A ROMANTICE STORY.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 538, 10 August 1866, Page 2

A ROMANTICE STORY.

(Erom the Wagga Wagga Express.) For some months past a vague kind of rumor has been current in Wagga Wagga to the effect that a veritable ' British peer was quietly residing, under an assumed name, in our midst". It was a rumor, however, 'to which very little credibility was attached, and was oftener the subject of jocular allusion than serious remark. It now turns out that, though not quite correct in form, it still approximated very nearly to truth. As yet, we have certainly had no English nobleman for a resident, though we really have been daily brushing up against a baronet for the last two or three years, without knowing it. The individual to whom we refer has, up to the present time been known to our townsmen only as " Tom Gastio," and during his residence amongst us, has occapied a veryhumble station in life. Eecent events have disclosed the fact that his real name is not Castro, but Eoger Charles Tichbourne, eldest son aud heir-at-law to the late Sir James Tichbourne, Bart., of Tichbourne Park, Hants. To the title and estates he now succeeds, together with an income of between -£10,0()0 and ■£15,000 per annum. The history of the new baronet is rather a singular one. On or about the year 1854, being then quite a lad, and of rather a roving disposition, he quitted England in the ship Bella, which was, a few weeks later, wrecked off the port of Eio Janeiro. Young Tichbourne escaped to the land minus his . worldly goods, and then assumed the name of Castro, and as nothing was afterwards heard of him, it was believed that he had perished, and, in the British peerages, he was reported dead. South American manners not being suited to his tastes, he again embarked on board a ship bound for Australia, and, in due course, arrived in Sydney. Being then without either money or friends, he was thrown entirely upon his own resources, and experienced his full share of the rough vicissitudes of colonial life, After trying his hand at various callings and travelling over a great portion of the colony, he at last became connected with a small business in Tumut, which he subsequently gave up, and thenremoved to Wagga Wagga, where, until the last few weeks, he has continued to reside, and where, in the early part of the present year, he was married. Soon after his departure from England, his father, Sir James Tichbourne, died, and his estates then passed to his second son, Alfred Joseph, who was afterwards married to a daughter of the Earl . of Arundel. After a time a knowledge of these events came to the ears of our quondam friend -Castro, but, as he had been much attached to his younger brother in his early childhood, and as he felt that his lengthened colonial wandering had, in a measure, unfitted him for the life of an English country gentleman, he did not attempt to disturb the succession, and still continued to preserve his, incognito. His brother, Alfred Joseph, is now dead, and, as the strongest reason for the voluntary resignation of his patrimony is now removed, Mr Castro has resumed real name, and taken the title which belongs to him of right, and is now about to proceed to England as Sir Eoger Charles Tichbourne, to take possession of the family estates. Sir Eoger was, we believe, to have sailed by the Kaikoura, but arrived in Sydney a few hours too Lue. The Tichbournes, or, as they were formerly called, the Detchburns, are a very old family, who have been settled for many generations in the county of Hampshire. X