A MAMMOTH UNDERTAKING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1247, 23 January 1896, Page 12

A MAMMOTH UNDERTAKING.

THE NEW SURVEY AND HISTORY OF LONDON. SIR WALTER BESANT’S SCHEME. From Our Special Correspondent. London, December G. Sir Walter Besanfc is known to the present generation chiefly as a noyelist, but posterity will without doubt think of him in the first place as the historian of London. Even were he to die to-morrow, his admirable text-books “ London ” and “ Westminster” would in all probability long outlive most of his fiction. If, however, Sir Walter should be spared a few more years he will Leave behind him a magnum opus far completer and. ljiore perfect than these volumes. Over a twelvemonth ago the novelist persuaded Messrs A. and C. Black to undertake the leviathan labour of a new survey of the metropolis, and to appoint him editor of the enterprise. The work will fill ten or twelve royal quarto volumes and should be complete in four years from now. A Westminster man has been interviewing Sir Walter on the survey, and found him at the office of Messrs Black specialty fitted up for the purpose in Soho square. Maps without number lined the walls; the shelves were stuffed with volumes of all ages and sizes bearing upon the work in hand; the writing table groaned beneath others in use by Sir Walter at the time of my call. And with every single map and each particular book Sir Walter appeared to be on terms of closest intimacy. THE GROUND TO RE COVERED. “ The scope of the survey,” said Sir Walter, spreading out a large map of London as it is at the present time, “ I will show you at a glance. Here jis the London of to-day. Here,” pointing to another map, “ is the London of yesterday—to be exact, of about a hundred years ago, or two hundred years

after the time when Stow made his survey. From the difference between the two you can realise what a much bigger work ours will be than Stowes. The new survey will cover the whole area of the London of to-day as defined by the County Council boundaries. We shall Hy to give a complete account of London from the earliest times to the present day. A big undertaking, but I am not attempting it unaided of course. Professor Bonney will be an authority of unquestioned eminence concerning London's geology ; the Rev. W. J. Loftie will write on the Tower, on St. Paul’s, and on Westminster; with Southwark I am getting Mr Philip Norman to deal; Banking and Banking Institutions will be treated authoritatively by Mr Edward Clodd, secretary of the London Joint Stock Bank, and author of mapy books ; Mr Beddard, F.R.S., will contribute a chapter on Science in London; Mr Sprigge, of the Lancet, will write on the Metropolitan Hospital System ; and so on. These special contributions —and those I have mentioned are only some of many—will constitute one portion of the book. “ A PERAMBULATION.” “In the next place will come what will be called a ‘ Perambulation ’ —in other words, the results of a house-to-house visitation which I am now having carried out for me by a number of ‘ perambulators,’ street by street, in every ward in the City, and in every electoral district outside of its bounds. In this ‘ Perambulation ’ every house of interest, every important business firm, every church, every public institution, and, in short, every place in any way worthy of notice will be mentioned and dealt with. As I say, I have a number of assistants already engaged in this work ; and from what has been done already I can assure you that the result of some of their investigations will prove most interesting. Then—or rather before the ‘ Perambulation ’ —will come a complete history of the City from pre-historic times to the present day. And seeing that I shall undertake this part of the work myself, I naturally hope that it may prove not the least interesting section of the book. Yes, it will run to a considerable length—a separate chapter being devoted to each period : prehistoric, Roman, Saxon, Mediaeval, Tudor, Stuart, etc. Next, after the 'Perambulation ’ already referred to, will follow chapters dealing in detail with the various institutions—scientific, literary, artistic, philanthropic, and so forth—of the Metropolis, together with further chapters on the government of the City, London churches, Municipal London, the County Council, the School Board and other administrative bodies. FOR THE BENEFIT OF POSTERITY. “ Further, we shall devote a chapter to what I may call Imperial London —including the House of Commons, Government Departments, Ac. A quantity of biographical matter dealing with London's worthies —and what a lot of them there have been 1 will also be included ; and the whole work will be concluded by a sketch of Social London of the present day, giving an account for the beuefit of posterity of the manners and customs, the beliefs and prejudices, the fashions and follies, of the age in which we live. And this, as in the case of the other section of the book for which I shall be personally responsible, I also venture to hope will prove to be specially entertaining.” “Now, as to your material. Where are you getting all your facts from ?”

“ Wherever we can find them—and the difficulty of course is not to find them, but to select from those we have. Every authority we can lay our hands on will be pressed into service. And how many hundreds of these —thousands even—there are I need hardly tell you. From the books in this room alone you can get some idea on the subject. Stow, of course—good old Stow ! will form a sort of working basis for our operations, while the immense amount of material which has been brought to light since his time by the labours of such men as Diley, Sharpe—whose Calendar of Wills is an inexhaustible mine of invaluable information Grafton, J. T. Smith, Wilkinson, Loftie, Orridge, Round, Maitland, Penant, See., will all be drawn from. In fact, it would take me hours to make out a complete list of all the authorities, ancient and modern, which we shall lay under contribution.’' WHEN THE BOOK WILL APPEAR. “ x\nd what about the form and price of the work?" “The piice I cannot tell you yet ; that point can only be decided when we know what its cost comes to. As to its form, lie survey will consist of sonic eight c'jten royal quarto volumes of about six or seven hundred pages each. Of course it will be expensive to buy, but every public library and all other institutions of that kind will have to take a copy. Of private purchasers also I am certain we shall have a great many. And don’t forget to mention, by the way, while on the subject of form, that the work will bo profusely illustrated throughout. Here, again, the quantity of material available is almost overwhelming, and it will certainly be our own fault if there is anything whatever to complain of ip this important respect.” “And you hope to begin publishing about a twelvemonth hence ?”

“Yes, and to complete the issue of the whole work, a volume at a time, in three years.”