A beautiful description of a large-hearted calming character, who has a benign influence on those around him. We need more Cadwalladers around, quieting ‘irritated egoism’ and making it even a little ashamed of itself.

‘Mr Cadwallader was a large man, with full lips and a sweet smile; very plain and rough in his exterior, but with that solid imperturbable ease and good-humour which is infectious, and like the great grassy hills in the sunshine, quiets even an irritated egoism, and makes it rather ashamed of itself.’

Source: George Eliot, Middlemarch (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 67

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