The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-19
:3shn Russell Young Writes Inter-
ostingly of Him in the New
York Press.
His Family Of a More Royal Line
Than That of Wales
Himself.
An Inherent HuntsmRn, of Wide and
Scholarly Reading-A Gentleman,
Not . Card Sharper.

| know Sir William Gordon Cumming
well, and for weeks was his associate, Jour
neying with him in India, Egypt and AL
bania. l had. before / met him, known one
of his relatives, the famous Miss Gordon
Cumming, whose works have told us go
much about China. Japan and the islands
of the Pacific. l found him of a type vi
never see in the United States-hard to IN
derstand when seen with American eyes,
such a character as YOU read about in nov
elsa spare, 1.-the, active. well-formed man
with a finely cut face, a deep, intense gray
eye. a face that had q good deal of the
Grant in it, as l told him, with an almost
family resemblance to Jesse Grant, the
generals youngest son.
His reading WAS wide and scholarly, with
q fonduess for drifting into mere literary
themes. / remember one evening
when we discussed the merits of
Tennyson and Byron, their place and
perpetuity in English literature, and
his earnest challenge of my opinion that
lennyson would %outlive his noble predeces-
sor. Speaking as l was to a kinsman of
of Byron ! might we'll give way in the argu-
ment. I knew at the time of the intimacy
of his relations with the prince of Wales.
He rarely referred to his royal highess, but
always in terms of affeotionate apprecia-
ton.
Sir William Gordon-Cumming is about
forty-hve, younger perhaps, and Il ~lieuten-
ant-colonel in tho Scots guards. one of the
crack regiments of the British Sci vice, their
special duty being to guard the person of
the sovereign. There are all kinds of ira
ditions md legends twisted round his
family tree, but as blood goes, blood in
direct descent and alliances, tho family of
Gordon-Cumming is better than that of the
prince of Wales. There WAS a De Comyn,
who was killed at the battle of Alnwick.
Malcolm was also slain in the siege of Ain
wick Castle, and De Comyns at his side
30 we may know there was fighting blood
in his family 800 wears ago. 1t is odd to sec
a nobleman whose ancestry runs back to
the historic days Of Macbeth, sitting in an
English court, listening to an Irish lawyer
abuse him as a card sharper and a tloher
of sovereiGns from the pockets of u prince.
There was likewise a Bruce-dear to all
Scotohmen-Robort tho Bruce, a renowned
sovereign who died in 1929, to the lasting
sorrow Of Scotland, IA we must dntifullv
believe. He had a daughter, Margaret, who
married a sutherland, and among other ma
various ancestries of Sir William Gordon
Cumming. Likewise through another an
other ancestor there is n link with james l.,
and by these ties interlaced with Austrian
arohdukes, the royal Stnarts. the Planta-
genets and other species of princes To a de-
gree quite incalculable.
The coat of arms is IA complicated affair.
Its motto, 'Snns Crnints'- 'without fenr"
borne likewise by Baronet Tyrell. tho
same family ms did service 10 Crook Backed
Richard ut Bosworth field. There il IA
crest courage" and quarterings of the
Gordons. Badenoohs. Sstons, Frasers and