AN INTERESTING PERSONALITY

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1350, 30 January 1912, Page 15

AN INTERESTING PERSONALITY

On .Innnnr.v 17, at. the residence of her daughter (Mrs. S. li. Gibson, llazelhurst, 1 'avL^rsluiin), liicio closed 11 life Unit litis been lull of interest and incident. Mrs. Henrietta Mason was (says a contributor to tho Dnnedin "Times") born in Weimar in the year 1818, so that at llio limo of lier death she was in lier '.Mill year. 11l lior childhood her liirthplace was known ns "Little Athens," from the fact thai: the Grand !)uku made it: a centre for tho great intellects of his time. At Weimar Mrs. Mason mucin the acquaintance of Goethe, who spent his last birthday in lior grandmother's house, and who, on the occasion, composed a poem which Mrs. Ma.son took pleasuro in reciting to lier intimate friends. The writer of this brief notice recently bail the pleasnro of visiting Mrs. Mason's relatives in the old house nl Weimar. Mrs. Mason's father was an officer, in the anny of tho Great Napoleon, and the old lady often told how he used to doscribo the horrors of (ho famous retreat from Moscow in 1812. In 1832, at tho ago of 18,' sho wont with lior mother to Paris on a visit to tho Countoss do Romusnt (grand-daughter of General Lafnyotto), and it was always interesting to hear tho old lady tell how, on that occiiHion, she attended a juvenile ball with tho two sons of tho countess— I'eter and I'anl do Hemusat, Tho ball was given by Queen Amalie at tlio Tuilleries. Mrs. Mason remained 15 years in Franco, travelling over the country, and becamo acquainted with Victor Hugo and his family, as also tho family of his brother Leopold. Among others whom Mrs. Mason counted amongst tho'. frionds of her younger days were Guizot (Minister at the Court of Louis Phillippe); Duchatel; Thiers, and do Courcel (father of a recent French Ambassador at London). Her. grandmother"W,as a friond, of tlio famous Madame .do Staql, whoso daughter (afterwards the "Duchess. do Brogiie) was. educated with Mrs. .mother. LiS'zt (the, famous coniposer), Schiller, Heine, Wisland, and two of tho sons of tlio Duke of Wellington are other celebrities who were personally known' to Mrs. Mason. While sho was blind and somewhat deaf for somo years past, lior knowledge of languagos, lier remarkable memory, lier clear intellect, and her

amiable disposition made her, up to the very day of. her .death, one .of the- most interesting and lovable personalities in this Dominion. Mrs. Mason leaves behind her two children—Mrs. S. B. Gibson'(of Hazelliurst, Caversham) and Mr. George Mason (of Deborah Bay, Port Chalmers), besides .many grandchildren and.' great grandchildren. Her husband predeceased her by many years.