16c Mostly Cloudy
Barmouth Viaduct at Sunset 
Llanberis from Penllyn 
Morfa Bychan beach near Porthmadog 
North Wales Calendar 
LOVE them or loathe them, few could deny that powerful politicians are nearly always fascinating characters. And while David Lloyd George's Welsh roots are well-documented and celebrated, four times prime minister William Gladstone's legacy to our country are rather less known.
Liberal William Ewart Gladstone was born in Liverpool but was largely of Scottish ancestry, and his association with Wales began in 1839 when he married into the aristocratic Glynne dynasty. He and his wife Catherine Glynne made their home at Hawarden Castle, beginning a connection with the border village which persists to this day.
He surrounded himself with books, nicknaming his study his Temple of Peace, his love affair with the printed word having began in earnest as a child when author Hannah More gave him a copy of her book Sacred Dramas.
His collection grew and grew during his schooling at Eton, and later as a brilliant student at Oxford. He instigated the setting up of a library in Hawarden to house his collection of some 30,000 volumes, personally carting them the short distance from his home by wheelbarrow.
His daughter Mary Drew later commented that her father wanted "to bring together readers who had no books with books who had no readers … [in] … a country house for the purposes of study and research."
That temporary home was replaced on his death in 1898 by today's magnificent St Deiniol's Residential Library in the village, designed by architect John Douglas. The only prime ministerial library in the UK, this Grade I-listed building houses the most important research collection - 250,000 items in all - in Wales after the National Library in Aberystwyth.
It has raised £1.3m since 1998 to cement its role as Wales' premier centre for Victorian studies, and has launched the Gladstone Project by which it seeks to raise further funding to allow future growth and refurbishment of the building's fabric.
Specialising in theology and 19th century history, people come from far and wide to take advantage of the library's residential facilities while undertaking research here. Not that locals are in any way discouraged from using the facilities, an annual ticket costing £30.
And impressive though the collection of books might seem to the committed bibliophile, the library also houses a fascinating exhibition commemorating the life and work of its founder.
Many exhibits come from the House of Commons' library and the House of Lords Records Office. They trace the life of Gladstone from his privileged birth in Liverpool, the son of a wealthy merchant, along a political career lasting 64 years that others such as Lloyd George and Churchill later admitted had inspired them to follow in his foot-steps.
The collection not only includes his 30,000 -strong collection of books, many containing his hand-written annotations, but also much of his non-political correspondence and papers.
Also on display are personal items of memorabilia, and documents about his death and funeral, retracing his final journey from Hawarden Castle to Westminster Abbey.
The wealth of knowledge and information available is certainly sufficient to stir up a healthy hunger, well catered for in the library's coffee shop. It serves a buffet lunch between 12.30-1.30pm, and hot drinks and a selection of homemade cakes and biscuits at certain other fixed times.
