3-086-316 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone at the time of his fourth premiership, [April 1880-December 1882,] (1898). Engraving from a photograph. 'Mr. Gladstone has passed peacefully to his rest...and Britain mourns a leader fallen. The end has come even sooner than we feared. For two months everyone has been aware that Mr. Gladstone's malady must have a fatal termination, but the physicians spoke hopefully of his being spared until the summer was well advanced...Members of the family were hurriedly summoned to their father's bedside...Now and then the hush of the shadowed chamber was broken by some fitful words, as Mr. Gladstone murmured in French some sentences amid which commencez and priez were the only articulate utterance. On the evening of May 17 all the servants of the household were summoned and passed the bedside of their revered master...As they passed, the retainers pressed the honoured hand in mute farewell...From time to time the Rev. Stephen Gladstone repeated his father's favourite hymns, and the dying statesman was heard whispering "Our Father." The venerable leader lingered until 5 a.m. on Thursday, May 19, when the end came, and William Ewart Gladstone was numbered among the world's great memories.' From "Illustrated London News", 1898.