and epitaphs. Strangers wander into ife sometimes, and are startled if they chance to see an old man in a frieze knickerbocker - suit of most unclerical mien, and are told ] that this is not only the rector, but my lord , himself. The estate is splendidly managed ; t the keen eye of the master being everywhere. The old baron is widely respected, - and although he has passed the allotted span of three score and ten years, there is not one of his tenants who does nofc i hope it may yet be long before his Excellency the Viceroy inherits the Honours of Scarsdale and Kedleston.