d Cardiff and Swansea guides.
4.--More study and notes. 12-4-1/2 the astonishing procession. Sixty
thousand! Then spoke for near an hour. Dinner at 8, near an
hundred, arrangements perfect. Spoke for nearly another hour; got
through a most difficult business as well as I could expect.
5.--Church 11 A.M., notable sermon and H. C. (service long), again
6-1/2 P.M., good sermon. Wrote to Sir W. Harcourt, Mr. Morley, etc.
Walked in the garden. Considered the question of a non-political
address "in council"; we all decided against it. 6.--Surveys in the
house, then 12-4 to Swansea for the freedom and opening the town
library. I was rather jealous of a non-political affair at such a
time, but could not do less than speak for thirty or thirty-five
minutes for the two occasions. 4-8 to Park Farm, the beautiful
vales, breezy common and the curious chambered cairn. Small
dinner-party. 7.--Off at 8.15 and a hard day to London, the
occasion of processions, hustles, and speeches; that at Newport in
the worst atmosphere known since the Black Hole. Poor C. too was
an invalid. Spoke near an hour to 3000 at Cardiff; about 1/4 hour at
Newport; more briefly at Gloucester and Swindon. Much enthusiasm
even in the English part of the journey. Our party was reduced at
Newport to the family, at Gloucester to our two selves. C. H.
Terrace at 6.20. Wrote to get off the House of Commons. It has
really been a "progress," and an extraordinary one.

In December 1887, under the pressing advice of his physician, though "with
a great lazy reluctance," Mr. Gladstone set his face with a family party
towards Florence. He found the weather more northern than at Hawarden, but
it was healthy. He was favourably impressed by all he saw of Italian
society (English being cultivated to a degree that surprised him), but he
did his best to observe Sir Andrew Clark's injunction that he should
practise the Trappist discipline of silence, and the condition of his
voice improved in consequence. He read Scartazzini's book on Dante, and
found it fervid, generally judicial, and most unsparing in labour; and he
was much interested in Beugnot's _Chute du Paganisme_. And as usual, he
returned homeward as unwillingly as he had departed. During the session he
fought his Irish battle with unsparing tenacity, and the most conspicuous
piece of his activity out of parliament was a pilgrimage to