Humanising Gladstone

11 October 2017

Humanising Gladstone

This is an account of an intern, fresh off the back of her first month working at Gladstone’s Library…

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Musical Mary Drew

24 August 2017

Musical Mary Drew

The contents of Mary Drew’s diaries have been something of a surprise to me! But the daughter of a four-times Prime Minister, whom later acquired the position of Private Secretary to William Gladstone, did not hide her love of music. So much so, she wrote reviews about the music she listened to, the orchestras she went to see, and her own public and private performances.

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“It’s a mere nonsense”: Gladstone’s Homeric Age

23 June 2017

“It’s a mere nonsense”: Gladstone’s Homeric Age

‘Looked into my papers on Homer: & I am strongly tempted to undertake something…’ wrote Gladstone on 7th July 1855, unaware that that ‘something’ would occupy his thoughts for much of the next three years. What began as a small project to be completed while out of office grew to a three volume work: Homer and the Homeric Age (1858).

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Voting: A blog by Warden Peter Francis

8 May 2017

Voting: A blog by Warden Peter Francis

A visitor to the Library has just shown me a glass plate made in 1869 to celebrate Gladstone being elected as Prime Minister. It is embossed with the slogan ‘Gladstone for the Million’, which is simply a way of saying ‘for the many’. It is just one of the many commemorative plates, jugs, cups and even chamber pots that were made in honour of Gladstone and offer striking testimony to his popularity.

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‘Words, words, words': William Gladstone, 1859 and All That

31 January 2017

‘Words, words, words': William Gladstone, 1859 and All That

1859 saw the publication of many literary works. Charles Dickens, for example, began to publish his journal All The Year Round in which Wilkie Collins’s novel The Woman in White would be serialised in the same year. 

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‘Read Rossetti’s Shadow of Dante’: William Gladstone’s diary reference to Maria Francesca Rossetti

13 December 2016

‘Read Rossetti’s Shadow of Dante’: William Gladstone’s diary reference to Maria Francesca Rossetti

Most people have heard of the poet Christina Rossetti, sister of the Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but fewer readers may be aware there was another sister, Maria. Fewer still may know that she was also a published author.

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Thomas Pennant: Welsh Naturalist, Explorer, another man before his time!

7 October 2016

Thomas Pennant: Welsh Naturalist, Explorer, another man before his time!

Our founder, William Ewart Gladstone, was not the only famous figure connected to Flintshire. Thomas Pennant, a famous polymath, naturalist and traveller of the Eighteenth Century, was born and lived in Flintshire.

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The Grand Old Man and his legacy

17 December 2015

The Grand Old Man and his legacy

One of the most popular questions we’re asked on our Glimpses is ‘did Gladstone live here?’ The answer is no, he didn’t. Sadly, although Gladstone worked so hard to leave his scholarly legacy behind, building his collection from the ground up and helping to design the very shelves within, Gladstone himself never walked through the Hogwarts-like library admiring the wood carving and the silence. That isn’t to say you can’t sense his legacy though…

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Hawarden: a history

16 December 2015

Hawarden: a history

Have you ever wondered about the history of the little village that we’re nestled in? Well, we’ve been digging around to bring you some of the facts!

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Founder's Day 2015 - watch the video

24 July 2015

Founder's Day 2015 - watch the video

Loyd Grossman takes the chair for our Annual Gladstone Lecture as our multi-talented panel discuss whether the Library currently demonstrates the same enthusiasm for spirituality, literary culture and political discourse as the Grand Old Man himself.

Our panellists answer the question ‘Does the Library remain truly ‘Gladstonian’ today?

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