The Lion and the Unicorn

Dearest Em,

Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister and Statesman (1804-1881) wrote "The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it." So now he crops up in ours.

The Chap here on the left is William Ewart Gladstone. Born in 1809, and from a wealthy upper middle class family, and educated at  Christchurch Oxford, where he from 1828- matriculating in 1831 ( twenty years before Dodgson matriculated there. ) In 1847, he was elected at Oxford to represent the MA  Graduates. Gladstone entered Parliament as a High Tory in 1832, having been given Office by Lord Peel. When the Conservatives split- Gladstone became a 'Peelite' and henceforth, a Liberal Statesman.

Queen Victoria was not amused with him, and is on record as saying " He always addresses me as if he were at a public meeting".

Famously short-sighted, he is mentioned in Lord Eversley's book 'Gladstone and Ireland' thus..

" He missed his way to the trench, in Sebastapol, and found himself in the lines of the enemy ".

Another arch-enemy was the fellow on the right- Benjamin Disreali. Born in 1804, this Italian Jew was not of high-born stock. Educated in Walthamstow, writing books to pay off creditors, and then suffering a nervous break-down, Disraeli married a rich woman and sought a career in Politics as a Tory. Being passed over by Peel in 1832 for a place at Parliament in favour of Gladstone, their vitriolic feud began- and it never ended.

The first Prime Minister of Jewish ethnicity he served from 27 February to 1st December 1868, when Gladstone succeeded him, and again in 1874, until 1880 ( when Gladstone succeeded him again! )

A Dandy and a keen horseman one of his many sayings was " A canter is a cure for all evil ".

Queen Victoria was amused by Disraeli. When he died, it was not correct for her to attend his funeral. So she visited privately and took flowers instead.

The lion and the unicorn

Were fighting for the crown

The lion beat the unicorn

All around the town.

Some gave them white bread,

And some gave them brown;

Some gave them plum cake

and drummed them out of town

Lewis Carroll's Lion wears glasses, and the Unicorn with his long spike in the centre of his forehead is part-horse. 

What do you think Em? Likely suspects Gladstone and Disreali? I reckon so...

This is such fun!

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxx