Volume 1

A collection of the published writings of William Withey Gull / edited and arranged by Theodore Dyke Acland.

  • Sir William Gull, 1st Baronet
Date:
1894-1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A collection of the published writings of William Withey Gull / edited and arranged by Theodore Dyke Acland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    entirely to the bringing up of her children. She was left with very small means, but none the less were the surround- ings of the home those of refinement and care. She taught her children to be self-reliant, to do everything for them- selves, and to do whatever they did well; for she would say, Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. Thus she instilled into them habits of perseverance and industry. These early lessons from a loving mother were never forgotten, and may truly be said to have been the key-note of Sir William's success. In looking back to his childhood he would often say that his real education had been given him by his mother. To the end of his life he would quote a little nursei-y rhyme, learned in infancy : If I were a tailor, I'd make it my pride The best of all tailors to be ; If I were a tinker, no tinker beside Should mend an old kettle like me. Adding to it in later years, the more classical quotation— If thou dost purpose aught within thy power, Be sure thou do it, though it be but small. Constancy knits the bones and makes us stour. Elizabeth Grull was an earnest Churchwoman of an old, but then not common type. On Fridays the children had fish and rice pudding for dinner ; in Lent she wore black, and the Saints' days were carefully observed. As a boy William Gull went with his sisters to a school kept by two old ladies, and he used to say that on his return home his mother never allowed him to play until he had done a certain number of rows of knitting, and he would sit on a stool and look at the clock to see how fast he could accomplish this appointed task. Thus he knitted the first pair of stockings he wore. When too old to go with his sisters to their school, he attended another in the same parish, kept by the clergyman. At this school William was a day-boy until he was fifteen, at Avhich age he became a boai*der, and continued so for two years. It was at this time that he first began to study Latin. The learning, however, that the clergyman was able to impart appears to have been very limited; and at seven-
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