Mary (née Griffin), second daughter of 2nd Baron Braybrooke and Sir Stephen Glynne, 8th Baronet, of Hawarden Castle.

Through the myriad strains and links in her heredity, Catherine found herself, according to Lucy Masterman, related in one way or another to "half the famous names in English political history".

"Catherine Gladstone", wrote Lucy Masterman, "was one of those informal geniuses who conduct life, and with complete success, on what the poverty of language compels me to call a method of their own.

"[5] She was "like a fresh breeze" wherever she went and could, wrote a friend, grasp the subject of a discussion in "a few minutes' airy inattention".

[5] Unlike her husband, she was a notoriously untidy person, habitually leaving her letters strewn on the floor in the well-founded faith that someone would eventually pick them up and post them.