PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2561, 6 May 1903, Page 63

PERSONAL NOTES.

— What first ftnkes the onlooker at any of tho Vatican "-oltmnitics m w hic'i Loo XIII participates Js Ins marvellous whiteness, which his ve-tment? only serve to ccccntuate. Indeed, he might be a figure chirsel'ed out of marM-* In stature he is somewhat thimnuti\-2, i<- wonderfully thin, but is full of latent vigour despite hih venerable :ige, and his face lighter.fi up with a beautifully expressive smile, which bas become workl-famou*. His hands are so white a» to b? .".lirost ti.irmp irent. — Lord Stalbnclge is the chairman of the London and North western Railway Company, a position which he has held sinrc 1891. The younger sreneration of politicians reie almost forgotten him, but as Lord Richard Gro.voaor he was m efficient Chief Whip to tho Liberal party in Glacktone's riays^ and his peerage is the rewarri of much hard woilo done for his rarty. He is an tcsy-Roing man who did veiy well in pohtios, but practically forfeck them altogether when h" "went up? tains" into the Lords. He is 65, his been a Iwron s-iuce 1886, aud is a eon of tho second Marquis of Westm!ii3ter. — Mr Justice Kennrdv has the rpputation of being able to *rcak <M?ht languages fh'pntly, and is probably tbe best classical scholar on the bench. He is an rid Etonian and Cambridge man. and was the fourth of hi- fnmilv to attain the distinction of FCtnior clas-io. By a curious coincidence Mr Ji:.tce Kennedy succeeded another senior classic. Mr .7w=tice Denman. on the bench, and it 13 f£'d that the old judge ronqratulated hi-! youthful succe==or in Latin verse, In which Sir 'Willi.'m Kennedy suitably rc-ph'-d in a (.'reek rdc Mr .Tiu-t : co Kennrdy i- mi rued to a sitter of Sir \V B. Richmond, IkA.

