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It’s kind of strange to be stripping off in front of one of the great reforming prime ministers of the Victorian Age but then Gladstone was no stranger to females in various states of undress. Founder of the Church Penitentiary for the Reclamation of Fallen Women, Gladstone used to walk the streets looking for prostitutes to reform. That was his story, anyway, although even at the time there was some whispering about his activities, not helped by his preferred doodle – a whip - which tended to pop up unbidden in the margins of all sorts of prime ministerial documents.
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| One thing about Gladstone that is undisputed, though, was his love of books. In his eighties, he founded St Deniol’s Library in Wales and ferried many of the books in himself in a wheelbarrow. And it is to this book-loving philanthropist that a different and rather surreal library is dedicated. |
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The Gladstone Memorial Library in Princes Street in Edinburgh is a small unprepossessing room with a few musty books on some rather fine oak shelves, a bust of the Great Man himself, a baronial deer and a few other bits and bobs. A fairly standard small Victorian library, with not much to draw the visitor. Except that this library by an accident of property purchase has ended up in the Women’s Lingerie department of Debenhams.
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No doubt Debenhams would love to see the back of it. No doubt also it is listed. So it’s where Debenhams tends to stuff its end of season bargain bins, odds and sods of swim wear and fashion errors that no one is ever going to buy, particularly not in size 22.
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So next time you need a new bra, take a moment to pop in and say “Hi” to Gladstone. You will see instantly from the expression on his face what he thinks of 21st century fashions. Whether he is also thinking of a whip is debatable. Whether or not you are cowed into buying something more modest is entirely up to you. |
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