The Story of the House of Cassell/Part 2, Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
SOME EDITORS AND ARNOLD-FORSTER
In a house of such size and with so great a diversity of publications, the Chief Editor is necessarily a personage of importance. It was not long after Cassell had laid out his lines of development that the Chief Editor's post had to be created. The first occupant of whom there is any record was John Willis Clark, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Academically brilliant, he was no editor—"a square peg in a round hole," as Bonavia Hunt said. He was the first to recognize his own unfitness. In the due efflux of time he returned to Cambridge to become Registrar of the University and Town Clerk of the City.
His successor, the Rev. T. Teignmouth Shore, was a different manner of man, and successfully filled the office of Chief Editor for about twenty years. He had graduated young at Trinity College, Dublin, and gone on to Oxford. Having come down too early for ordination, he resolved to try to get some literary work in London, and presented to the firm at La Belle Sauvage letters of introduction from Napier, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Doctor F. J. Waller, editor of the Dublin University Magazine, whose daughter Shore afterwards married. Invited at once to act as an assistant editor under Clark, he soon became editor of the Quiver, which Bonavia Hunt took over when Shore was promoted to the chief editorship. The young Irishman thoroughly enjoyed his work. He revelled in his intercourse with literary lions and celebrities of other breeds who visited the Yard, and was persona grata to the staff. Among his frequent callers were Boyd Carpenter, later to become Bishop of Ripon and Canon of Westminster, but then one of the minor clergy in a suburban parish of Kent, who was constantly writing for one or other of Cassell's publications; Clement Scott (who prefaced his career as a dramatic critic by writing "appropriate verses" for Cassell's wood-cuts); Bishop Ellicott, one of the Company of Revisers of the New Testament, who was now engaged on the monumental "Bible Commentary for English Readers"; and Professor E. H. Plumptre, of Oxford and King's College, afterwards Dean of Wells, who was editing the "Bible Educator" for Cassell's.
Teignmouth Shore was a man of enormous energy. After his engagement at the Yard he proceeded to ordination and took clerical duties, being incumbent of St. Mildred's, Lee, in the early 'seventies, and then, from 1873 onwards, of Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair. This courtly and eloquent Hibernian contrived to put in regular attendance at his office and to do his editorial duties conscientiously, and at the same time to become a favourite Society preacher and Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria. He not only directed the literary activities of the firm, but for some considerable time, until the Art Department became independent of editorial control, had the final word as to the drawings that should be accepted or rejected. When Mr. Edwin Bale took over the Art Department, Shore met him one morning in the long corridor leading to his room, invited him in, pointed to his table, which had absolutely not a scrap of paper on it, and said that his day's work was done. It was not his business, he remarked, to do details, but to put all such matters into the hands of people competent to deal with them and receive their reports on the result. He warned Mr. Bale that if he attempted to perform the detailed work of his department it would kill him; he should refer it to his clerks and see that it was promptly carried through. But for such delegation Teignmouth Shore would not have been able, as he was said to do, to leave the Yard at 4 P.M., go westward into another sphere, and forget the existence of serials and magazines till next day. He seems to have thought his position in the City was nothing to be very proud of, and, though he was diligent and excellent at his work, with nothing of the fainéant about him, nevertheless, his real world was the West End.
Fortunately for the success of this theory of life, Shore had a wonderful helper in John Williams, his second in command. Educated at Marlborough and at Queen's College, Oxford, of which he was a scholar, Williams brought to La Belle Sauvage an exact knowledge of the classics and a high degree of literary ability. With such a man at his right hand it was small wonder that in the later years of his chief editorship Shore was able to present the object lesson just mentioned. No proofs, whether of books or magazines, went to press until they had been initialed "J. W." When Shore retired Williams was his inevitable successor. But his reign lasted only three years, a rare nervous disease carrying him off in 1891 while he was still in his prime. It was Williams who laid out the schemes of the great topographical works issued in the 'seventies and 'eighties—"Picturesque Europe" and the rest of the series, as well as "Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales." He was especially happy in the choice and invention of titles. Mr. W. W. Hutchings, the present editor of medical books, who was Williams's assistant for three years in the early 'eighties, mentions that among his inspirations was "Noughts and Crosses," the taking name of "Q's" first collection of sketches and short stories.
