Curzon's Will

Although faced by the gray dawn of a national strike, the British public turned with interest to the publication of the will of the late Lord Curzon, Marquis of Kedleston.

Lord Curzon was twice married. His first wife, who bore him three daughters, was Mary Victoria Leiter, daughter of L. Z. Leiter of Chicago. His second wife, widow of one Alfred Duggan, daughter of J. Monroe Hinds, former U. S. Minister to Brazil, bore him no children, but had three of her own by her first marriage.

By the terms of his will, his widow is left an interest in the London residence, a jointure worth about $5,000 annually and the residue of his personal property. The children by his first wife (Mary, Cynthia, Alexandra) having benefited "by the wills of their grandfather and grandmother, Mr. and Mrs. Leiter," were left "laces, fans, dresses, furs and personal belongings of their mother with the exception of the peacock dress* which she wore at the Delhi Durbar in 1903."

The three children of his second wife "are similarly provided for by their father's estate." "But," the will, written in Curzon's handwriting, continues: "I bequeath to each of them the sum of $25,000 as proof of my affection."

Among other bequests were: The famous Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire and Bodiam Castle in Sussex--to the British nation; his collection of Oriental treasures--to the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington (London) ; portrait of General Lawrence by Sir Joshua Reynolds--to the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta; his famous Napoleonic library, containing hundreds of books--to Oxford University, or, if refused, to the British Museum; his confidential papers relating to his resignation of the Viceroyalty in India (over a feud with the then General Sir Herbert Horatio Kitchener)--to the British Museum, with injunction "to exercise sound discretion as to the time and manner and degree in which they are to be made accessible to students."

His nephew, the Viscount Scarsdale, is enjoined to preserve the estate and tradition of Kedleston. In words which recalled the famous Oxonian jibe: "I am George Nathaniel Curzon, a really most superior person," he urges his nephew and successor, the present Viscount Scarsdale, to preserve the estate of Kedleston and the traditions of the family:

"It is from no motive of pride or vanity that I desire to keep Kedleston estate intact and the mansion with its contents well cared for, but because, attaching as I do a high value to the survival of the landed aristocracy of Great Britain and believing they may still continue to be a source of stability to the State, I desire that my family, which has owned and resided at Kedleston for over 800 years, shall continue to live there and maintain the traditions of a not unworthy past. I have sought to assist my successors in doing this with dignity but without extravagance."

Hardly had British Babbitts sighed their last sigh over this funereal news, served to them with an emotional relish, than The Morning Post, as it sometimes does, astounded all London by declaring that his late Lordship, in a codicil to the will, had made some strong, searching and uncomplimentary comments on a former colleague, believed to be none other than ex-Premier George.

This codicil, or "literary testament," as the Post called it, was submitted to the Probate Court but withdrawn after a "high personage in the political world" had advised that no considerations of whatever sort should be allowed to withdraw the veil of secrecy enshrouding the testament.

*The dress created a tremendous sensation at the Durbar. It was willed to the Kedleston estate.