Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 392, 12 November 1903, Page 7

Personalities.

LADY O'HAGAN. of the most cultured and courihl sgeous women in Liscashiie is Lady O'Hagan. She is a clever woman, ardent educationist and politician, as well as a woman of many sorrows. A daughter of the late Colonel Towneley, of Towneley., she is now the last of that once powerful family, and it was she who sold Towneiey Hall and its estates at a nominal figure to the town of Burnley for a public park. She married, as his second wife, the Frsfc Lord O'Hagan, Irish Solicitor and Attorney General and Judge, and first Soman Catholic Chancellor of Ireland since the Reformation, It was Mr. Gladstone who gave him that high cffice and his barony of the United Kingdom. Lord O'Hagan died in 1885, rnd a dozen or ten years later Lady O'Hagan left the Catholic Church, of which she had been s fervent member. The eldest daughter at the same time married Mr. Leopold Klein, who had been a priest of the Catholic Church and the spiritual adviser of the family. Lord O'Hagan wis succeeded by his son, who, to his mother's great grief, died of enteric fever in South Africa during the Boar War. He was a lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards, and a young man of much promise. Lady O'Hagan, in order to be near her son, had gone out with a large supply of clothing and other comforts for the troops, and was with him at the end.

DUKE OF CONN AUGHT, King Edward is not the only member of the Boyal Family who is fond of travel. His brother, the Dnke of C mnaught, who is fifty-three, knows .'the world pretty well. He is the third &p?oi Qaeen Victoria, and was born at Bdwftgkyn PjAfeti. _iio entered the Armvil| and wtwiLaafltfSS

shot from 1893 to 1898. In March, 1879,1 he mSrried Princeeß Louise Margaret of Prussia, graad-niece of the late Emperor William. la spite of some prejudice on the part of constitutionalists, he achieved his darling ambition in 1882 by seeing active service—at Mahshutta and Tel-el-Kebir, and was three times mentioned in despatches. This year has been a busy one with him, for it has seen the openiag of the Assouan Dam and the great function of the Delhi Durbar.

THE WALKING PABSON, The Vicar of Filey, the Rev.' A. N. Cjoper, who has well earned the title of ' the Walking Parson,' is a remarkable man. He is jnst starting on another Continental tour. His f eats of pedestrianism would put the average stockbroker to - shame, for he c*n do his thirty miles day after day for weeks on end, and he * never requires to go into training, for his i parochial work always keeps him pretty fit. He has walked to Borne, 743 miles, from Hamburg to Paris, 487 miles, and from his own vicarage to Budapest, 610 miles, besides many other shorter distances in Belgium, Spain, and Italy, and only once has he had to spend the night without a bed. It was in 1888 that Mr Cjoper was touting in the South of Ireland, and having slept in Kilkenny, pushed on towards Cashel. The village! s on the road were very poor, and all he could buy was some dry bread, so that by the time he had done thirty miles he detiled to rest the night at an inn. 'Mother,' called the girl in the bar, ' here's a man wants a bed.' A voice from above answeied, c How many are there sleeping in the big bedP' 'Pour,' called the girl. •Tell him it's full." cried mamma, and the vicar believed her, Six on he was allowed as a great favour by the stationmaster to Bleep on tha chairs in the waiting room, the only 'spare' bed being occudied by the stationmaster's four daughfceis,

DR RICHTER, One of the greatest of our musicians, D t \ Richter, made his reputation as a horn player, and he is etill probably the finest performer living on that very difficult instrument. At one time, in order to keep up hi 3 practising, he used to resort to a small island, to the surprise of people in the neighbourhood, who could not imagine whence the mysterious music proceeded. One day, however, a venturesome Englishman determined to solve the mystery, hired a boat, and surprised the instrumentalist at his work. Fifteen years afterwards, when Richter went >o Oxford to be made a Mas. Doc, a learned professor introduced himself to him as the individual who had thus disturbed him.