PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2603, 3 February 1904, Page 69

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Lord Tredegar is one of the best-known landlords in Wales, and famous as tho man who found himself in charge of the 17th Lancers after the oelebrat&d charge of Balaclava. He wad Captain Godfrey Morgan then, and he had the luck not only to come out scatheless himself, but to bring out his horse, "Sir Briggs," fiom the "jaws of death" to enjoy a well-earned leisure during his last days at Tredegar Park. The Earl is a great agriculturist and a keen huntsman, who "keeps his own pack and hunte twice a week during the season. —Mr Henry Seton-Karr, M.P. for St. Helens, had a magnificent training at Harrow and Oxford for his .adventurous life as a big-game hunter. At Oxford he was famous for his rowing prowess, taking part in no fewer than 64- races and being captain of iho Corpus Boating Club; and he was equally doughty on the cricket and football fields. Of all hie shooting excursions, the most delightful was one he spent in Wyoming a quarter of a century ago, with a hiend, shooting grizzlies, buffaloes, and antelopes, living and hunting with the Indians, and generally leading the romantic life so attractively painted by Fenimore Cooper. — The death is recorded of Sir James Cornelius O'Dowd, which took place in London on December 16. The deceased, who was 74- years of age, was an eminent authority on military law, and held the position of Deputy-Judge Advocate-General of the Army from. 1869 to 1E99. Two years after his appointment purchase in the army was abolished, and he wae selected to sit on tbo commission to which was referred the adjustment of officers' claims for compensation arising out of this drastic change. He had also been Professor of Law at the Staff College since 1896. An assiduous journalist, he for several yeara shared with Sir W. H. Ruesell the ownership and control of the. Army and Navy Gazette. Sir James received his knighthood in 1900. — Sir Weetman Pearson, M.P., is the head of the great engineering firm which bears his name, and which has done a vast amount of work both at home arid abroad. Sealiam HarbVur, the Great Northern and City "tube," Dover Harbour, and tho Blackwall Tunnel are some of the undertakings in this 1 country connected with his name, and, together with some of his principal contracts, represent an expenditure of some £15,000,000. Needless to say, the man who can guide and direct such a business with success is a born organiser, one of those rare minds which have a marvellous grasp of detail combined with a power of looking at big things as a whole. When he floated the concern as a private limited, company he got £1,000,000 for the business, which at that time employed 30,000 men, and is probably employing even more to-day.— Ilonw paper. — There is one point of personal resemblance between Sir Edwin Egerton, the new British Ambassador at Madrid, and Mr Chamberlain. Sir Edwin, like the ex-Colo-nial Secretary, is never seen without a monocle, and his habit of using it has beon known to disconcert some of the more or less distinguished foreigners with whom, in the course of his interesting career, ho has come in contact. The temper of Sir Mortimer Durand's successor in the- Spanish capital is imperturbable, and to the unruffled serenity which he displays in all sorts of circumstances, quite as much a.s to his abilities and experience, bis friends attribute his steady rise in the diplomatic service. When he had reached almost the middle of tho fifties he fell in love with a beautiful Russian widow, and this- lady, the daughter of a prince, will bo in her element as hostecs at the Embassy in Madrid. Both Lady Egerton and her husband are accomplished linguists. — .That exceedingly candid friend of the Government, Lord Newton, liko many other peers, served his political apprenticeship in the House of Commons, where he sat as the Hon. Thomas Wodehouse Legh for South-west Lancashire until he succeeded his father, the first Baron, in 1898. He has two hobTaies, music and fishing, and though in the first he doe 3 not secb to fes a performer, in the latter his power is well known, and there is* no place, however outlandish, that he v\ ill not seek in search of freeh streams to conquer. In the House of Commons Lord Newton cannot be said to have been a very popular member. He has an awkward habit of saying exactly what he thinks, and politically, at anyrate, he is a stranger to tact He is of middle height, with fair hair and a pale, intelligent face, and he has the reputation of being an excellent landlord and a d&voted husband and father. One of his strongest points i; his detestation of every tliinn; in tha naiui. of vulgai eniartness, and, indeed.

some of Ihis caste think him very oldfashioned and particular — faults which nowadays most people will be inclined to regard as being on the right side.

— The great astronomer, Sir Robert Ball, who is 63, can goo etars and talk about them without the fear of being charged with staying too late at the club. He has been Astronomical Professor of Cambridge for a decade, but he remains a thorough Irishman still, as many thousands of people all over the country who have listened to his witty and fluent lectures on the science of the stars, delivered in the most mellifluous of brogues, can testify. His career as an astronomer dates back to 1865, when, shortly after leaving Trinity College, Dublin, he was placed in charge of tho famous private observatoiy established by tho Earl of Rosie at Parsonstown, King s County, Ireland, which at one time rejoiced in the possession of tho biggest telescope in the world. Sir Robert is renowned for his happy and humorous comparisons between the celestial and the terrestrial. When the possibility of signalling to- Mars was under discussion he pointed out that if a flag of ths size of Ireland was wr.ved from a pole to match thero wa6 just the ghost of a chance that an astronomical Martian might perceive the ghost of a flutter upon the earth. —Mr Aston Webb, R.A., who is pleading for some expert authority -before whom might be laid any plans for big publio improvements, has co many monuments to his skill as an architect that it would require some space to name -ihem all. His most important work-3 now in hand are the completion of the South Kensington Museum and the architectural surroundings of the Victoria Memorial. He is a Londoner by birth, and is a man of quiet and retiring: disposition, which has not prevented him, however, from making his mark in the world. His father was a well-known

engraver and painter in water-colours, Jf*> I Edward WebT>. As an juohitccl of the 1 domestic order Mr "Webb is as well known Jas a designer of great piiblio buildings. He I has built for himself a ehr.rm.ing residence 1 near Ladbroke square, Nottinghill, which is a fine oxample of what can be done to relieve the monotony of London streets. Ting house contains many art treasures, one of the most remarkable of which is a painting of Good Queen Bess which is believed to have been done from life. It was found behind oomo panelling in an ancient cottage in Sussex, and it hangs in Mr Webb's hall in the original panel. Mr We.bb has a leaning towards Chippendale furniture, of which he possesses some very beautiful 1 specim-ens. — Once, in the long ago (says Men and Women of November 14), three briefless young barristers dined together on a memorable evening, and exchanged condolences over the wine. Their names were Russell, Hersehell, and Gully, and their faces were very long-. Ruesell was an Irishman, andi had not, perhaps, quite lost the buoyant optimism which is the Irishman's birthright; but the other two were very dci-pondin? I indeed. Hersehell saw no hope in England, land talked of trying- the Indian bar; Gully ' was even more reekies-s, and proposed to riisk malaria in the Straibs Settlement?. Russell, however, rallied his friends, and they mutually resolved to stick) to their guns. HorsehelL lived to be Lord Chancellor ; Russell died Lord Chief Justice o£ England ; an<s on Saturday this week the Right Hon." William Court, Gully, Speaker of the House of Commons, dines with the London District of the Institute of Journalists. Sixty-ei^ht years old, Mr Gully is that rare acquisition, a humorous Speaker, with a faoe> full of bonhomie, born to be framed by a full-bottomed wifif. and a musical voice intended by Providence for an after-dinner speech".