Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 22 September 1904, Page 2

Personalities.

KING CHRISTIAN.

WITH eighty-five,years to his count, King Christian of Denmark is the. oldest of European monarohs. He began his reign as a middle-aged man, and., in'the first year he lost a third of his dominions, Schleswig-Holstein and Lauonburg falling into the hands of Germany. That was indeed a crushing blow, but the monarch whose early years had been passed in what might almost be described as poverty set to work to heal his country's wounds, and by developing her trade and resourcos and reforming her administration to make a new position for his gallant little kingdom. In due time King Christian saw three of his children seated on European thrones, his two daughters as consorts respectively of King Edward and tho late Czar, his son as King of Greece. His eldest- son is naturally the oldest of Crown Princes, being older than was our own King when he came to the throne. The whole Eoyal Family of Denmark is distinguished for its simplicity. The Danes are not fond of ostentation and display, and King Christian and his children have made the Danish Court the most home-like in Europe.

COUNTESS OF POWIS

A notable figure in Society is Lady Powis, daughter of Lady Conyers and sister to Lady Yarborough. In 1890 she married Lord Powis, then Mr George Herbert, a good-looking young man of modest means. Riches and honours awaited him, and in less than a year the young couple were Lord and Lady Powis, the owners of Powis Castle, and the family London mansion in Berkeley-square. The daughters of the late Lord Conyers, by the rinding of the House. of Lords and the consent of His Majesty the King, are both peeresses in their own-right, the ancient Baronies of Darcy and Eauconberg, as well .as that of Conyers, having been called out in their favour. Lady Powis is a tall, fair woman, very graceful and pretty, dresses to perfection, and generally wears a knot of roses, lilies, or violets in the front of the bodice of her gown. The son and heir, Lord Clive, is ton years old, Powis Castle, once known as Red Castle, was purchased by the Herberts in the days of Elizabeth. It is a stately abode, built of red sandstone, and planted on a red sandstone rock. A feature of the place is the terraced garden, with trellises ton feet high, covered with roses, jasmine, and clematis, which in the soason are a dream. BARON FOREST AMD MIS BRIDE; The Baron de Forest, whose forthcoming marriage to the Hon. Ethel Gerard, sister of Lord Gerard, is arousing much interest, is one of the two adopted sons of the late Baron and Baroness Hirsch, from whom be inherited a huge fortune. He was born a Bichoffsheim, and is now about twenty-five years of age. Miss Gerard is the elder sister of Lord Gerard, who is still a minor, and the only daughter of the late peer, who died in 1902, shortly after returning from South Africa. * He was an old officer of tho Life Guards, and had been so serviceable at ; the front that Lord Roberts placed his | name first on the list of staff officers submitted for final recommendation, and he received the D.S.O. Lady Gerard is a sister of the gifted Lady Durham and of the Mr Harry Milner, who married Caroline Duchess of Montrose. Lady Gerard is. herself a notable horsewoman, The Gerards claim a common ancestry with the Duke of Leinster in Ireland and the Earls of Plymouth in England. Sir Thomas Gerard, Knight of Bryn, was committed to the Tower for his supposed .complicity in a plan to release Mary Stuart from prison, but his son was rewarded with a baronetcy on the first day of the institution; of that order, and the thirteenth baronet was elevated to the peerage in 1876. tXe barings; The Hon. Hugo Baring, who is now conducting the New York banking business of the great firm of Baring,. Magoun, ;and Co., is a soldier by education, having | received his training at Sandhurst, and been a fellow subaltern of Mr Winston Churchill in the 4th Hussars. : Although still on the reserve list of officers, however, he has retired from active Service to go into banking, and is rapidly becoming known as a shrewd and level-headed business man. He has taken over his brother Cecil's American house on Madison-avenue and his cottage at Tuxedo, and, like the latter, belongs to the Racquet and several other New York Clubs, retaining his membership of the Baohelors', the St. James's, and the Naval and Military in London. Mr Cecil Baring, who last year married Pierre Lorillard's' daughter, Mrs T. Suffern Tailer, after spending some ten years in New York, has returned to England to assist the" eldest brother, Lord Revelstoke, in the management of the Baring banking-house in London. He was quite a conspicuous figure in social life in New York, especially among what is known as the Tuxedo 'set. Lord Levelstoke, J;he present head of the Baring family, is'the eldest son of the famous banker on whom the title was first conferred. He likewise spends a good deal of 'time in. New York, rnnning over from England two or three times a year on business, and sometimes staying several weeks. J "■■'■.]