tributing occasionally to 'Good Words' and other magazines, and' full of literary projects to the end. He was also, it is said, a very severe but valuable critic of his son's comic operas. He was a strong liberal, and his tall thin figure was familiar at the Reform Club, of which he was for many years a member. He died in the Close at Salisbury on 2 Jan. 1890, and was buried in the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral on 6 Jan., the service being conducted by his grandson, the Rev. Spencer Weigall of the South African Mission. He married on 14 Feb. 1836 Anne, second daughter of Dr. Thomas Morris of 17 Southampton Street, Strand. His son, Mr. William Schwenck Gilbert, the well-known author of the 'Bab Ballads' and the 'Mikado,' illustrated several of his father's works. An excellent portrait of the novelist, painted in 1858 by Henry Weigall, is in the possession of Mr. W. S. Gilbert.
Though Gilbert's novels were never very popular, they were highly esteemed by a select circle for their originality. A story-teller sui generis, lacking in perspective, in fusing power, and in continuity, Gilbert was, on the other hand, endowed with a style of sparkling lucidity, a clever perhaps rather than profound observation, and a very dry but subtle humour, in which there is certainly some infusion of the spirit of Democritus.
His chief works are:
- 'Dives and Lazarus, or the Adventures of an obscure Medical Man in a low Neighbourhood,' 1858.
- 'Margaret Meadows,' 1859.
- 'Shirley Hall Asylum, or the Memoirs of a Monomaniac,' 1863, 2 vols. 8vo.
- 'De Profundis: a Tale of the Social Deposits,' 1864.
- 'Doctor Austin's Guests' (a sequel to No. 3), 1866, 2 vols.
- 'The Magic Mirror: a Round of Tales for Young and Old,' with eighty-four illustrations by W. S. Gilbert, 1866.
- 'The Washerwoman's Foundling,' 1867.
- 'The Wizard of the Mountain,' 1867.
- 'The Doctor of Beauweir: an Autobiography,' 1868, 2 vols.
- 'King George's Middy,' with 150 illustrations signed ' Bab,' 1869.
- 'Sir Thomas Branston,' 1869, 3 vols.
- 'Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara: a Biography,' illustrated by rare and unpublished documents, 1869, 2 vols.
- 'The Landlord of the Sun,' 1871, 3 vols.
- 'Martha,' 1871, 3 vols.
- 'Clara Levesque,' 1872.
- 'Facta non Verba,' 1874.
- 'Disestablishment from a Church point of view,' 1875.
- 'The City: an Inquiry into the Corporation, its Livery Companies, and the Administration of their Charities and Endowments,' 1877.
- 'James Duke, Costermonger' (another tale of the social deposits), 1879.
- 'Memoirs of a Cynic,' 1880, 3 vols.: a powerful protest against cruelty and hypocrisy in modern disguises, with a certain amount of what appears to be genuine autobiographical matter.
- 'Modern Wonders of the World, or the New Sindbad,' 1881.
- 'Legion; or, the Modern Demoniac,' 1882.
[Daily News, 4 Jan. 1890; Wiltshire County Mirror, 11 Jan 1890; Salisbury Times, 11 Jan. 1890; Echo, 4 Jan. 1890; Contemporary Review, xii. 437, 444; Saturday Review, 12 Sept. 1863; Athenæum, 11 Jan. 1890; Boase's Modern English Biography (this last authority and the Athenaeum give the wrong date of death); Gilbert's Works.]
GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART (1809–1898), statesman and author, born on 29 Dec. 1809, at 62 Rodney Street, Liverpool, was third son of (Sir) John Gladstone [q. v.], by his second wife Anne, daughter of Andrew Robertson of Stornoway. As he said, when he became member for Midlothian in later life, he had no drop of blood in his veins which was not Scottish. He was educated at Seaforth vicarage (four miles from Liverpool), at Eton, and at Oxford. His tutor at Seaforth was the Rev. William Rawson, the incumbent. His father was then living at Seaforth House. He went to Eton at the age of eleven, after the summer holidays of 1821, and boarded at a dame's (Mrs. Schurey's); Dr. Keate was then headmaster. His tutor was the Rev. Henry Hartopp Napp. He became fag to his eldest brother Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas Gladstone of Fasque).
The range of studies at Eton was then almost confined to the Greek and Latin languages. Gladstone was accustomed to say in later years that, limited as the teaching was, its accuracy was 'simply splendid.' He was an industrious boy, and was distinguished for his high moral and religious character. His most intimate friend at Eton was Arthur Hallam [see under Hallam, Henry]. Of Gladstone's other contemporaries the most famous were Sir George Cornewall Lewis [q. v.] and Charles John (afterwards Earl) Canning [q.v.] Gladstone played cricket and football, but his favourite recreation was boating. He kept a 'lock-up' or private boat, and was, as he continued to be through life, a great walker. He made no particular mark in the school, though the few who knew him well always believed that he would rise to eminence.
In one respect Gladstone and his cleverest contemporaries at Eton were premature men. They were ardent politicians, studying parliamentary debates, writing about them to
