3-052-558 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The General Election: the calm before the storm - a sketch at Dalmeny on Saturday, 1880. 'The contest in Midlothian, otherwise named the County of Edinburgh, between the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone and the Earl of Dalkeith, son and heir to the Duke of Buccleuch, had long been looked forward to with the greatest interest. Mr. Gladstone's frequent speeches at different places round Edinburgh, which were noticed by us at the time, contributed powerfully to damage the Beaconsfield Ministry in popular opinion. He has been staying, with Mrs. Gladstone, as the guest of Lord Rosebery, at Dalmeny House, which is about seven miles west from Edinburgh, on the shore of the Firth of Forth. After the labour of attending, and speaking with his characteristic earnestness, at so many large meetings, he was probably glad to rest a few hours, on Saturday and Sunday last, previously to the critical ordeal of Monday, the polling-day. His attitude of meditative repose, while standing alone, as we see him, inhaling the fresh and cool breeze in Dalmeny Park, affords the subject of our Artist's Sketch, "The Calm before the Storm".' From "Illustrated London News", 1880.