Three autograph letters signed from William Gladstone to Leonard Horner.

1. Letter dated 17 May 1843, from 13 Carlton House Terrace: "I beg to return you my best thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of your valuable pamphlet on the employment of children. I have perused it with great interest [...]".

2. Letter dated 21 February 1861, on stationery with letterhead "11 Downing Street, Whitehall"): "I much regret to find myself unable to comply with your request. I assure you I have not treated it as a matter of ceremony or of course: but I have to bethink myself how my becoming a member of the Geological Society without a qualification would bear upon the acquisition of other memberships scarcely if at all less honorable if worthily attained, and not more remote from my immediate pursuits. – I find the sad result to be that I should gradually be attired in a suit of peacock’s feathers which could neither become me nor add either ornament or utility to the bodies whose courtesy had admitted me. Nor do I find that any bird of my own feather has ventured, in his proper character, into your company. My eye catches the name of the Duke of Newcastle, but a man who has dug a pit 520 yeards deep is well entitled to say ‘with a great sum obtained I this freedom’. With many thanks for your kindness I remain [...]".

3. Letter dated 21 May 1863, on black-bordered Whitehall stationery: "I thank you very much for your note and inclosure. In the remarks you mention I meant to speak of England only & perhaps not all England: it was an error not to exclude Scotland where in one form or another there is much of the kind of Education which is represented by the Evening Classes at King’s College [...]". With a signed note by the recipient on the counter-leaf: "The annexed note of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is an answer to a letter I wrote to him this day after reading his speech yesterday on delivering the prizes to the Evening Classes at King’s College, in which he urges the importance of throwing open the means of education to the middle and operative classes. I sent him the last annual report of the School of Arts at Edinburgh telling him that it has been in continuous operation for 42 years, with an average attendance during that time of more than 400 students & that there were 740 last year [...]".

One autograph letter signed from William Gladstone to Katharine Murray Lyell, dated 1 March 1876, 4 Carlton Gardens, [London], on black-bordered stationery: "I have to acknowledge the arrival of your cheque and I will hand it to my Agent Mr. Gregson who will take care to account for the Rent of No. 73 Harley Street. It is most kind of you to be satisfied with us as successors to the very distinguished owner who was so dear to you [...]". The geologist Sir Charles Lyell had lived at 73 Harley Street from 1854 until his death in February 1875. From 1876 to 1882, Gladstone lived there; a blue plaque on the house later erected on the same site commemorates the two famous residents.