"Long before Teignmouth Shore's retirement," says Mr. Hutchings, "it fell to Williams to do most of the bargaining with authors. His endless fund of good stories was freely drawn upon to smooth the path of negotiation, and the author usually went away smiling, if not satisfied. His self-control was remarkable, and I have known it to be proof against even extreme provocation from men whom he liked and for whom he could make allowance. To strangers his manner sometimes leaned, perhaps, to severity rather than to the irresistible suavity so characteristic of Teignmouth Shore; but he was essentially a man of much more than usual kindness of heart. A son of the parsonage, he was interested in ecclesiastical architecture, but he found his chief delight in music. At one time he wrote a good deal of musical criticism, and on social occasions his cello was much in request. He was a capital reader of 'Pickwick,' and was not without a tincture of Bohemianism; but he sang in the choir of his parish church, and often helped the incumbent and pleased the congregation by reading the Lessons with admirable elocution. Altogether, he was one of the most capable and most versatile men who have served the House of Cassell, and had his ambition been equal to his abilities he might conceivably have done greater things than ever he attempted."
When John Williams passed away Sir Wemyss Reid advertised for a successor, and found one in the late Arthur John Butler, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, a ripe scholar and an expert in education. Brilliant as were his gifts, Butler, like Willis Clark, was out of his proper place as chief editor of a publishing house mainly concerned with popular literature. After less than three years' service he withdrew, and presently found a more congenial sphere in the Record Office. He left behind him none but pleasant memories; a more loyal or more agreeable colleague there never was. His biography has been written by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, who at this time and for some years afterwards was "reader" to the House.
The post of Editor-in-Chief was now filled for six years by the late James A. Manson. Relating his own story, Manson said his connexion with La Belle Sauvage arose from what Sir Frank Burnand would have called "a happy thought." "On September 21, 1870, I sailed from Granton for a fortnight's holiday in London. When I had spent a week in sight-seeing it suddenly occurred to me that as there was really nothing to keep me in Edinburgh—I was only attending the Arts course at the University and coaching the boys for the Royal High School, my old school, of an evening—I might get something to do in London. Mentioning the matter to my father's old friend, Thomas Wilson Reid, the manager of the Sportsman, which was then issued from Boy Court, Ludgate Hill, I received from him an introduction to Mr. John Hamer, Messrs. Cassell, Petter and Galpin's publisher, who passed me on to Mr. Petter. As luck would have it, there was a vacancy—caused by the transference of my late friend, Daniel Gorrie, the well-known Orcadian, from the editorial staff to the charge of the Country News Department—and Mr. Petter, after subjecting me to a stiff examination, intimated that I might stay with the firm for a fortnight 'to see how I liked it, and how the principals liked me.'
"The period of probation ended, I was duly enrolled a member of the editorial staff. I began at the bottom of the ladder and climbed to the top. And here, may I be allowed to say, in reply to the favourite taunt that Scotsmen never 'gang back,' that I can produce documentary evidence that one Scot, at any rate, came to London with a bona-fide intention to go back to his native land, for my return ticket now hangs in a frame on my walls!
"A brief summary, curtailed and condensed as it is, will suffice to show what an excellent training-ground an editorial berth at Cassell's afforded, though, thank God, none of us came out either prigs or Admirable Crichtons. Each editor, excepting those in charge of the permanent magazines, was entrusted, subject to the direction of the chief, with the care of two or three of the serials, and was also required to see a reasonable quota of volumes through the press, to read and report upon MSS. submitted on approval, and to 'fill up' by revising re-issues of serials, of which there was always a good number on hand. The editing of a new serial was, naturally, his most onerous work. In such cases he had to prepare the 'copy' for the printers and select the illustrations.
"Before the Art Department was founded all the arrangements for drawings and engravings went through the hands of a specified editor, whose colleagues sent to him orders for the illustrations. It was seldom that an artist declined a commission, but on one occasion William Small did. His drawing on wood was so beautiful that it always seemed a pity to cut it; he was among the very first illustrators of the day. The subject which Mr. Small could not undertake was the old ballad of 'The Queen's Maries.' Those who remember the poignant pathos of the poem will readily appreciate Mr. Small's feelings. Few can read it dry-eyed.
