ILLUSTRATED MISCELLANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 151, 26 June 1907, Page 6

ILLUSTRATED MISCELLANY.

A ROMANTIC MARRIAGE.

Mr Carew, leading man in Miss Ellen Terry's company, who recently married England"s greatest actress, is only 32, while his bride is 59. In an interview with the "American's*' correspondent, he gives some account of what is a remarkable romancer "We were married secretly to avoid undue notice. Miss Edith Craig (Miss Ellen Terry's daughter knew of the marriage, and we cabled to Miss Ellen Terry's son (Mr Gordon Craig), who is in Italy."' Mr James Carew first came into prominence on the American stage. Last January he was engaged to play Captain Brassbound himself in Miss Ellen Terry's Company, and subsequently toured with her in the States.

Miss Terry was born at Coventry on | February 27, IS4S, and i_ thus in her sixtieth year. She recently celebrated her stage jubilee. Miss Ellen Terry has now been three times married. She was married in 1864 to the late Mr G. F. Watts, R.A., then ' more than thirty years her senior, and I

\ retired from the stage. The match was j made by the late Lady Holland, and j both parties were glad to be relieved of it. Miss Terry returned to the stage, joining her sister Kate, but in 1567 she again retired on her marriage to Mr I Charles Wardell, an officer" in a cavalry j regiment, who was subsequently known [on the stage as Mr Charles Kelly, and , acted also as a stage manager. He died jin ISSS. It was not until 1574 that Miss I Terry again returned to the stage. By her second marriage Miss Terry has a daugnter whose stage name is Ailsa Craig, and a son, _Ir Gordon Craig, the [ painter and actor, who first appeared on j the stage in ISSD.

THE WASTEFUL BANK OF EX G LAND.

Is the Bank of England run on business lines? To those unfamiliar with the world of finance the question seems to be a piece of wild heresy. Yet there is a growing volume oi opinion in the City that the Empire's greatest bank is as much behind the times as some of our Government Departments. It wastes the value of the richest site in the British Empire. If it utilised the wonderful value of this site it could put in its coffers each year from that source alone any sum between £250.000 and £500,000. A seven-storey building would give the Bank all the space it occupies at present, and leave a plot of land worth many millions sterling. Reckoning its value at £50 per square foot, it has been computed that the Bank site is worth £6.534.000. And yet this i wonderful piece of ground is occupied by | a one-storey building which is architecI tural incoherence itself, if we reckon the large garden, courtyards, and interminable galleries and passages apparensly leading to nowhere in particular. The Bank was completed in 17SS, when i the land in and about the Mansion ; House was worth scarcely more than £5 a square loot. It sufficed for eigh-

teenth and early nineteenth century business methods.

It is only by walking through the many passages and public rooms of the Bank of England, and round the Lothbury. Prinee's-street, and Threadneedlestreet sides, that one can get an idea of its wondrous area of three acres minus ten square yards.

Few people would realise that the site covers a parish church and graveyard (that of St. Christopher le Stocks), three taverns, and several shops and private houses. It measures 365 feet south, 410 feet north, 245 feet east, and 440 feet west. This space encloses nine open courts, a great rotunda with a dome fifty-seven feet in diameter, innumerable public offices, court, and committee rooms, a library, engraving and printing works, an armoury, and apartments for officers and servants. The two largest rooms are the Bank parlour and the drawins* office.

THE ADRIATIC.

The White Star Atlantic liner Adriatic, which started on her first run from Liverpool in May is of nearly 30,000 tons, and is thus easily the biggest vessel afloat, far exceeding the now defunct Great Eastern. She thus retains for England the record for size, though the Germans at present hold the speed record. Soon the conditions will be reversed, as the Germans are building a still larger boat, and the Cunard Company aie building two turbine greyhounds which will wrest the Atlantic blue ribbon from the German boats. The Adriatic is not only the largest, but is aiso probably the most luxurious liner afloat—a mammoth floating hotel, which can successfully compare for comfort and magnificence with the finest palace hotels in any of the great cities of the world.