Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 429, 11 August 1904, Page 6

Personalities.

•KEPPEL'S FOLLY.* sgi*£> CHA.BACTERISTIC anecdote is ®M® told of the late gallant Sir Harry jpffig Keppel, the Father of the Fleet. The incident happened in his younger days, when he was stationed at the Gape. He had started from Simon's Bay, driving a tandem, and accompanied by a friend with a broken arm. 'The tide happening to be out when we reached Fishhook Bay,' he writes in his breezy volume of reminiscences, * A Sailor's Life under Four Sovereigns,' from which, by the kind permission of the publishers, Messrs Macmillan, we take the occompanying illustration, 'I turned my leader's hfad into the cutting that had been made in the rock for the accommodation of led horses. On one side was the perpendicular cbff, on the other a drop of between thirty sad forty feet on to rocks and sea. There was nothing left for my leader but to go on, with shafts and wheeler close upon him. We arrived safe at the bottom. Further on we met the B-.eident, Colonel Biaka, riding with his daughter. He would not credit my account, and, as the tide was out, rode on to find the impressions of wheels, I having booked h's four to one. hj orty years after, and maybe does now. the spot bora the name of 'Keppel's Folly-' This incident, it is worth adding, took place many years after Eeppel had written, at the same station, ' Sapient resolves longer to play the fool.' His many wild pranks as a youngster had already earned him the sobriquet of 'Mad tells of how he ctme to enter the Navy. • When I was about eleven years old,' he says, 'my brother Tom and I were called into my father's dressing-room, acd he informed us that it was quite time we selected a profession. .We both decided for the Navy. Fatker thought we ought to lave separate professions, As we disagreed, I hit Tom in the eye, and he, being the bigger, returned it with interest, and when he had enough father thought we had better both be sailors!' Keppel's father was the fourth Earl of Albsniarls, Eablt Gunneby.

Young Kepp-1 took an early intsrest in gunnery. It appears that at his school there wss a young man who wae reeding for the Church, asd who gave our bulding tailor & braes gun, and promised him sixpence if he would fire it eff in school. The future admiral won that sixpsnea. He thus describes the sceae :—' At my end of the table I arranged with books, a screened battery, with the rear open, and then, under pretence of drying my slate at the fire, heated a wire, which was sp plied according to instructions. The explosion was loud; books fljw in all directions; the gun bounded over my head ard loi t itself behind a row of books, where it remained until next half. The master tore open his waistcoat to ascertain where be was shot, and then seizad his cane. For some minutes I dodged under the table and over the stools, but caught it at last. I was unable to Bit, and so went to bed. A Narbow Escape .

In 1841 Keppel, who was now a captain, was appointed to the Dido, 730 tons, ' a beautiful corvette, one of Sjmod's best.' After calling at the Cape he sailed for China, where he arrived in time to take p«t in the fighting in the Yang-tee-kiaug. He also took part, with his friend, Bajal l Brooke, in the suppression of piracy in Borneo On his way from Hong Kong to Calcutta he narrowly escaped losing hie ship. But the youug officer was equal to all emergencies, and it was evident that the Dido could stand a good deal of knocking about. He wrote of this incident : ' Beport of a jank sunk with stones caused me to secure the best Chinese pilot. On coming on board he requested he might have a sailor's hat, that he might hide his well-coiled tail, as ' too muchee mandarin about.' We weighed and made sail I placed th« pilot in tha starboard hammock netting, he rquatting at my feet We had a fresh, fair wind, tide with us At about 3pm the Dido's bows suddenly rosp (*ith 2 000.000 iols. of sycee silver in he) My two-foot Dollond (fedeßCOpe) ctme <?own like a hammer on the pilql'd head Ha fell overboard, his life saved by the bat I had given him. I saw him swimming for the shore like the toad tggi hs was. My Dido's pace was not cUecfcßß

She rose to the obstacle—a jmk foil

stones—and descended the other side J a honter. At sunset we came to H

Kmgßoads. Not a drop of > water oo be found in the well.'

A BOYAL FEI'E AND ITS SEQU3 We recently came across the foliowi] description of a magnificent fete given ] the Prince Begent in 1811, in a bo entitled, ' Events in the Life of an Oai genarian.' .' In the month of June,' writ this venerable author, ' his Boy si Carltj House. Upwards of 2.000 persons rank and distinction were invited to tij festival. A brother of mine wis f<j tunate enough to be praaent at the fei and he describes it as a perfect scene enchantment and fairyland; every pd sible luxury that could be obtained was the tables. The centre of the tab throughout the rooms was converted is a canal, with a constant flawing stream water, in which quantifies of'gold a silver fish glided most beautifully, was altogether such a scene as had n&\ before been witnessed in England. I Boyal Highness condescendingly ga notice that on the following days t public would bs admitted by tickets view the apartments; these tickets w< f ageny sought after, and the crowd following day waß far greater than t 1 previous night; it was sa'd that at lei 80.000 people were collected on tl occasion The persoas who h«ld tick were admitted two hundred at a time the Pall Mall entrance. It was diffioi to control this vast assemblage of per so; who, in facfc, could not control themselv from the exceeding pressure upon them all sides,

The Biot

•Several ladies were trampled un< foot, and dresses of others were bo tt and disordered that they were obliged seek refuge in the nearest house to wh they could manage to gain admitta; and there wait for a refit of garments vain did his Boyal Highness the Duke Clarence, Lord Yarmouth, and others, drees the enoimous mass of people, horting them to be patient and quiet; was, however, beyond their power restrain themselves, and quite impossil for them to do so

'ln consequence of tbis it was event ally announced that the gates would closed asd no more visitors adtnittc Thi* no doabt eavad the Uvea of many, on this announcement tbe mass of peop gradually dispersed,; and thu3 at leng made a free ptsnge for the resa*in<J« The Life Giatda ware again this day < doty. Tbey behaved most gently ai tempsrately towards ths people, and the tff jrts to clear the way were received wi good humour by the public. Thus endi tbe fxiitement of this inagnifioent fe tival, which was long afterwards talk about as one of the greatest wonders the world.'