FROM BEFORE THE CONQUEROR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 65

FROM BEFORE THE CONQUEROR.

Sir Ra'.ph and • Lady Bloi.s have returned from then tour m Italy and the South of Fiance, iuid uic now at their tine old place , Cockfield Hall, Suffolk, whcie they intend to re-ide until they go to Li mis more Gardens foi the sr-a^on. Sir X t'ph is very pupii! ir m hi> county Ti.i'lition places his ancestor -at Grund'sbuigh early in the fouiteenth century, and aver> that the Norman knight, William, i.imc from the city of Blois, in "France, at the bidd'ng of Geoflrey. one of th&'tuibulent suns o>" Kin/ Henry 11. who fl hli d to his parly :n the mimcimi- quaVfK lip had with !n X high handed f.nlifr Honker this may be. ccrta-nh aV\ i i H ■ 1 1 1 B'o>> of Grundisbui^h man led the henes<- of C'ockfield in lb7o, and from that date until now the family annals aic cle.ii and beyond dispute, if not ■ c ally exciting or distinguished.

P< iL . • - the rro«« romantic incident connected v.ih the family ot late \<'urs is the sioij of the gianilfatLt-r of ihe piesent Baronet. John Ra'ph Hlo.s. who. a younger son of rather erratic t;r=tc:. was sent off to <-ea to carve hi>- ou n fortune" Nel.»on and C'olhogwood had just shown how glory might be won; but then \ictoue-s had bought .i spell o f peace for the navy, and aftei Trafalgar it was not ea»v to find an enemy wherewith to fight. When John Blois wjs about five-nnd-t wenty. ar.d the pip'n^ times of peace had somewhat bou'd hiv sjuiit. the ship on which he was first lieutenant was sent to the coast of Donegal — suiely the loneliest, dullest place washed by Bi'tish Yet here he found the absoibmg pa^Mon of his 1-fe.

In a little rectory. tn<ktd aw iy mto one of the glens that iim up tin- hills of that far norih-w estcin county, weie thie" of the most beautiful girls tint even Ireland could show Tho\ had the pure, pale complexions. \he \ioK-iblue e\f-, the d-ark ban and brows which intke a M\]e of colouring rarely found ixcept m li eland The officers of his Majesty's «-hip went wild over the shy beauties : for very shy indeed were these damsels, who had scarcely ever

before beheld a man in their own rank of life, and never such dazzling creatures as were these uniformed admirers.

John Blois carried off the loveliest of the three, and took her to his Suffolk home, where he imagined her surpassing charms would prove as victorious as they had been in his own case. But his father had many other sons, an expensive heir who demanded "'allowances." and three daughters to dower. John's, wife was certainly as fair as Helen of Troy ; but ?he was an absolutely penniless bride, and John mupt manage to piovide for her and her babies as> be<-t he mi^'ht So the na\y had to be given up, and life in Suffolk also ; aud Johu Blois !ud to do as best hi- could.

Hi* boys emigrated and battled •with colonial h lid^hip?, as so many scions of old families have liad to do before and since their time ■ He himself died in 1853; but soon afteViiurdv. by the death of the seventh baionet without children, Mrs Blois. tlie Tii<-h ber.uty — an eldeily widow no.v. but beiutiful still — saw the nlle and the proper'v come to her son. who foithwiib. returned from the antipodes to establish Ids mother in Cockfield Hall. He did. not marry 'for m:iny yesi.*, but it is his son, the grandson of Miss Barrett, of Donegal Rectory. v\ ho is mdistex at Cockfield now.