PERSONAL NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 2801, 20 November 1907, Page 81

PERSONAL NOTES

— The Hon. and the Rev. A. Byxon, son of the seventh Lorel Byron, who has just died at Kirkby, near Nuneaton, followed the hounds for 70 years. He was a farmer, amateur gardener," poet, fisherman, cricketer, yachtsman, painter, musician, parish doctor, a good shot, and, up to within a short tinie of his death he drove his four-in-hand through Leicestershire. He wae 80 years 'old.

— The Marquess of Stafford, who recently celebrated his nineteenth birthday, :» heir to the most' extensive domain, if not the largest rent roll, enjoyed by any subject of King Edward. More than a million acres in England and Scotland are under the lordship •of his father, the Duke of Sutherland, while the Marquess of Breadalbane, who is probably the next largest proprietor in the kingdom, does not own half that amount of land.

— The venerable Earl of Wemyss, who has just entered on his eighty-ninth year, was born in the last years of the Regency, and has therefore lived in the reigns of five ICnglish sovereigns. He is, of course, easily the oWest of Scottish peers. In spite of his years Lord Wemysa is wonderfully active. He shoots and fishes with all the zest of a man half his age, and lately he has taken up motoring. He still speaks frequently in the House of Lords, especially o"n : military subjects, on which, a 4 patriarch of~the Volunteer movement and founder of the EScho Memorial, he is well qualified to discourse.

— The career of Mr John Craig, who recently ww- admitted a partner of the famous shipping firm of Elder, Dempster, and Co., might be held up as a splendid example of ,ep«rgy. and perseverance, to the ■rising generation. -Mr Craig, who' ii'^nul*ager of the financial . department, has been Sir Alfied Jones's right-hand man in the many vast schemes he has promoted. He joined the firm 20 years ago, when the fleet consisted of three steamers and office staff of three clerks. To-day Elder, Dempster, and Co. control over 100 steamers. Mr Craig did not specialise, but made it his business to acquire a general knowledge of the different departments. And it wm tnifl general knowledge which made him co valuable a man that Sir Alfred, who was ever a keen judge of a man's capacity. . pushed him forward. ; . — "Healy is up !" When the magicf words go round, there is a swift hurrymsp' into the Chamber (says the London Tribune), for no one can afford to miss the piquant Tim. Somebody will writhe before he finishes. His vitriolic wit never ' slumbers, and he is restless outside a fight. ' A short, stoutish man, black-bearded and j spectacled, with tfie tongue of a wasp and ; the wit of an Irishman, he commands an . apprehensive «nd fascinated attention from 1 all quarters of the House- Woe betide : the interrupter. He- is scathed with a re- ' tort which makes him unaffectedly sorry that he spoke, and irritable because of the ■ proneness of the House of Commons to laughter. Mr Healy k a £appy „<Wf«ca»^ Owing allegiance to nobody, bitiogly eriti- j cal to the failings of political leaders, ex- j tremely well-informed as to the intr.gues of parties in which he takes a detached , interest, and believing that it is no good speaking unless you can make somebody remember that you spoke, bis words lash like a whip and his satire corrodes like a bitter acid. The -only man with whom he never crossed swordi was Chamberlain. ,

