‘Temple of peace’: rare chance to visit William Gladstone’s study

Books and other belongings of 19th-century PM on show during festival at Hawarden estate in north Wales

The room reveals itself gradually as the visitor lingers. The books, the papers and carefully ordered desks tell of a hard-working statesman with a thirst for knowledge and a deep love of culture.

But it is in the personal objects and features that a warmer side of the man emerges: the axes in the fireplace that he used for chopping wood as he cleared his mind; a hedgehog paperweight, the prominence of which must mean it has long-forgotten value; pencil marks on the wall recording the heights of his children as they grew.