Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 455, 19 January 1905, Page 2

Personalities.

PRIJICE LOUIS' OF BATTEfIBERG. THE representative of King Edward at the christening of the Czarevitch, Prince Louis of Bafctenberg ia the last of three brothers in whom Queen Victoria took a motherly interest. The youngest, Prince Henry, married the Queen's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice; Prince Louis became the husband of her grand-daughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse. Had the Queen had her way, the late Prince Alexander ot Battenberg would have married . another of her grand-daughters, Princess Victoria, second daughter of the Emperor The Empress, with her mother, was desirous that the marriage should take place, in spite of the opposition of the Emperor Frederick and the present Emperor. But they had reckoned without /Bismarck, who . yv.as furious at the project, and threatened 1 resignation if the matter were carried further. There was a memorable interview, between Queen Victoria and the Iron Chancellor. The Queen gave Way,. and effected a reconciliation between the con-, flicting parties, and when: Alexander, dethroned and deported, married an actress, she merely said, ' Perhaps they loved one another.' Prince Louis is thoroughly English. He is naturalised, and entered the Navy when a boy. He has worked his way up steadily, and proved a brilliant officer. A little more than a month ago he was gazetted Roar-Admiral.

SIP GEORGE WOJKBWELL. The gallant knight is"a great Yorkshireman with romantic associations. If ever the old suggestion, now put forward again, to re-inter the remains of Oliver Cromwell in the Abbey should be seriously considered by Parliament it would not be to Kent, but to Yorkshire, that His Majesty's faithful Commons would look for the historic remnants. To-day, in Piccadilly,, in the trimmest, neatest, youngest of the promenaders, the visitor, may see. the guardian of the Cromwell romains. That guardian is Sir George Wombwell, one of the last survivors of the ' Death or Glory Boys' who rode in the Balaclava Charge. Walled up in his famous old home, Newburgh Priory, in a sarcophagus, hidden on a dark staircase, is all that is left of Cromwell. So, at loast,. Sir-George tell 3, and so his friends, from the late Duke of Cambridge and the present Duke of Devonshire downwards, have long believed. No less an authority on Cromwell than Mr Frederic Harrison adopts the theory as the correct one. Sir George Wombwell is descended from Ladv Fauconbridge, Cromwell's daughter. The story is that-she secured the body of her father at the Restoration, and had it secretly conveyed to her home and built up in the place where it has ever since remained, under a roof which is the finest Cromwell museum in the world. Newburgh Priory is rather an eerie, residence. The" secret vault is placed at the top of the stairs loading to the servants' rooms.

COUNTESS OF SEAFIELD, The fine estate of Tulehau, leased to Mr Arthur Sassoon who has provided some excellent shooting for the Prince of Wales, is the property of the Countess of Seafield. When the Bth Earl died in 1851 ho left the estates to his mother, the present holder, and his uncle, who succeeded him in the title, came to a barren inheritance. This uncle was succeeded in turn by his son, who settled in New Zealand and died soon after coming into the titlo, his two sons, the 11th, and present, earl, and the Hon. Trevor Ogilvio Grant, being born in the colony. The present earl and his brother married sisters, the Misses Townand, daughters of a physician of Ohristchuroh, N.Z., and all are enthusiastic Maorilanders. The earl has naturally great expectations, since it is gonerally believed that the vast estates which Caroline Countess of Seafield holds will; on her death, be allowed to go back to tho title. The Seafield estates are worth something like .£BO,OOO a year. There are two Dowager Countesses of Seafield, as well as the T Countess herself. Tulchan has long beon famous for its fishing and shooting. In former days John Bright was a regular visitor, and though the Quaker orator did not handle the gun, he had no compunction about waging war on the fish, and was, indeed, suoh a keen and oxpert angler as it would have delighted Old.lzaak himself to have known.

DUKE Of ABERCORN. The titled head of the Hamiltons, the Duke of Abercorn is sixty-six. The premier peer of Ireland is the possessor of many titles and honours, one exception he is the only peer whose peerages are of the three kingdoms, England, Jreland, and Scotland. The first title given to bis ancestors dates back to 1115, and since then there have accumulated four Irish, two English, and seven Scottish peerages. There is also a French title, that of Due de Chatetherault, so that if it were customary for a member of the Upper House to use all the handles to his name his grace would have a dreary time writing his signature. Both the Duke and Duchess of Abercorn have long been on terms of intimate friendship with the King and Queen, the former having, as Prince of Wales, stood sponsor to the Marquis of Hamilton, the Duke's eldest son and heir to the title. The Duke has held various Court appointments, and is president of the British South Africa Company. His various brothers, Lord Claud, Lord George, Lord Ernest, and Lord Frederick Hamilton, are all wellknown men in their way, and it is said that among his intimates his Grace goes by the nickname of 'the brother.' The most picturesque member of the family is the Dowager Duchess of Abercorn, who is ninety-two, and is blessed with so many descendants that it is quite hard to keep count of them. Tho figure is well over 200, tho Hamiltons being an extremely prolific race. Her Grace, who is a daughter of the sixth Duke of Bedford, had thirteen children—not an unluoky number, it would seem—and on the birth of the first her husband asked her what present she would like. She chose an amethyst locket, and one- was added for every succeeding addition "to the family. One of- thj3 splendid old lady's most cherished trinkets is the necklace from which hang these momenfcoes of her earlier, days. -K, -... - ■