It was this power of concentrating all his faculties upon what he was
doing, whether it was work or play, that made Mr. Gladstone one of the
ablest as well as happiest of the century. He took the keenest delight
in the scholarly and beautiful, and this accounts for his disregard of
minor ills and evils. He was too absorbed to be fretful or impatient.
But to be absorbed in great things did not mean, in his case, to be
neglectful of little things. At one time his mind and time were so
completely taken up with the Eastern question, that he could not be
induced to spare a thought for Ireland, and afterward it was quite as
difficult to get him to think of any political question except that
of Ireland.
In the daily routine of private life none in the household were more
punctual and regular than Mr. Gladstone. At 8 o'clock he was up and in
his study. From 1842 he always found time, with all his manifold duties,
to go to church regularly, rain or shine, every morning except when ill,
at half-past 8 o'clock, He walked along the public road from the castle
to Hawarden church. Writes an observer: "The old statesman, with his
fine, hale, gentle face, is an interesting figure as he walks lightly
and briskly along the country road, silently acknowledging the fervent
salutations of his friends--the Hawarden villagers.
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