Evening star., 1923-07-26
Seventy-Four-Year-Old Lord Dunedin.
Well Known i'm U. S., Welded i'm London

IL was a particularly appropriate
and welcome gift. For Bemersyde
has been in the possession of one o.
another scion of the house of Haig
for close upon 500 years. During five
centuries il descended from father
to son in order of primogeniture
But, during the reign of Charles
James Haig, the seventeenth lairG
of Bemersyde, who was d spendthrift
was obliged to part with the prop
erty TO his younger brother william
in return for financial accommoda
ton. Thereafter Bemersyde. though
always in Haig hands. was never
owned by the heir of the line, BIZ ,
passed from younger branch to
younger branch.
One of the owners Of Bemersyde.
Anthony. the twenty-first laird, devi
ated from the martial reputation Of
the family by becoming a Quaker
But his son, whom he had burdened
with the extraordinary name of Zero
babeh on succeeding him as twenty
second laird, neutraliZed any pacific
tendencies which may have come 70
him from his parent by marrying a
Gordon of Buthlaw, member of fam
lily then renowned for turbulence
lawlessness and other most un-
Quakerlike characteristics.
Early in the eighteenth century
John Haig of Bemersyde. a younger
son of the then laird. emigrated to
America, settled in Charlestown. s.
C, married there. and left a num-
ber of descendants who represent the
Haigs Of Bemersyde in the United
States.
Up to five years ago. Bemersyde
was in the possession of Col. Arthu,
Haig. a cousin, twice removed of the
movement was first started TO ac-
quire the ancestral home of the fam
lily at Bemersyde for the field mar
shal. he readily lent himself to the
= fr-QT1 not fnn RI 70 a.
way by concessions in the matter OF
| price and in overcoming all sorts of
legal difficulties in the way.
Now, Lord Haig, after having sub
! jected the old place to extensive and
much needed repairs. and equippine
it with modern conveniences. is TAX
ing up his residence there as the
twenty-ninth laird of Bemersyde
thus fulfilling the old border legend
OF his family:
"Betide. betide. whateer betide.
Haig shall be Haig at Bemersyde.
Sir Henry Layard, the explorer of the
! ruins Of Nineveh. British cabinet min
| lister and longtime ambassador Of
Qusen Victoria at Madrid, where he rep
| Spanish American war, had a short way
with omniscient youths who gushed over
Cimabue, Giotto, Daniele da Voltera =,
do you seriously think" he would ask
| with his peculiar drawl, that any one
Of them can compare with Mortadella di
| Bologna?" Most of them would fall into
the trap and discourse learnedly on the
chiaroscuro of that great artist
few. more honest, would invite scorn
by confessing ignorance of his work Ii
was only when they reached home and
| hunted up their books of reference that
they discovered that MortadeIa di
Bologna was popular Italian sausage
/ He could never have made use OF thet
| name of GorgonZola for any such pur-
! pose. For there is no place in all the
| dominions of King Victor Emmanuel
| that enjoys such worldwide fame III
! connection with cheese as Gorgunzola
1t is a very odoriferous cheese.espe
| cially at it's best-or rather worst
namely, aged. Gorgonzola is. indeed. q
| household word almost everywhere in
1 Europe and in America
! Yet few people to whom the name Ia
SO familiar have the slightest notion of
J its locality or of its Importance as a
| center of industry, or of it's history. The
| fact of the matter is that it is a dis
gusting little village about seventeen
miles from Milan, with which city Ii Is
connected by a miserable, broken down
steam tram, which runs once a day, and
| the oldest thing about il is that no
| cheese Is made at Gorgonzola. The fac
tories where Gorgonzola cheese is pro-
| duced are situated at a village several
| miles further on, entitled Villa de
] Fornaci.
} Yet the factories there are only mod
crate In size, so much so that one is
| driven to the conviction that most of the
| cheese styled Gorgonzola is non-Italian
in origin. One would be tempted to add
| that it ia the smell alone that Is ex-
| ported. For Gorgonzola, with It's black
| mud and filth and viscous stream, which
| serves as an open sewer, stinks to an
extent that appeals TO the olfactory
| nerves of those who banker after this
peculiar brand of cheese. There is only
| one time in the year when sleepy Cor
4 gonzola wakes up. namely, at election
! time, when the walls of the grimy look
| ing houses and cottages are covered
with colored posters conveying high
sounding appeals to the people of Cor
/ gonzola how to vote There seems to bs
4 something inexpressibly funny anA
, comic opera about Gorgonzola playing
| a role In politics, almost as IL Boston
| beans were to become a political issue
/ in New England or eggs and bacon in
old England.