PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2669, 10 May 1905, Page 78

PERSONAL NOTES.

— The Earl of Leven and M-elville, who has been appointed a Knight of the Order of the- Thistle in succession to the late Earl of Southesk, is in his seventieth year, and ha-- had the honour of representing the late Sovereign and King Edward as High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for seven successive years. In 1883 he married a daughter of the second Viscount Portman-.

—Mr Lloyd-George, M.P., who is one of the most active and brilliant public speakers of to-day, is- a solicitor in largo practice. Although he is most interested in subjects of a serious character, he is a man of great humour, and as a raconteur ranks high. So popular is he in the Principality that he has been dubbed the "Uncrowned King of Wales." — Lord Selborne receives £4500 a year as First Lord of the Admiralty, and as High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Transvaal ho will draw £11,000. Lord Selborne is a striking illustration of th-e extremely affectionate ties which bind together the members of the great house of Cecil. Whatever their political differences, the Cecils are always "the best of friends" in their family relations, and this bond rests, it is said, upon a foundation of mutual sympathy and religion. In no noble house in England were the daily religious devotions more implicitly adhered to than in the families of the late Prime Minister and the great Earl of Selborne. Hence it is that the spiritual side of the characters of Mr Balfour, of Lord Hugh jCecil, and of his brothers is always so marked. Lord Selborne married he late Lord Salisbury's daughter. Lady Beatrix Cecil, and the boyish friendship of his own little son, Lord Wolmer, with the 13-yoar-old Viscount Cranborne, the heir of the present Lord Salisbury, is surely an indication of this notable family tie. The devotion of Miss Balfour to the Premier, her brother, and of Lady Florence Cecil to her father, the late Prime Minister, was equally exemplary. — After an illness of some duration the Earl of Kenmare dies recently at his Londoo residence in his eightieth year. The deceased peer was the fourth earl, hut the family is an old and distinguished one. Herepresented County Kerry in Parliament in the Liberal interest for 19 years — from 1852 to 1871. — when the death of his father raised him to the House of Lords. Far many years he held office in the household of Queon Victoria, by whom he was held in personal friendship, and he was Lord Chamberlain from 1880 to 1886. The Kenmare estate in Kerry is large and beautiful. One of the late Earl's ancestors received a grant of the Lakes of Killarney from Tames I, and the Kenmare acres amount altogether to nearly 200,000. Killarney House, the Earl's Kerry sq'at, is a modern mansion in the Elizabethan style of architecture. The interior decoration is beautiful, some of the door handles being maed from exquisite specimens of chased antique watch-cases ! During the visit of Queen Victoria, with the Prince of Wales and Princess Alice, to Ireland in 1861. <he late Earl, who was then known as Lord Castlerosse, entertained them at his beautiful home at Killarney.

— The Marquis of Bute .says a London paper) is far and away the richest parti in England to-day. One of our great coal lords, he owns 117,000 acres of land, the town of Cardiff, the Isle of Bute, six country seats, a London residence, large tracts of land in Palestine, and a rental of £250,000 a year. These vast possessions were not, as the proud motto. "He nourishes in an honourable ancestry," would lead us to expect, conquered by the sword, stained in the public service, or even paid for with money. They are. due to the fact that the founder of the house was the illegitimate son of a king, Robert 11, of Scotland. The Welsh property was acquired by marriage, while the foreshores of Cai'diff, the source of so much wealth, were bought from the corporation for an annual dinner which is no longer given. The young Marquis, though possessing none of the • brilliant intellectual endowments of hi-i father — the Lothair of Lord Beacons— neld'te famous story — is a good linguist, speafting most modern languages, even Russian/ well. For the rest his tastes are chiefly sporting. He is fond of fishing, and is a good shot. He is a cousin of the Duke of Norfolk, a Roman Catholic, like his father, who, it may be remembered, left instructions that his heart should be buried on Mount Olivet.

— The Pasxoralisfcs' Review announces the death of Mr H. C. White, a noted stockbreedoi" and racehorses owner. Henry diaries was orfo of the seven sons of the late James White, of Edinglassie Station, near Muswellbrook, N.S.W., flu* eldest of tthom was the lat© well-known Hon. Jamc-s White. Henry was born at Ravensworth, on the Hunter River. When about 13 vsars old he went to sea., and visited China, Sumatra. Cape of Good Hope, and England, and returned to Edinglassie in 1852. After five years' experience on this station, he was placed in charge of Boo-

room a Station, on the Barwon River, then owned by the White family, and two years later, in 1859, he. in conjunction with his bi other James, purchased Terridfyerie Station (now Calga), in the Coonamble district. Mr White was perhaps the most famous all-round breeder of stock in Au--traha, his Havilah merinos and racehorse? being specially widely known, though Ins shorthorns, Devons, and polled Angus cattle, and Clydesdales and light horses also enjoyed considerable reputation. He made frequent visits to At ho Old Country, and on almost every trip he brought some prize stock back. He started buying HaviAlah aheep as far bacAk as 1860, and in 1881 bought Haviiah itself with the flock, which he worked up to their present repute, mainly by selection amongst themsehes. Mr H. C. White was generally respected as a strong, shrewd, energetic, and upright man, and one whose wbole heart was in stock-breeding, as well as being, like the late Hon. James White, a straight-goer on the turf.

— The following promotions to the English Episcopal bench are reported in Leeds Mercury of March 11: — Every successor of Dr Hook, "f owd Vicar" of Leeds, as he was familiarly called — and he liked his folk title better than that of Dean of Chichester — has become in turn a Bishop. There have been six altogether since then, and there were a good many more before Dr Hook's time. Dr Gibson's promotion to the Episcopal bench was therefore sure to come, in accordance with precedent. He has had to wait for it longer than most of the others, but Leeds has had the benefit. Much good and earnest work has been done by him during the nine years or so he has been in the city, and his whole career marks him as a worthy successor to D: Ellicott in the see of Gloucester. It is intreesting also to note that Dr Talbot, who was Dr Gibson's immediate predecessor in Leeds, is translated from the ancient see of Rochester to the new see- of Southwark, which he has done so muoh to found. Dr Havmer, who has been Bishop of Adelaide, gots to Rochester.