Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 409, 10 March 1904, Page 2

Personalities.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. S|gN her saintly age—Bhe is now ap; gig proaching her eighty-fourth birthS@S day—Florence Nightingale is revered by the whole British nation, and beyond, even the vast limits of tho Empire. She arrived -with her staff of nurses at Scutari just in time to receive the wounded of Balaclava. The 'Angel of Mercy' did so much for our soldiers that poor fellows would sit up in their agonies to listen for her footfall, feeling content in their dying moments if her shadow fell on their beds. She was her late Majesty's guest Boon after her return; and it was arranged that the Mioister of War should meet her, eo that the nation might gain the fruit of her ex-! perience. For Florence Nightingale was not only the Soldiers' Saint; she was the originator of that vast army of-lady nurses who now bring, back to life with equal care the King when he is stricken and the thousands of poor in our hospitals. What their noble work is none can know save those who have experienced it; and no one who has experienced it can aver forget his debt to these sisters of the suff aring, and to the venerable lady who suggested and inspired their service. BOYAL ANGLEEB. The lady members of the Boyal Family are ardent anglers, and there is nothing 'fishy' about their wonderful eatches. They are very fond of fishing roundabout Deeside and the splendid Balmoral fisheries, and Queen Alexandra, during her visit to Denmark, is likely to arrange some notable angling parties. .As a rule when the Queen is in Denmark she and her sister, the Dowager Empreßß of Euseia, the Duchess of Cumberland, and Princess Victoria of Wales all go on great fishing expeditions to Lake Esrom, and Qieen Alexandra is the moet expert or the party. The Qieen always uses a small light rod and the smallest fly. while Princess Victoria chooses a heavier make, and the more practical Duchess of Fife uses a hickory wood rod, and she has designed a capital fishing lure named the Mar Lodge fly. The Duchess of Fife is the most successful angler of all the Boyal Family, and beats even her father, the King, and the Prince of Wales in playing a salmon. Her favourite ground is above the Linn of D ae, where she recently landed several salmon, weighing from Bibs to 13ibs apiece, but her finest record was a couple of years ago, when she creeled two salmon weighing together 801bB.

VETERAN LADZ PHILiNTHEOP IS! , Though Miss Octavia Hill, who carries her years with perfect uprightness, has alwaye shrunk from publicity, there are few women of the nineteenth century who can show a finer record of picturesque philanthropy on an absolutely business footing, whhh reflects the spirit of Buskin, social reformer as well as artist, As she in 1864 received, id response to her enthusiasm, sufficient money from Buskin to purchase and put in proper repair three tenement houses in one of the poorest courts of Marylebone, so her grandfather, Dr. South wood Smith, pioneer o* sanitary reform, received the active support of Charles Dickens. Her scheme flourished with such rapidity ''hat in eighteen months five per cent, interest was declared on the capital advanced by Buskin, was £4B was returned. More and more houses were placed under her care, till it became the fashion to make her deputy landlord of large estates, such as those possessed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. All this entailed the training of numerous lady rent-col-lectors—a new oceupation for women—who, with the right to enter a tenement, may exercise an influence more direct and beneficial than that of the district vieitor. Bed Cross Hall, and the neighbouring London gabled cottages with diamondpaned windows, erected in one of the dreariest neighbourhoods off the Borough, afford a concrete example of Miss Ootavia Hill's method of dealing with the housing problem. DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH. One of the greatest landowners in Scotland is the Dake of Buooleuoh, who has celebrated his seventy-second birthday. He was twice member for Midlothian, and was turned out by Mr Gladstone at the time of the famous Midlothian compaign, in which his neighbour, Lord Bosebery, played so prominent a part. The Duke is the Captain General of the Boyal Scottish Archers, who were very much 'in the public eye' at the time of the Lavee and Drawing-room held at Holy rood. The Dake was virtually their Majesties' host on this occasion, as he had placed, his great palace of Dalkeith, the picturesque red mansion built by the Duchess of Monmouth, at their disposal, while he and the Duchess were at the agent's house near by. The Duke married one of the daughters of 'Old Splendid,' first Dake of Abercorn; and the Duchess of Buccleuch has been Mistress of the Bobes in two reigns. She was a most stately figure at the Coronation, with her splendid jewels and attendant pages, as she went through the duties of her office with incomparable grace and dignity. The Duke, on the other hand, has never held any post about the Court. He has more the tastes of a county magnate, and does his duty conscientiously ia that state of life to which Providence has called him. LOBD ifOBTHCOTE. The new Governor-General of the Commonwealth [of Australia, ;Loxd Northcote, supplies one of the few instances in the peerage of brothers having seats in the House of Lords, though, by the way, the Earl of Iddesleigh, who was chairman of the Board of Inland Bevenne when he retired in 1892, does not take a very prominent part in politics, and Lord Northcote has had few opportunities, since his elevation, of attending the sittings cf the gilded chamber. The creation of the son of a peer as a peer in his own right is not so uncommon, and the most famous contemporary instance of it is the case of Visisount Carson, the Viceroy of India. He was made an Irish peer when he went to India, with the obvious view to a return to the House of Commons at the end of his service. That, however, is now postponed, and in the event of the death of Lord Scarsdale, who is now seventy-two, Lord Cur aon would have to go to the House of Lords, a step for whijh some years ago he expressed great aversion.