3-071-063 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Gladstone at Leeds: the Banquet, 1881. The British Prime Minister in Yorkshire. 'At six o'clock in the evening, the great banquet at the Cloth Hall, or rather, in a temporary pavilion erected in the Old Cloth-Hall Yard, began without the presence of the honoured guest, who was still obliged to rest himself, but he came in time for the toasts and speech-making. The spacious open yard had been converted, for this occasion, into a roofed building...It was brilliantly lighted up with the electric light, assisted by gas, and along with the names of members of Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet shining in silver upon the walls...There were five-and-twenty rows of tables, profusely furnished with flowers, glass, and plate; and a gallery full of ladies - themselves a brilliant addition to the spectacle - looked down upon the tables. According to promise, the Prime Minister appeared just as the dessert had been removed, and the guests were ready to give him a fitting reception. The first outburst was a wild storm of hurrahs, accompanied by the waving of snow-white napkins and handkerchiefs'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.