COWBOY BARONET'S ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 66, 7 March 1908, Page 3

COWBOY BARONET'S ROMANCE.

0 A novelist in search of a hero might do worse Hum cast his eye over the career of the cowboy baronet, Sir GcniHe Cave-lSrowncCavc, who lias just arrived homo to claim his title and estates on the death of his father. Sir Geuille, during his thirty-eight years, has been everything by turns and nothing long, his latest role having been that of a miner in the wild and woody West. Big, handsome, frank, brave, and an incorrigible rover, without being exactly a ne'er-do-well, lie is just the type of sturdy Englishman whom the average lady novelist loves 10 delineate. Moreover, there is perfect material for the last chapter in the shape of title and estates, waiting for the one-time penurious heir to come forward and claim them. One of Hie oldest baronetcies in England, too—with none of the ''bogus" about it. Sir Genille is the twelfth baronet of a line which dates from the reign of Charles 1., and of a family which is descended from one Wyamm de Cave, who died in lOfill possessed d Yorkshire lordships given by William the Conqueror. Sir Genille's father, the eleventh baronet, with whom lie lu.l quarrelled, died less than a year am, leaving to his son the Stretton estates at Ashbv-ilc-la-Zouche in Leicestershire. Notification of the death had been se.it to the police in all the Western States of America, but such was the nomadic disposition of the new Sir Genille that it was doubtful at first whether he would sacrifice his adventurous life in tile West to take up his inheritance. Sir Genille (.'avc-Brown-Cave. began hi* devil-may-care career at the age of twelve by joining the Navy, and his first taste of adventure was when nearly the whole crew of his gunboat deserted during a gold rush on the Australian co;vst. So complete was the desertion that Sir Genille. and the officers were left to work the gunboat by themselves for weeks at a stretch. Leaving the. Navy, he enlisted in a Highland regiment. Then, as a cavalryman, he accompanied liOrd Wolsoley on the second Nile expedition, and afterwards served in India. As a ranker he won fame as a boxer—in fact he was a runner-up in one of tin Army championships. Leaving the Army he returned to England, working his passage home as an aide seaman on a sailing-ship, and for a time lie was a maii-abutit-town in London, vainly en (leavouring to earn his living—a proceeding rendered necessary by dill'erences with his father.

Tiring of London life in general—ami of Luniiun money-lenders in particular— Sir (icnille again shook the (lust of England from his feet, and, once more as an able seaman, shipped on a I'. and 0. steamer, which he deserted at HongKong. Then he shouldered u gun and went hunting big game in Bnrmah and the i'ar liast, disposing of his bags to a linn of naturalists in Xew York. I'Yir the last seven years he has lived :i wandering existence, of which the full romantic details have yet to be discovered. Sir Genille's reminiscences should make a volume of fascinating reading. The English baronetage is fairly fruitful in romances akin to that of Sir Genillc Cave-Brown-Cave. A cabman baronet who resides at Burton-on-Trent, Sir "Walter Tyrell, can trace his descent from the Sir Walter Tyrell whose arrow killed William Kufus in the New Forest so many centuries ago. The ancient borough of Tamworth boasts a tobacconist baronet, Sir Harry (ioring, who serves working-men customers with ounces of thick twist, has family estate having long ago vanished into (be ewigkeit. The .master of the Whitby Union Workhouse, Mr. John Lasvson, has a well-founded claim to a baronetcy ' conferred in Stuart times. Sir Thomas ! Echlin, who died last year, was a co'i--1 stable in the ranks of (he Royal Irish Constabulary, ami Ihe seventh holder of a barnnclcv conferred as far baek ' 1721.