— Lord Erroll, who was born 53 years ago in Kingston, Canada West, holds tho unusual position in the North of Scotland of taking precedence of every one, e\en of dukes, tcid walking immediately behind the Royal Family, owing to his holding tlie hereditary rank of Lord High Constable of Scotland. Loid Erroll had a prominent place among those whoso hereditary privileges entitled them to bear portions of the regalia at the Coronation. Lord Erroll's mother was ono of the favourite ladies of the household of tho late Queen, and his youngest son, Mr Ivan Hay, is a royal page ■ of hmouf. having held the same post to i Queen Victoria. — All Paris has been interested in the celebration of the ninty-sixth birthday of M. Legouve. the author of "Adrienne Lecouvreux." The eeeret to which M. Legouve attributes his long life is regular exercise. According to the Westminster Gazette, this amazing eld gentleman fences every morning of his life for 15 mfmutes by the clock, and he also plays croqnet at the proper season, and billiards at all eeaeons, and goes for walks. When the weather prevents him from walking out of doors, he walks round and round his dining room. It should beadded that he lias brought up his family to love exercise as he loves it himself. His ] daughter, Madame Desvallieres, although ( her sixty-eighth year is past, frequently , ewimG across the Seine and back. — When Mr Herbert Spencer began the composition of "First Pr oiciples," in 1860, he adopted the practice of dictating to an amanuensis. He was spending tfie summer by the shore of a Scottish loch. Big habit was to dictate for a quarter of an hour, then row for an equal period, with the object of so stimulating the circulation of the blood as to carry him through another 15 minutes' dictation, md so on through the forenccn. Neither then nor afterwards has he worked in the afternoon. Ten years later, at tim*^, when his health fell to a low ebb, he would go to a racquet court in the North of London, play with the man in ■ charge, and dictate in the intervals oi the game. —Mr Stanley Spencer, the first man to cross Londca in an air-ship, holds many other ballooning records of which the public know little. fiie highest ascent ever made by an aeronaut in this country was | accomplished by Mr Spencer from the Crys- , tal Palace just four years ago. Accompanied by Dr Berson, the scientii-t, the balloon on that occasion had soared to a heigkt of 25,000 ft, when the cccupants of the car i w-pi-f (nearly evoked, and began gasping for breath. Dr Bcrson, happily, oarried with him a tube of compressed oxygen fastened to the car, and by inhaling this oxygen Mr . Spencer and hia companion were enabled to roach a height of five and a-quarter miles. — No one resents intrusion into the sacred life of the family more thrn Lord Salisbury, and among our public men (remarks Lady Jeune in the Gentlewoman) no one has ever more contrived to surround himself and his family with an atmosphere of seclusion, through which the curiosity of our modern life has rarely penetrated. While most public men live in a perpetual state of pu&licity ns regards their political and private affaire, j the reporter has never successfully stormed j the sacred glades of Hatfield. or got beyond the portal of Arlington street. Lord Salisbury has em-rounded himself with people of j great discretion, both as regards secretaries and servants, and no whisper of what happen? to him or his family reaches the outer world. — The Earl of Leven and Melville, who has been again appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, is only two years off 70. but he has still activities enough to deceive himself that be is young. The Earl is the head of a bar.lkmtr-house and a director of the Bank of England, and has business abilities of which even hie grandfather ( would have been proud. That worthy , gentleman is said, perhaps not quite truly, to have disinherited one of his yornjer sons for sending a boy to Oxford, "which was not a place to make business men." The thirteenth Earl, at anyrate, has no apology to make for his knowledge and grasp of the business of which he is the head. Lady Lcven, who was married to the Earl some 17 years ago, is the daughter of Lord Portman. — Wednesday, February 18, was the anniversary of the birth -of A'epspndro Volta, the inve-itor of the electric battery. and the =ouree of the familiar word, "volt." Ho "built upon" Galvani, a fellow Italian, uho.-c invnlwl wife, was fond of frog soup. Galvani observed some twitehings in <the legs of fonio frojrs whi"h were hunsj on the iron balcony outside his wife's window. This, at anyrate. is one story. He thought he had found the "nervous fluid," and his controversy with Tolra. who explained the facts | correctly, and inferred from them the mode j of <?pneratine electricity by a "cell " is the i foundation of modprn electrical science, to v.hioh the latest addition has been made by n third In\entor. Marconi, also claimcnl by ■the supnoped docon^rat^ race of Italians. Volte received t'-o Copley Medal of the P.ovnl Pociotv of Lrmdon in 1796, and died at P.ivia on March 6. 1826. — FieM-Marshal Sir John Lintorn Arabin Simmon?, whose death is announced, was th" son of a eartam of Artillprv. ITo was educated at Ruerrsev. and received his mmminion in the Royal Engineers at a little o\er 16 ITis oarly service was in North America, a-nd there he learn* to take a ereat intorpsf in railwavF On lii= return he was appointed inspector of railways in December. 1846. Soon after he- bponir-.e seerHsrv to the Riilwav Commissioner?, and wlini that cased to exist lieioiped the "Poard of Trade as secretary cf the Railway Department, wher* he remained until 1853. He w<ait to th* Crimea to coiv cert measures with iho nllied F.nplieh and French ceneraK with whom he saw tho ba<(!e of F,-ipatn. ia. and when Pebaßtopol had fallen h° acrompirWl Omar Pa«V>r>. to ihe Cau^osup. with a view to the relief of I Kar-. A year lnt<-r Simmons was made CV.n«ul-treneral .it War=aw. whence h<^ was I removed to the comroood of the RE. at Ald<Tr=hor. NPTt he 'became dircp'or of f-ntrin^erm!* stt'di-^s at O'mtViam in 1865. ?;nd lcmaincd until promrt^d Ma ioi -general v> ! ]JV,B His ripe w-i= lie- r>""1 P° w T.irut'M'ar.t ecnor>l in 1P72. i"'l f"l' n<.«-ral in 1P77 bnvMT-r Yen m'-'iwli'' I*'1 *' Governor o f tV Woolwich Ict't"' "-. btarv -xV-t nf Lo-dc T^cjvcinsfi'ld Pali-bury. and Odo Ru==?ll at the TWMn Congress in 1878, wliTe ! he was as'-'otod by Sir John .Aidatrh. Af'pv j a r,'<o.-t time on half r^v S'rrmons was I appointed Governor of Malta, until he was retired, four vrarc later, in 1888, for ape Sinoo then lip has been a ir>pr-ial fnvoy on MaHc-.p- subject-, to Ihp Vatican. He was mad* Field Mar'hal though he novel com- , mandrel a brignd" of British troops, in May.