" This doubtlessly
saved him much annoyance and suffering, and allowed him better to
pursue the studious bent of his indications.
William E. Gladstone was what Etonians called a "sap"--in other words, a
student faithful in the discharge of every duty devolving upon him at
school--one who studied his lessons and was prepared for his recitations
in the classroom. This agreeable fact has been immortalized in a famous
line in Lord Lytton's "New Timon." He worked hard at his classical
studies, as required by the rules of the school, and applied himself
diligently to the study of mathematics during the holidays.
It is said that his interest in the work of the school was first aroused
by Mr. Hawtrey, who afterwards became Head-Master, who commended some of
his Latin verses, and "sent him up for good." This led the young man to
associate intellectual work with the ideas of ambition and success.
While he did not seem to be especially an apt scholar in the restricted
sense for original versification in the classical languages, or for
turning English into Greek or Latin, yet he seemed to seize the precise
meaning of the authors and to give the sense. "His composition was
stiff," but yet, says a classmate, "when there were thrilling passages
of Virgil or Homer, or difficult passages in 'Scriptores Graeci' to
translate, he or Lord Arthur Hervey was generally called up to edify
the class with quotations or translations.
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