People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 52, 26 December 1907, Page 28

People We Hear About

' Mr. Wharton,' the author of the successful new play ' Irene Wycherley,' is a former Clongowes boy, and is -ntw engaged in teaching in Dublin: Ihe play, Which has secured unbounded favor in London, was written in. three wecJ<s. Its author was never much of a theatregoer, and his acquaintance with theatrical people is of (juite " recent date. The successful dramatist is cnly> 27, and had a brilliant career in college. He was first boy of his year in the senior grade- of the Intermediate. Examinations. - . - Sir Francis Burnand may (says the ' Pall Mall U-azette ') have vacated an editorial chair, but he is not the sort of man to 1 give up his vocation, for all that ; and now the former editor of ' Punch ' reap- ' ' pears as the editor and, it would- also ,seem', the compiler, of a ' Catholic Who's Who.' This is a work which will, naturally, be awaited with an unusual degree of interest, fcsir Francis has a very wide circle of friends and acquaintances arron'g his co-religionists', and a very racy way of treating his friends and ac-_ cjuaintances generally when they are presented ,by him in book form. , - ' Mr. Charles M. King, of the - Coldstream ' Guards, who -was lately married to Lady Olare Noel, youngest daughter of the hJarl and Countess of Gainsborough, is a grandson o f the late Sir Charles Tilston Bright,', who was knighted at the age of twenty-six for laying the first Atlantic cable. It is said, indeed, thai? he was the youngest man ever knighted ~ since the Middle Ages. JLJxton Park, v Lord and Lady Gainsborough's Rutlandshire seat, where the wedding- took place, is a -fine -mansion, which was erected in the beginning of the, last century on the site of one which - was burnt clown. Some v of the "stones of this old house were incorporated in the building of the Catholic church, which was the scene of the ceremony. t The Je-arl of (jainsborough is a Catholic and a Conserva-" tive, his father, the second Earl, having been a convert to the Catholic Church-, into which he was personally received by Pope Pius IX. „ Lord Herries, who has just passed his 70th birthday, bears a title jvhioh was conferred- by King James IV. of Scotland_in 1490., The ninth Baron, who was also fifth Earl of Nithsdale, went out with the Old Pretender in 1715, and, being taken prisoner at Pres-ton-pans, would have literally lost his head had his wife not effected his escape from the Tower of London-un-der the circumstances that are well known. However, he had forfeited his honors, and tne earldom lapsed altogether ; bait the barony was revived by decision of the House of Lords in 1858, when v»niiam. Constable Maxwell was awarded the title as tenth Baron. The present peer is his son. Lord Herries has two daughters, the Duchess" of Norfolk and the - Hon. Mrs. Eric Dnrmmond, but no son. His ancient Scottish barony, therefore, will go to the Duchess, as it is inheritable by females, and in the Scottish peerage there is no., abeyance between daughters. '1 he United Kingdom barony, which was conferred on Lord Herries in 1884, will terminate wim him, as it could only be inherited by a son. Sir Lawrence Alira-Tadema, K.A., whose marvellous, painting, l Caracalla and .Geta '—which contains no fewer than 2500 figures — is attracting so much attention, Is one of the most painstaking and conscientious artists living ; so exacting that if a canvas fails to satisfy -his almost hypercritical , taste he will destroy it, though it may represent- the work of many .months. 1 Hard work and plenty of it, 1 is his recipe,, for success ; and there are few mornings in summer when he is not at his easel .at four or five o'clock. ' Many people,' he says, ' are surprised when they hear that I haive not visited Greece or Ujgypt — the two Countries ' that have figured so much on my canvases ' ; - and the confession is remarkable when one considers .the brilliance and fidelity with which v he has made thejse coun-. tries' live for us on his canvases. Sir Lawrence always speaks" gratefully of Ms earliest patron, 6ambart, the picture-dealer, who, in two orders, commissioned seventy-six pictures, and was so delighted with uhenr that he not only voluntarily raised the price,* butattended a dinner given io the artist at Brussels, and ' close to my plate,' says Sir Lawrence, ' I found a handsome silver claret-jug and a clfeque for £luo.'

More steel is" used in the manufacture of pens than in all the sword and gun factories in the world.