People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 24, 15 June 1905, Page 10

People We Hear About

Mr. Charles Bonaparte, barrister, Baltimore, aad grand-nephew of Napoleon, has been appointed United States Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Bonaparte is one oi the leading Catholic laymen of America. Mr. i honius B. i< iupairick, upon whom the Laetare Medal mas tihis year been conferred by the Notre Dame L-imei&itj, is a. Boston man, and the National Treasuier of the United Irish League of America. b\ Marion UUawfuid, the famous author and traveller, was at a dinner in New York some time ago, and was presented by the host as ' Mr. Crawford ' to a smartly dressed young woman, who did not suspect his identity. They chatted for half an hour, and later the host asked the lady what she thought of his friend Crawford. ' Oh, so, so,' she replied.. ' He's handsome and lazy and conceited, you know, and all that, but he strikes me as being quite shallow and sadly lacking in knowledge of the world. 1 Lord Braye, whose annual prizes for proficiency n Scriptural studies have just been awarded with the approval of the Pope, is a peer whose studious habits, out-of-the-way learning, love of retirement, and decidedly original and unconventional views on many subjects recall in some ways the striking personality of the late Marquis of Bute.; Like Lord Rute_, Lord Braye' is an Oxford man and a convert to Catholicism, and, like him, he married a member of an ancient Catholic house. His Lordship has added to his family mansion a singularly beautiful Catholic chapel, in the purest Italian style. His London house is in Buckingham Gate, within a stone's throw of the Westminster Cathedral, whose elaborate services he much appreciates. Sir John Kinill Bart., D.L., J.P., is London's only Catholic Alderman. He is the son of the late Sir Stuart Knill, who was t lite first Catholic Lord Mayor of London since the ' Reformation,' and who commanded great respect during his tenure of that ofhee in 1892-3. The present baronet was born at Blackheath on September 4, 1856, and was educated at Beaumont College, Windsor, and afterwards at Feldkirch, in Austria. He is the head of the great linn of John Knill and Co., wharfingers, Cox's Quay, London Bridge, whose business was established by his grandfather in 1827, and is a Justice of the Peace and a DL. of the City of London He is Alderman for the Bridge Ward, was elected to the Common Council in 1903, and made Alderman in 1897. 'He is a Lneryiman of the ' Goldsmith's Company; Liveryman and on the Court of the Plumbers Company, and Master of the same, 1902 ; has been a member of the Blackheath Board of Guajdians, and is a director of the Mercantile Branch of the Royal Insurance Company, and a member of the Point House Club, Blackiieath. With reference to a paragraph which appeared in our issue of May 18, a correspondent writes . — I noticed your paragraph about the purchase by Lord Iloward^of Glos&'op ot the last inch of the property of the McDonclls of Clanianald, and the low words given as to how the estate of Loch Shicl came into Lord Howard of Glossop's hands. Perhaps I am the only person now nine who knows the history of Loch Shiel and Dorlin House Mr. I lope-Scott, after his marriage witn Lady Victoria Howard, a daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, rnrler arrangement with Lady Victoria, purchased one half of Aidnamurchan, where the old religion has never >et been extinguished, and commenced the building of Dorlin House. It was intended, in the event of Lady Victoria sunning Mr. Ilope-Scott, to make a settlement of religious ladies there under the charge of Lady Victoria. It happened that Lady Victoria died before her husband. 'Then the Howards of Glossop took up the work «f looking after t|ne Catholics of Loch Shiel and Ardnamurchan. That they have done so is well known. I Know that after Mr. Hope-Scott acquired Loch Shiel the influx of ejected crofters upon his property, all of them Catholics without means, from other parts of Ardnamiurchan, was enormous. Mr. Hope-Scott, a Parliamentary Barrister m large practice, could not personally inquire into the circumstances', and I, by request of his cousin, sipent three months in that district finding out for Mr. Hope-Scott the condition of the people, tt am not a Catholic, and I had to make a long journey to Fort William, where a priest resided. To him I explained my mission, and he kindly came with me to Shiel Bridge, a distance of more than 40 miles, stayed with me two days, ana established my character as an honest man. After that every West Highlander could speak English. I do not know whether the present proprietor of Loch Shiel derives any revenue from the property. I know that Mr. Hope Scott never did.