Mr. Gladstone's day begins about 7.30, after seven hours and a half of
sound, dreamless sleep, which no disturbing crisis in public affairs
was ever known to spoil. At Hawarden it usually opens with a morning
walk to church, with which no kind of weather--hail, rain, snow, or
frost--is ever allowed to interfere. In his rough slouch hat and gray
Inverness cape, the old man plods sturdily to his devotions. To the
rain, the danger of sitting in wet clothes, and small troubles of this
kind, he is absolutely impervious, and Mrs. Gladstone's solicitude has
never availed to change his lifelong custom in this respect. Breakfast
over, working time commences. I am often astonished at the manner in
which Mr. Gladstone manages to crowd his almost endlessly varied
occupations into the forenoon, for when he is in the country he has
practically no other continuous and regular work-time. Yet into this
space he has to condense his enormous correspondence--for which, when
no private secretary is available, he seeks the help of his sons and
daughters--his political work, and his varied literary pursuits. The
explanation of this extreme orderliness of mind is probably to be
found in his unequaled habit of concentration on the business before
him. As in matters of policy, so in all his private habits, Mr.
Gladstone thinks of one thing and of one thing only at a time. When
home rule was up, he had no eyes or ears for any political subject but
Ireland, of course excepting his favorite excursions into the twin
subjects of Homer and Christian theology. Enter the room when Mr.
Gladstone is reading a book; you may move noisily about the chamber,
ransack the books on the shelves, stir the furniture, but never for
one moment will the reader be conscious of your presence. At Downing
Street, during his earlier ministries, these hours of study were
often, I might say usually, preceded by the famous breakfast at which
the celebrated actor or actress, the rising poet, the well-known
artist, the diplomatist halting on his way from one station of the
kingdom to another, were welcome guests. Madame Bernhardt, Miss Ellen
Terry, Henry Irving, Madame Modjeska, have all assisted at these
pleasant feasts.
[Illustration: HAWARDEN CASTLE.]