The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-05
MANY TRAGEDIES IN
ANNALS OF FAMILY

soever The second son. however, who
was chip .of the old BLOCK, and i
familiar figure In the courts OF bank
ruptcy and divorce, sided with his
father. and styled himself Lord Card
ross. exciting much ridicule thereby.
The late Lord Buchan even went 10
the length of forwarding an official
communication to the Committee OF
Privileges OF the House or Lords. IN
sisting that his eldest son was illegit-
innate, and protesting against his even
tual succession to the earldoni The
Committee OF. Privileges, as bound to
investigated all the circumstances
OF the case, found the charges
TO be without any basis, and after the
old mans death recommended the sove-
reign TO vest the succession in the
eldest son--that is TO say. the present
and fourteenth Lord Buchan.
The latter enjoys the questionable
distinction of being the only British
peer whose birthday falls on February
%. His last birthday was celebrated
in 1908. and his next one viii be TWO
years hence. on one occasion he was
actually Obliged to go eight years
without a birthday. That was during
the period that elapsed between 1886
and 1s04-is0o being. OF course. not q
leap year.
Not even since his recognition by the
Committee OF Privileges of the House
of Lords and by the crown has the
enjoy his estates and his honors In
peace A year or so after his fathers
death London lawyer of the name of
Milton Bradford turned up tbut whose
real patronymic developed during the
course OF some divorce proceedings 10
be Corey) with a story to the effect
that in lsi2-that is TO say. seven
years before the marriage of the pres
cnt Lord Buchan's mother 10 the thir-
teenth earl--the latter had gone
through a form OF common law mar
riage with another woman in SCOT
land. The son born of this marriage
was the claimant, and, according to his
account, his mother deserted the late
earl after living with him about three
years. and eventually ended her days
in lunatic asylum. q year SUBSEQUENT
to the birth of the present cara fact
which, II true. would have been sum
cient, of course, to invalidatc his legiu-
macy. The claimant declared that he
had encountered the thirteenth earl
shortly before his death, and that the
latter had then recognized him az his
eldest son, and placed him in possess
sion OF u number of papers establish
ing the fact The claimant, although
he styles himself Earl of Buchan. has
rever got beyond a protest to the COM
mittee of Privileges of the House of
Lords against the succession of the
recognized fourteenth Earl of Buchan;
for the legal procedure of the estab-
lishment of a claim to a peerage be-
fore the Committee OF Privileges or
the House of Lords is one OF the most
costly processes in British litigation
in fact 1t requires almost fortune,
and this the claimant does not seem
to possess. Lord Buchan has two
other daughters. who, like their ILL
fated sister, Lady Margery, have in
herited much of the great beauty Of
Lady Buckan, who is one of the sar-
toris family-that is to say, half-Irish,
half-Spanish. The eldest. Lady Muriel.
is married toa younger son of Lord
Ancaster. while the other, Lady Eve,
Ign, Is married to Lord Iveagh's young
CIR son, the Hon. Walter Guinness.
They have one brother, who bears the
courtesy title of Lord Cardross, and
who has resigned his commission in
the Scots Guards in order to settle in
British East Africa, where he farms
on a very extensive scale. where he,
entertained Colonel Roosevelt. and
where he finds life more healthy, ac-
tive and unconventional than he could
ever hope to have as a guardsman In
Mayfair.
Copyright, 1910, by tho Brentwood
Company