I owe this quotation to a letter of Sir M. E. Grant Duff’s published soon after Lord Acton’s death.
“Gled” is a kite or hawk. The name was Gladstones till Mr. Gladstone’s father dropped the final s.
One of his most intimate friends has, I think, said that “he never knew what it was to be bored.” Fortunate, indeed, would he have been had this been so; but that one who had watched him long and closely should make the statement shows how gently bores fared at his hands.
I recollect his once remarking on the capacity for boring possessed by a gentleman who had been introduced and had talked for some fifteen minutes to him; but his own manner through the conversation had betrayed no impatience.
Sermons belong to a somewhat different category, else I should have to add the discourses of a few great preachers, such as Robert Hall, J. H. Newman, Phillips Brooks.