The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-02-02 00:00:00

ALFONSO XII. AND LORD ROSSLYN.

" Genealogist " write to The Times :—"lt may
amuse some f your readers who have leisure for such
matters amid the anxieties of wars and politics to trace
the descent of his Excellency the Earl of Rosslyn, her
Majesty's High Commissioner at the marriage of the
King of Spain, from the old Kings of Castile, Aragon,
Leon, and Navarre. We have to begin with Alfonso
King of Castile, a common ancestor of the
young bridegroom and the Lord Commissioner, who
died in 1157. His daughter Blanche married 'King
Louis VIII. of France. Their son was King Louis
IX., who was succeeded by his son, King Philip 111.,
the Bold. Philip lll.'s daughter Margaret married
King Edward L of England. One of their sons was
Edmund, Earl of Kent. His daughter, Joan the
Fair Maid of Kent, married Thomas Holland,
Earl of Kent. Their daughter married John
Beaufort, Earl of Somerset. The issue of this mar-
riage was Joan Beaufort, who married King James
I. of Scotland. From them descended Lady Elizabeth
Keith. daughter of William, third Earl Marisehall,
who married William Sinclair, second Lord Sinclair.
Their son was Henry, third Lord Sinclair, succeeded
by his grandson Patrick, sixth Lor.d Sinclair, who was
followed by his son John, seventh Lord Sinclair. He
was succeeded by his daughter Catherine, Baroness
Sinclair, who was followed by her son Henry, eighth
Lord Sinclair, whose daughter, Catherine, married
Sir William irskine of Alva. Their son, Sir Henry
Erskine, married Janet Wedderburn, sister of Lord
Chancellor Loughborough. The issue of this manage,
Sir James St. Clair-Erskine, succeeded his uncle, the
Chancellor, as Earl of Rosslyn. His grandson is
Robert St. Clair-Erskine, fourth and present Earl of
Rosslyn, representing the Queen at the Court of
Spain, 22nd in descent from Alfonso VIII., King of
Castile."
A NOVEL RAILWAY SIGNAL.

About as curious a railway signal, says the Sczentifis
American, as we have ever seen, has recently been
patented by Mr. J. D. Ilughson, of Prairie City, 111.
This inventor believes that, where an engineer might
fail to heed the indication of a semaphore or some
other purely mechanical apparatus, he would be
sure to notice the frantic gestures of a man posted
beside the track. As men of flesh and blood can-
not probably be found who would he willing to
stand on a high pedestal for indefinite periods of
time and wave their arms at exact intervals, a
machine man has been contrived who flourishes a flag,
hammers a bell, and displays a changeable light in
his hat with unfailing regularity. The man owes
his movement to clockwork operated by weights, and
the latter are controlled by electricity. When a
train passes it moves a little stop beside the track,
which, by a mechanical connection, shifts a switch so
that the current from a main line of telegraph wire is
diverted into a short circuit. An electro-magnet in-
side the machine man is thus excited, and as it attracts
its armiture the latter releases a detent. The weights
then descend, and the man waves his flag and pounds
his bell, while the light in his hat changes to red.
When the train has passed the current is broken from
the short circuit, but the man keeps on his motion
until a wheel in his interior completes its revolution,
and thus allows the detente once more to engage. Of
course, the time during which he waves his flag, &c.,
is long enough to allow the train that has passed to
travel a considerable distance.