Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 18 August 1904, Page 6

Personalities.

SIR C. STEWART SCOTT

THE British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, Sir Charles Stewart Scott, who is looking after Japanose interests in the absence of the Japanese Minister, has been at St. Petersburg since Sir Nicholas O'Conor wont to Constantinople. He must bo a past master of diplomacy who goes to Court of the Muscovite, so it need not be said that Sir Charles is skilled in all that concerns the world and its ways. He has not been forty-five years in the Service without learning the ways and wiles of men. He negotiated the Samoan treaty. He is an Irishman, which is half-way by nature to diplomacy, and it is said of him that in all his long career he has not made a false step. Paris, Dresden, Copenhagen, Madrid, Borne, Mexico, Lisbon, Munich, Vienna, Berlin—rthat is the record of his posts prior to the present one. Sir Charles is a genial gentleman, with a keen mind and a prophetic instinct. JVIRS. GODFREY. CHETWYND.

The Hon. Mary Eden, who has now becomo Mrs. Godfrey Chetwynd, is a popular figure in Society. A daughter of the late Lord Auckland, who is sister to the present peer. Her father, who died in 1890, was esteemed in the Doncaster Division of Yorkshire as a great landlord. His widow, who is daughter of Sir William Eden, sixth baronet, has since married Mr. Philip Symons, but retains the title by courtesy. The first Baron Auckland was the father of Eleanor Eden with whom Pitt, who was supposed to be so little sensible to female attractions, was in love, and whom he would have married but that he considered his means inadequate. She became Lady Buckinghamshire. The second peer was Viceroy of India, and the grandfather of the present peer was Bishop of Bath and Wells. MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON.

Deeply interested in politics and social problems, the Marquis of Northampton was born fifty;five years ago, and has been in the Diplomatic Service, and was private secretary to Lord Cowpcr when he was Viceroy of Ireland ; while, as Lord Compton he was privileged to represent South-West Warwickshire and the Barnsley Division in the House of Commons. Nevertheless, he has always been better, known socially than politically ; and his interest in social questions was actively shown on the London County Council, which made him Chairman of the Committee for the Housing of the Poor. Here he did good work, for he is full of graceful sympathy for the deserving poor. .He takes a great interest in his Clerkenwell property, and is a well-educated, well-informed man, who, in private life, is an accomplished musician and a great lover of art. His house, which assumed the name from the lordship of Compton, in Warwickshire, is very ancient and one of the landmarks of the country. A LORDLY RAfICHMAJ*.

The Earl of Caithness, who is known as the resident owner of the famous ranch in North Dakota, also owns a house at Inverness Terrace, Hyde Park, London. He succeeded to the barren honour of a title without estates on the death in 1891 of his father, who had himself succeeded in 1889, and who was a chartered accountant at Aberdeen. The late Earl succeeded a remote kinsman, who bequeathed all his disposable property to Mr. Heathcote, an old friend, on condition that he took the name of Sinclair. The Earldom of Caithness originally embraced the northern portion of Scotland from sea to sea, and was in the possession of the Norse Earls of Orkney. One of the Earl, known as the 'Wicked Earl,' is credited with having poisoned both the Earl and Countess of Sutherland, and kidnapped their son, whom he tortured into marrying his 'elderly, ugly daughter,' The present Earl is unmarried, and the heir-presumptive is his brother, the Hon. Norman Macleod Sinclair, -a solicitor in practice. There are several claimants to the title, however, one of them being the Rev. John Sinclair, minister of the parish of Kinloch-Rannoch, who claims descent from the fourth Earl through David of Broynach, who married his housekeeper, and was father of Donald 'the sailor,' and William, 'who killed a man and fled,' and who was the great-grandfather of the Rev. John. On the road between Wick and Thurso stands Barrogill Castle, the principal seat of the former Earls of Caithness. The castle, which is not older than the seventeenth century, consists of a massive square tower with heavy battlcmented turrets at the corner. Not far from Bar rogill stood the once celebrated John o' Groat's house, of which nothing is now left but a turf-covered mound.

LORD AtfD LADY WINDSOR.

Vegetarianism is not particularly popular in high circles, but Lady Windsor is a strong believer in it, and for years has practised it strictly. Her ladyship is tall, slender, and graceful, with fair hair, delicate features, and a voice and maimer of marvellous refinement. She is a clever, well-read, cultivated woman, fond of art and literature, and with very definite opinions of her own on the current topics of the period. Her occupations are more of the sedentary thai> of the athletic order; she paints well. Society, in the sense of balls and parties,' does not greatly attract her; but she gives cheery dinners in London, and many pleasant house-parties at Hewell Grange, and at the Welsh stronghold, St. Fagan's Castle, near Cardiff. Owing to Lord Windsor's connection with Wales, Welsh Home Industries claim her interest and sympathy, and she does much to promote their welfare both in London and the country. Lady Windsor adopts the picturesque style of dress, but in a modified and highly becoming fashion. Lord Windsor is a man of forty-six, clever, artistic, and a thoroughly good fellow. He is an expert judge of art in all its branches, an author, and an accomplished draughtsman. His great wealth is chiefly derived from his estate in Wales. Lord and Lady Windsor's house in Mount-st. is one of the niarble palaces of London. The floor of the hall is covered with squares of green and white marble i the walls are faced with Pcnarth alabaster, quarried from the Windsor estates ill South Wales, and there arc columns of white alabaster on cither side of the entrance. The balusters are of green cipollino marble ; and above hangs Burne Jones' famous cartoon,' The Four Rivers of Life.'