Blomfield's aloud. Wrote a paraphrase of part of chapter 8 of
Romans. _August 15._--Committee 1-31/4. Rode. Plato. Finished Tasso,
canto 1. Anti-slavery observations on bill. German vocabulary and
exercise. _August 16._--23/4-31/2 Committee finished. German lesson.
Finished Plato, _Republic_, bk. v. Preparing to pack. _August_
17.--Started for Aberdeen on board _Queen of Scotland_ at 12.
_August 18th._--Rose to breakfast, but uneasily. Attempted reading,
and read most of Baxter's narrative. Not too unwell to reflect.
_August 19th._--Remained in bed. Read Goethe and translated a few
lines. Also _Beauties of Shakespeare_. In the evening it blew: very
ill though in bed. Could not help admiring the crests of the waves
even as I stood at cabin window. _August 20._--Arrived 81/2 A.M.--561/2
hours.

His father met him, and in the evening he and his brother found
themselves at the new paternal seat. In 1829 John Gladstone, after much
negotiation, had bought the estate of Fasque in Kincardineshire for,
L80,000, to which and to other Scotch affairs he devoted his special and
personal attention pretty exclusively. The home at Seaforth was broken
up, though relatives remained there or in the neighbourhood. For some
time he had a house in Edinburgh for private residence--the centre house
in Atholl Crescent. They used for three or four years to come in from
Kincardineshire, and spend the winter months in Edinburgh. Fasque was
his home for the rest of his days. This was W. E. Gladstone's first
visit, followed by at least one long annual spell for the remaining
eighteen years of his father's life.

On the morning of his arrival, he notes, 'I rode to the mill of Kincairn
to see Mackay who was shot last night. He was suffering much and seemed
near death. Read the Holy Scriptures to him (Psalms 51, 69, 71, Isaiah
55, Joh. 14, Col. 3). Left my prayer book.' The visit was repeated daily
until the poor man's death a week later. Apart from such calls of duty,
books are his main interest. He is greatly delighted with Hamilton's
_Men and Manners in America_. Alfieri's _Antigone_ he dislikes as having
the faults of both ancient and modern drama. He grinds away through
Gifford's _Pitt_, and reads Hallam's _Middle Ages_. 'My method has
usually been, 1, to read over regularly; 2, to glance again over all I
have read, and analyse.' He was just as little of the lounger in his
lighter r