The House of Buccleuch

Southland Times, Issue 22728, 2 November 1935, Page 16

The House of Buccleuch

SOME POINTS OF INTEREST.

Never in the history of our land has the “in-law” circle of the Royal family been so large and so British as now. The marriage of the Princess Royal brought in the big Lascelles connection, that of the Duke of York the Bowes-Lyon clan, and now the large family and wide connections of the Montagu-Douglas-Scotts are to be included, states the New Zealand Herald. Lady Alice Scott, the future Duchess of Gloucester, possesses as many relations as anyone in Zferitain. Her paternal grandmother, Queen Victoria’s last and Queen Alexandra’s first, Mistress of the Robes, was one of the seven daughters and thirteen children of the first Duke and Duchess of Abercorn. Through her mother, a daughter of the fourth Earl of Bradford, Lady Alice Scott is cousin once removed of the Earl of Harewood, the King’s son-in-law, and her eldest brother, the Earl of Dalkeith, married a member of the Lascelles family. Both Lady Alice and her sister-in-law to be, the Duchess of York, come of large families, and both are the third daughters, the Duchess of York being the older of the two by a little more than a year, as Lady Alice will not celebrate her 34th birthday until Christmas Day. The Buccleuch title ranks second in seniority amongst the Scottish Dukes, the premier being the Dukedom of Hamilton and Brandon, which was created in 1643, twenty years before that of Buccleuch. The House of Buccleuch is one of great historic interest, as the first Duke was a natural son of King Charles 11. by Lucy Walters, and it bears the Royal Arms of “the Merrie Monarch”; both Lady Alice and the Duke of Gloucester, therefore, have common ancestry in Charles I. The oldest title held by Lady Alice’s father, the late Duke, was that of Baron Scott of Buccleuch, a peerage conferred in 1606 upon Sir Walter Scott, who served with distinction in the Netherlands under the Prince of Orange. This Baron Scott was a descendant of John Scott, who is said to have risked his life by retrieving and bringing back to the King a buck which was being hunted by one of the Scottish Kings, and which fell into a steep ravine or “cleuch.” For this he was rewarded with the right to add “Buck’s cleuch” to his name. His son Walter, married Mary, daughter of the 9th Earl of Errol, hereditary Lord High Constable of Scotland, and was created Earl of Buccleuch in 1619. On his death he was succeeded by his son Francis, a sunporter of King Charles.

A pretty little point of precedence seems to arise out of the Royal engagement. Tlie Duke of Gloucester is older than the Duke of Kent, and so h.is wife should be the fifth lady in the land—but not, as some have suggested, the fourth, since Princes Elizabeth would take precedence were she grown up. But the Duchess of Kent is Royal by birth, whereas the future Duchess of Gloucester will only be Royal by marriage. The Duke of Gloucester is not so well known as his brothers, partly because he has been occupied with his military duties. Those who come in contact with him, however, find him affable and unaffected. Invited to house parties, he will amuse himself for hours playing hymn tunes on the piano with the finger of one hand. He is fond of music and regrets his inability to play.

Miss Tuppy Basstian, Tweed street leaves on Monday on a visit to Gore. Miss Sylvia He y*. who has been visiting her father, Dr. R. H. Hogg, Don street, left yesterday on her return to Paraparaumu.

Mrs W. Stewart Faulks, of Pembroke, returned on Monday from a visit to her mother, Mrs W. Kennedy, “Studleigh,” Bayswater. After a visit to Invercargill, where she has been the guest of Mrs W. S. Todd, Thomson street, Miss Peggy Bain returns to Dunedin on Monday. Mr and Mrs J. W. Varcoe, Mr and Mrs N. W. Varcoe and Mrs J. Grant, all of Invercargill, spent Labour Day week-end as the guests of Mr and Mrs H. R. Eastlake, Queenstown.

A splendid record has been achieved by Miss Kate Cooks, who recently retired after 19 years of service from the police of Adelaide, South Australia. She has been especially successful during her long career in tracing missing girls. Miss Cooks also established a training school for women police, along original welfare and preventive fines. The fact that the Women’s Police Department of South Australia is a separate' department, responsible directly to the Commissioner of Police, may be mentioned in this connexion, as it is generally agreed by women’s international organizations that a separate department for women police is by far the most satisfactory basis for this important work.