FAMOUS MEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 40034, 3 December 1929, Page 4

FAMOUS MEN.

LESSER. KNOWN ROLES

WHAT THEIR HOBfBIES ARE,

KING AS PHILATELIST,

When hundreds of thousands of admirers acclaimed Major Segrnve they visualised him as the hero of nerve and daring, hustling in his ear through space at. the record speed of 231 miles an hour. They did not imagine him in his lesser known role —his hobby of “playing* with toy railway engines.

Yet probably this hobby of his is closely linked up with that supreme skill in mechanics that enabled him to have travelled faster in a car on land and in a mo-tor-boat on water than any other man, says a writer in an English journal. It is a fascinating hobby in itself to conjecture what pairt hobbies play in the lives of famous men and women.

There is no keener philatelist, when he is not occupied with the onerous cares of State, than the King, who has one of the finest collections of stamps in England. His Majesty, in fact, has all the ardour of the collector, and the same is true of the Queen, who rarely spends a holiday without visiting the shops of neighbouring antique sellers. She is an expert on po)riod furniture, and makes frequent purchases! PRINCE’S MODERN TASTE. More modern is the taste of the Prince of Wales. He has bought all sorts of up-to-datfe orchestral 'instruments —banjos, Ibanjoleles, ukuleles, and saxophones, on which lie has achieved a good degree of proficiency, and lias provided himself and his friends with many a musical evening at St. James’s Palace.

Toy railways provide one of the most popular of nursery games, hut with Major Segrave this love of mechanics and fascination of being the master mind of a railway is an elaborate pastime, combining scientific study with recreation. The world’s car speed reeokd holder has .taken many years to assemble his miniature railway. It includes fourteen engines, one alone costing £4OO, and coaches, including sleepers and restaurant ears. He has different systems crossing each other, and can throw sections of the lines “dead,” to enable an express to pass the points at a given moment.

In the same way Lord Ashfield, the head of London’s underground transport system, who is such a busy man that he works fourteen hours a day, has a raodel_set of the underground railway, so he combines his hobby with business study. Lord Ashfield, too, is one of the “wood sawyers” —-an apparently eccentric pursuit, because its chief exponent is Wilhelm, the wood-cut-ter of Doom. BERNARD SHAW’S AXE. But it has. an equally famous practitioner in Mr. Bernard Shaw, who is, moreover, as skilful with the axe as he is with the saw. If you have tried it you will know that only you Rave, recovered from the first spells of headache it is not pnly a splendid form of physical exercise, but the rhythmic swing of (be saw and the axe is highly conducive to thought and reflection.

Very different from 1 Mr. H. G. Wells’s games with lead soldiers, with which , it is said, he lights little wars of his own, just as ardently as he wirites to set the world free from real wars!

Lord Dewar sparkles when he is polishing up his epigrams lor af-ter-dinner speeches, and it is doubtful whether he is better 'known for his epigtrainmatical hobby or the amlber and liquid associated with his business name.

Who, when laughing at ; the jokes of Roibey of-the Eyebrows,, imagines him as an expert maker of violins? Yet h e is so adept at this serious hobby that when lie, presented one to Kreisler, the famous violinist was so pleased with the homemade gift that he played on it at one of his concerts. Of the unusual hobbies Lord Grey of Pallodon found one of the most delightful when he started classifying the notes of birds in his garden so 'that their pong- could he set to music. ,

Among the owners, of strange collections is Mr. .Bransby Williams, who has spent years gathering together a theatrical museum of daggers, ! hals and other articles worn and used iby famous actdrs; while a \rell-known headmaster collected in a. glass case everything taken, from, boys in school, from a .revolver loaded in six chambers la' a stick of liquorice. » \

The strangest .collector- of .all, however, was probably the man wlio pulled hairs from the tails of famous racehorses 3, and nearly lost his life in the protcess when a horse lashed out with i>]ts heels at him at a Yarmouth ra<ce meeting some years ago. VEESATIiLE M.P.^S. Some hobbies of. politicians are: Painting ajul Bridklaying.—Mr. A\ inston Churchill, -an accomplished artist with -the brush as well as with Budgets, who has held private cxhibitioiis of his [pictures. His one-time passion for eccentric hats lias now given way to amateur bridklaying. , Reading Detective Stories.—rßoth Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Lloyd George are enthusiastic readers of .this •form of novel. It is said that during the war the Liberal leader read a detective story a day, and set his secretaries a hard task in finding him fresh ones, '

Pig Breeding. —Sir William JoynsoiffHicks is often occupied with the rearing of pedigree pigs on his Sussex estate.

Art-Collecting.— Mr. William Brace, the former Socialist M.P. Excepting Sir Martin Conway, he was regarded as the most astute collector in Parliament. Statistics. —Miss Susan Lawrence, by (making a hobby of collecting facts and figures, lias become one of the best statisticians in the Commons.

Cartooning. —-Mr. “Jimmy” Maxtoil, whose rebellious spirit finds n rich and playful field in his sketches of fellovy-members. He is a clever draughtsman with a monlicant wit.

iPlaywriting. —(Sir Patrick Hastings, K.C., who could not resist the call of the drama, even when burdened with the dual rote of politician and King’s Counsel. Knitting—Miss Ellen Wilkinson, who is understood to have been refused permission to practise her practical pastime in the House.

Miss Wilkinson is, however, as conservative in her hobby as she is revolutionary in her politics, for there has been a sweeping change in women’s pastimes in recent years. Knitting and crocheting, with which the Victorian maiden wiled away her idle hours, have largely given way to recreative pursuits like golf and tennis; while many women have entered fields that combine hobbies with business, such as dog breeding and the farming of rabbits for their furs.