: ITiey had too much respect for each otherls power of thrust. . '' — A characteristic story is being told of . John B. Herroshoff, the blind yacht builder, ofJßristol, Rhode Island, and head j of ;th« *v fittnoxis fftniilT" that." has- "ffiven .r Anierica ' se* many, victories in' tije .^o^tests }" for the ATtefericai-Cup^-Hcrroahoff^jaias a. • guesfat a large party in Bristol when the > lv?6tess was .proudly displaying a cabinet ' just received fnom an ahtiqifeTibep in New i, York, and bought for" £150, a's a "product " oi the year 1710. It' vras'observed" % «ne I * of the 'other guests jthai JJt r «sh o f£-«* WW ' 0 , r refrained from favourable jcpninieni, at s though the old joan.. lw^r"exVn»Miecr " tfie [ cabinet with his -delicate ttfftch.^f iudinc .'j an' 'opportunity,., uian*- approached ' Herreshoff, and askeet" hint >h»*rt«fcff for his silence. Her'reelioff "knuckled. -Til let 'V SOU; into a secret if you don't breathe a : . word of' it, to the good Mrs B ," he 1 said. '* The- 'tfromlsß havings been j?ivon, L. , Herreshoff ,a(ed" the" way, with his unerring r direfctnegt f to the cabinet, and, extracting I a drawgr,' hje ran the tips of his fingers E lightlyL.^Dver'Hhe bottom, and chuckled t, ,ugaiu,J ; "Ci^\JaT"T*w« in 1710? Poor Mrs ' -^~The new" Lord Dunmore is a keen sol1 dier, and, with the exception of Lord [ \ Roberta, the only peer who holds the Vie- ' ? rc-ria' Cross. He has seen fire in Egypt, J ' Afghanistan, and South Africa, and won >- his badge of valour in 1897. At the time » of the Boer war ho raised a troop, known 3 as F'ncastfe's Horse, and found a novel , ' method to teach his men horsemanship. I He conceived the plan of making them 1 ride up and down Arthur's Seat at Edint burgh, and after a few weeks at this h.« h troPpers qualified to scale the , stiffest 'kopjes in South Africa. Lord Dun- " • more is now the owner of South Harris, ■ in the Hebrides, and he is intensely Scotch, 1 \ and can both speak and write the Gaelio [^ language. His marriage in 1904- made a » j happy end to a romantic attachment. Ho I J had been engaged for eight years to the b beautiful Miss Kemble, .whose home was in i the Isle of Skye- Thfe island folk watched r this engagement with deep interest, and at r the time of the marriage their gift took c the form of a silver tripod, bearing the t woi^ds, "We wish good luck to you, and ro ' ; . bad luck to you." This inscription was in ? ! Gaelic. Lord Dunmore is a handsome mar. J and has been tersely described as possessing ' "good looks, good manners, and a good 1 heart." 1 — -TEe confidence which Derby- people j J and railway servants have in Mr" Richard r I Bell, M.P., is ahown by the fact that the s former have twice returned him to Parliat ment, while the latter have accepted him* c as their secretary for the last ten years. fc ' During the Taff Vale strike, in which Mr 1 Bell took a prominent part, he earned the. ' compliment from the Board of Trade'w * ! representative of being a labour organiser 6 capable of seeing that a question had two *'■ sides, and those who have studied his r '- attitude during the present railway dispute , I must admit Mr Belle fair-mindedness-. 1 [ Looking back on his career, Mr Bell once f declared, "I have never agitated for agitation's sake, and I have never taken up a cause without satisfying myself that it w,as. Ib the $rst place, a just cause and, in tho second place, that there was a 'fair chance of success, for I don't believe in fighting* when there is no chance of winning." Thf* Secretary" of the Amalgamated Society o* Railway Servants is an entirely scif-mada * man. He began life as an office-boy, befc , came a servant of the Great Wcsterni 1 j Railway, and rose in ten vearsf to be head! » ! guard, ultimately resigning bis oost, to* " devote his time to the society. He is a 1 1 man entirclv without "side,'' .and one of 1 the- characteristics which have made him so * popular is his readiness 10 frAternise with Uhe humblest railway employee. — The death of the Bishop of ChichesteP f took place on September 9 at Bemhr : dg«, r Isle of Wight. *A grandson of William 2 Wi!berforce, the slave trade abolitionist, t son of the famous Bishop of Winchester, 1 and an elder brother of Archdeacon Wilberr force, chaplain to the House of Coir.mons, f the late Bishop of Chichester was a very - fine type of the Anglican churchman. He t had leached his sixty-seventh year. Prior 1 to h» promotion to v+he episcopate ho had suent many fruitful years, as Canoi* > of Winchester, and in other capacities, and on the formation of the diocese of ) Newcastle in 1882. he was nominated to f the *ec by Mr Gladstone. In this sphere Bishop Wilberforce was eminently success1 ful, winning the affections of the whole . diocese by his kindness of heart, and earn. 1 ing the title of the "poor man's bishop." I Appropriately, his next and last appoint- [ ment was to Chichejrter, which took him back to the scene* of his boyhood and"- > youth. Dr WJlberforce did not take a I -very active part in parliamentary lif« but [ he was one of the ot bishops who did not vote apainst the Home Rule Bill, and he , could always be relied upon as a ttrenuons advocate. With the exception of the Archbishop of York, h© had worn the opiscopal [ lawn aleeves for a longer period than an» of his brethren on the bench.