the
famous dean. Him, on this occasion, the young Gladstone seems to have
seen for the first time. Arthur Stanley was six years his junior, and
there was then some idea of sending him to Eton. As it happened, he too
was a pupil at Rawson's at Seaforth, and in the summer after the
meeting at Alderley the two lads met again. The younger of them has
described how he was invited to breakfast with William Gladstone at
Seaforth House; in what grand style they breakfasted, how he devoured
strawberries, swam the Newfoundland dog in the pond, looked at books and
pictures, and talked to W. Gladstone 'almost all the time about all
sorts of things. He is so very good-natured, and I like him very much.
He talked a great deal about Eton, and said that it was a very good
place for those who liked boating and Latin verses. He was very
good-natured to us all the time, and lent me books to read when we went
away.'[33] A few months later, as all the world knows, Stanley, happily
for himself and for all of us, went not to Eton but to Rugby, where
Arnold had just entered on his bold and noble task of changing the face
of education in England.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] _Gleanings_, vii. p. 138.

[24] A story sometimes told of Provost Goodall.

[25] At Marlborough, Feb. 3, 1877; at Mill Hill School, June 11, 1879.

[26] Doyle tells a story of the boy being flogged for bringing wine into
his study. When questioned on this, Mr. Gladstone said, 'I _was_
flogged, but not for anything connected in any way with wine, of which,
by the by, my father supplied me with a small amount, and insisted upon
my drinking it, or some of it, all the time that I was at Eton. The
reason why I was flogged was this. I was praepostor of the remove on a
certain day, and from kindness or good nature was induced to omit from
the list of boys against whom H. [the master] had complained, and who
ought to have been flogged next day, the names of three offenders. The
three boys in question got round me with a story that their friends were
coming down from London to see them, and that if they were put down on
the flogging list they could not meet their friends. Next day when I
went into school H. roared out in a voice of thunder, "Gladstone, put
down your own name on the list of boys to be flogged."' Mr. Gladstone on
this occasion told another tale of this worthy's 'humour.' 'One day H.
called out to the praepostor, "Write down Hamilton's name to be flogged
for breaking my wi