A Wonderful Old Lady.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue V, 2 February 1901, Page 227

A Wonderful Old Lady.

Unlike many of those who are centenarians by tradition and repute, there is no question as to Mrs Neve’s g-reat age, for she can show her baptismal certificate, duly signed and attested as the daughter of Mr John Harvey, of the Pollet. Her birthday was May 18. 1792. and nine days later the name of which she is proud as being essentially English was bestowed upon her in one of the Guernsey churches, so that she is now 108 years and five months old. Her mother, as she recalls with satisfaction, was one of the very first ladies to venture to travel in a railway train, and she well remembers the' caricatures of tea-kettles on wheels and saucepans jerking along which the pictorial humour of the day hailed as “Puffing Billy.” The earliest definite recollection which she has concerning herself was going to school as a girl of about ten or so to Bristol, a journey which had to be made by sailing-boats. Here she received her education under the Misses Cottle, sisters of Amos and Joseph Cottle, both of whom were poets of some vogue in their day.

This was something more than the usual prim seminary for young ladies, and the accomplished ladies who kept it were friends of many distinguished men and women of letters. Through them she met and has conversed not only with those named, but also with Hannah More, Zachary Macaulay. Sir Humphry Davy. Charles Lamb, and Hazlitt, and. until her powers of memory began somewhat to fail, could tell various little facts and episodes concerning them. Miss Harvey was a girl of thirteen at the time of Trafalgar, though it would seem that concerning this she never had any very keen impressions. Of Waterloo, however, her memories are much more definite: but, of

course, she is unique among those living in this country in having passed her majority by two years when Napoleon's power was finally crushed. During her residence at Bristol she saw much of the exiled General Charles Francois Dumoniez, who had conducted the Belgian campaign and achieved the famous “Cannonade de Valmy.” and was an admirer of her wit and beauty. It was during the Waterloo year that she married Mr Neve, a Kentish gentleman of independent means, and soon afterwards went with him on a Continental tour, which included a visit to the historic field. Here she was fortunate enough to pick up what is still one of her most treasured ( >os sessions in a belt buckle worn by the Imperial Guard, and when Marshal Blucher came to this country Mrs Neve was presented, and showed the buckle to him.

To-day Mrs Neve is a charming picture of an aged lady, as she sits erect in her chair, dressed in rich black figured poplin, with a soft shawl of her own crocheting over her shoulders.