Correspondence on church and religion Selected and arr by Lathbury . long-entertained desiresuggested a way of escape. Mr. Gladstone was nota selfish buyer; he wished his books to be at theservice of all who shared his conviction * that thefuture of the human race depends in the main uponthe great question of belief, and that the most specialand urgent of present needs is the need of sufficientmeans for the effective promotion of Divine this need was to be satisfied by his own library, theultimate destination of the larger part of it must notbe Hawarden Castle; but it did not f
Correspondence on church and religion Selected and arr by Lathbury . long-entertained desiresuggested a way of escape. Mr. Gladstone was nota selfish buyer; he wished his books to be at theservice of all who shared his conviction * that thefuture of the human race depends in the main uponthe great question of belief, and that the most specialand urgent of present needs is the need of sufficientmeans for the effective promotion of Divine this need was to be satisfied by his own library, theultimate destination of the larger part of it must notbe Hawarden Castle; but it did not follow that itshould not be Hawarden village. If the books wereto find a new home, might not the same buildingprovide temporary homes for their readers ? At allevents, Mr. Gladstone determined to try the experi-ment, and to try it * cautiously, tentatively — andeconomically. * In 1889 two large iron rooms, linedwith felt and pine, were erected, with six or sevensmaller ones to act as studies, on the crest of HawardenHill, and the travel of the books began. To borrow. o9 J, ?^ p. ? c c 2; 1896] OBJECT OF ST. DEINIOLS 221 a phrase not then in being, it was a personally con-ducted tour. * Each book —and there were 27,000 ofthem— he took down from the shelves, and eachpacket he strapped up, with his own hands, and novehicle was ever allowed to leave the Castle withoutits consignment of book bundles. Arrived at theirdestination, they were laid upon the floor in theorder in which they came, and Mr. Gladstone, unaidedsave by his valet, and sometimes one of his daughters,when home from Cambridge, unstrapped and liftedand sifted, and placed the volumes one by one in thebookcases prepared to receive them. This was thebeginning of St. Deiniols, and out of it has grown thespacious library and the existing provision for theaccommodation of the students v/ho use it. The foundergave ^^40,000 by way of endowment; the NationalMemorial Committee contributed ;^io,ooo for housingthe books, an
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