Lady Ludlow has had an eventful career; born Miss Blanche Holden, she married, when very young, the late Lord Howard de Walden, who was thirty years her senior. In 1903, as her second husband, she married Lord Ludlow, another wealthy nobleman; the wedding created much interest, and she was given away by her son, who has always been devotedly attached to his mother. It was Lady Ludlow who brought the now muchprized peridot into fashion, and this gem, set in diamonds, formed the pendant which glistened at her neck. on her bridal day.

Lord and Lady Lytton

Lord Lytton, who will preside at the annual dinner of the Sir Walter Scott Club, in Edinburgh, on Tuesday next (November 7), belongs to a very literary family, being a son of "Owen Meredith" and a grandson of Bulwer Lytton. He has already made his mark in the world of politics, is a clever linguist, and very fond of travel. He is handsome, with a fine, clean-shaven face, and has a pleasant and wellmodulated voice. He is looked upon by many as a future Colonial Governor, in which position he would be greatly assisted by his wife, Lady Lytton, who has been described by Mr. Balfour as the "brightest star in London's social firmament." She has an oval, delicately tinted face, and soft brown

Captain Claud Rome (IIth Hussars

A PRETTY

Mr. F. W. Horner, M.P.

Mr. F. W. Horner, M.P., is at the present moment in the interesting position of having had notoriety thrust upon him by Mr. Labouchere. How many obscure people are there not who would willingly purchase fame at the trifling inconvenience of being advertised in Truth for nothing? It is so difficult nowadays to get one's name into the world's mouth. We cannot all write prize novels, or cast aspersions on Sir Henry Irving. However, Mr. Horner is annoyed with Truth, and is bringing a libel action against Mr. Labouchere; that is to say, he will bring it if Mr. Labouchere can pos

sibly persuade him so to do. At present, Truth is dangling its coat-tails, or the hem of her robe, before Mr. Horner, inviting him to tread on them or it, but Lambeth's Member is not, seemingly, of a "comingon" disposition. In the meantime, we observe that, at a meeting of the Bishop Ward of the North Lambeth Conservative Association, a vote of no confidence whatever in Mr. Horner was passed, which seems unkind, because the libel action has not yet been tried, and the M.P.'s solicitor has been talking very cheerily about the buckets full of damages which are shortly to be dragged out of the deep well of Truth. Not so very long since Mr. Horner used

Mrs. Rome (nee Miss Grace Blyth)

the Continental wanderings, which are described at such great length in our truthful contemporary, have monopolised his time to the exclusion of the drama. Mr. Horner is, or was, editor and proprietor of The Whitehall Review, and if The Whitehall Review were not a nice, mild-mannered paper, perhaps Mr. Labouchere would be sorry he spoke. There is, though, a very serious aspect of the question, as has been quite gravely pointed out in the articles mentioned. In the last of these appears the following lines "The feeling is that for a Member of the House of Commons to go about the Continent systematically plundering hotel-keepers and bankers. with bogus cheques is a national scandal, and that, by one means or another, it must be stopped."

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recent production at the Court Theatre, if it threw no further light upon Ibsen's symbolism, at least has been the means of bringing into prominence the personality of a very capable young actress, Miss Dorothy Minto. She played the child Hedvig with naturalness and charm. Indeed, so unaffected was she in the rôle as to lead the Referee critic to remark that she did not suggest the morbid disposition of the juvenile suicide. Miss Minto won golden opinions for her playing of the rôle, and has created an impression which her future performances should do much to deepen.

Tilustrations Bureau

Prince Ferdinand The Prince of Bulgaria, whose recent official visit to the French Government in Paris has excited a certain amount of speculation, is one of the most Though governing

pathetically situated of rulers.

the most important of the Balkan States, which contains the most virile population south of the Danube, he, alone among their Chiefs, remains still a vassal of the Sultan. Though a member of the Coburg

family, and thus connected with the great Royal Houses, he is the inferior in rank of King Peter of Servia, the King of Roumania, the King of Greece, and the independent Prince of Montenegro. When visiting a foreign Power, therefore, such as France, he is compelled to travel incognito, or else submit to the indignity of being treated as a vassal of Turkey, to whose Ambassador he must pay his first visit. Ferdinand is a fine figure of a man, who looks splendid in uniform, and anything but a Turkish vassal. One of his favourite methods of varying the monotonous life of his dull and clean little capital, Sofia, is engine driving! He constantly mounts the engine of the express to Buda-Pesth or Philippopolis, and, it is said, literally

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Austin every time he discharges doggerel to suit some popular occasion. After all, if Mr. Austin was guilty of 'Wardens of the Wave," on the Nelson Centenary, was he not gloriously silent on the question of Kingsway? Was he not magnificently mute about L'En ente Cordiale, and when peace was declared, did he not gracefully hold his? Again, has Mr. Austin really done any serious harm? Seeing that, since Lord Salisbury's jocular appointment of him in 1896, he has blossomed forth Times after Times, there is very little of his verse which, fortunately, has ever really haunted the public. In fact, with the exception of the "Girls of the Gold Reef City" effusion, doubt if the average man can really repeat one of Mr. Austin's Laureate lines even inaccurately. Books, again, show us us that Mr. Austin has been constantly producing poems ever since 1861, when he left the briefless bar and "devoted himself to literature." For thirty-five years, therefore, the public lived and thrived without Mr. Austin, though Mr. Austin was amongst us, taking notes, and printing them. After all, perhaps it is not too high a price to pay for the exemption we so long enjoyed if we have, now and again, to endure his effusions. And not all cf us, even with the "Encyclopædia Britannica" and the Bond Street Book Club to attract us, read The Times, in which Mr. Austin's verse appears.

runs the train. He once drove the Paris - Calais express, and, on arrival, succeeded in evading recognition by his Minister and aide-de-camp, who were awaiting him. This feat he repeated but a few weeks ago, when he drove the express from Paris to Creuzot As some of his festive subjects indulge in promiscuous bomb-throwing, the Prince is said to prefer the engine to the salon de luxe when travelling in the Balkans.

The Poet Laureate

There is, perhaps, something rather ungracious about the attacks which are made upon Mr. Alfred

we