William Gladstone
Summary
- William Gladstone was a 4 time prime minister of England, in non-consecutive terms.
- 1809-1898
Details
- His hobby was chopping down trees by hand.
- From his diary, he went out to the forest more than 1,000 times. He also planted many trees and pruned others, protecting the health of the forests.
- He believed that removing dead or decaying trees was an important service. Asked about it, he said that removing the rotten members from the forest allowed more light and air to get to the good trees, just as in politics.
- He also enjoyed hikes and mountain climbing
- He collected and read some 25,000 books in his life
References
Quotes
William Gladstone, the four-time prime minister of England, in the generation before Winston Churchill, had an unusual hobby. He loved going out into the woods near his home and chopping down trees. Huge trees. By hand.
In January 1876, he spent two full days working on an elm tree with a girth of some sixteen feet. From Gladstone’s diary, we note that on more than one thousand occasions he went to the forest with his axe, often bringing his family along and making an outing of it. It was said that he found the process so consuming, he had no time to think of anything but where the next stroke of his axe would fall. Many critics, one of whom happened to be Churchill’s father, criticized Gladstone’s hobby as destructive. It really wasn’t. Gladstone planted many trees in his life, pruned hundreds more, and aggressively protected the health of the forests near his home, believing that removing dead or decaying trees was a minor but important service. In response to some critics who questioned why he had taken down a particular oak, he explained that removing the rotten members from the forest allowed more light and air to get to the good trees—just as in politics
Gladstone was also said to enjoy vigorous hikes, and mountain climbing well into old age, and the only thing that appears in his diary more than tree felling is reading. (He collected and read some twenty-five thousand books during his life.)