"No editor could go through such a routine as I have roughly sketched without being the better for it. He had the advantage of a varied experience, his judgment and taste were matured, and business-like aptitude and method grew if he lacked them at the start."
James Manson's genius for camaraderie won for him hosts of friends at La Belle Sauvage, and when, in 1900, his term of office ended, his colleagues presented him with an album of signatures to an affectionate address and a purse of two hundred pounds. He returned to the Yard for special work during the Great War, and died in February, 1921, a few weeks after his war task was completed.
Manson's successor, after an interval of a few months during which the department was carried on by Mr. John Hamer, was Mr. Arthur D. Innes, a one-time scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, who held the post until the death of Sir Wemyss Reid, in 1905, when he returned to the writing of history, in which he had already begun to specialize. He now has to his credit many scholarly works dealing with various periods and aspects of British History.
Under the long line of Chief Editors, from Teignmouth Shore to A. D. Innes, a number of notable personalities were associated with the staff. In the late 'seventies they included Sir Sidney Low and Mr. Lloyd Sanders, who was afterwards one of the editors of "Celebrities of the Century." Like Mr. Charles Whibley, who joined the staff a few years later, they quickly tired of office routine, and preferred to sail the more exciting seas of journalism and authorship, in which all three have gained distinction. Other members of the former editorial staff who migrated to Fleet Street were Mr. J. Penderel-Brodhurst, who became assistant editor of the St. James's Gazette and editor of the St. James's Budget, and is now editor of the Guardian, and Sir Philip Gibbs, who began his literary career in the 'nineties as a member of the Educational Department, but was not long in finding his way, though not by the most direct route, to "the Street of Adventure."
One of the outstanding personalities at the Yard in the 'eighties was, of course, the Right Hon. H. O. Arnold-Forster. Although he began his work at La Belle Sauvage as Secretary of the Company, and afterwards had a seat on the Board, it was as director of the Educational Department that he made his mark there. Mr. George Tasker, who was his private secretary not only in the Cassell days, but afterwards at the Admiralty and the War Office, describes Arnold-Forster's work at Cassell's as providing him at first with an acceptable change from the turmoil and danger through which he had passed as private secretary to W. E. Forster during the tragic years of his Irish Chief Secretaryship from 1880 to 1882. "But the duties were not enough for his tireless energy, and before long, in succession to Mr. Lyttelton Gell, he took charge of the Educational Department—a most congenial and appropriate office for the grandson of Arnold of Rugby (under whom he had studied at school), and for the adopted son of the statesman who founded our system of elementary education. Nor did it suffice that he should direct the work of that Department, for he contributed largely and effectively to its catalogue. His first school book, the "Citizen Reader," published in 1880, was an immediate success, and over half a million copies of it have been sold.
"In order that he might make himself acquainted with the technicalities of the business, he wrote, composed, and printed a book by himself. This characteristic was further exemplified a few years later, when, hoping to join the board of the Great Western Railway, he constructed a model railway with rolling stock complete, and studied the working of trains and points—to the great joy of his children.
"There were two subjects in which he revelled—geography and history. He wrote 'This World of Ours' as an introduction to the study of geography, and then began his series of histories, to which he gave the title of 'Things New and Old.' The seven books of this series took three years to complete, and they were then combined into 'A History of England.'"
Mr. Tasker gives us a picture of Arnold-Forster at work. "In the early days he had either written his MS. in draft or dictated it, to be transcribed afterwards on 'the' typewriter, at that time the only typewriting machine in the House. As time progressed he dictated direct to the typist, meanwhile pacing up and down his room. The words came at an even rate, and there was very little retraction, owing, doubtless, to the fact that he had read up his authorities and was spinning the story from his notes, or with the book open in front of him. He did not bother about dates or other details, but kept his mind fixed on the story he had to tell—leaving the blanks to be filled in afterwards and the facts to be verified."
To commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, in 1897, the House of Cassell prepared a set of pictures illustrating scenes and places in all parts of the Empire. For this collection, which made two large volumes, and was published under the title of "The Queen's Empire," Arnold-Forster provided the text. Some of the pictures were puzzling to describe, for no information about them could be got from gazetteers or any other source, but he had a wide and intimate knowledge of the Empire, and he was never at a loss for some appropriate legend. "Our Great City," the story of London, published in 1900, was his last school book. In 
Rt. Hon. H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER
that year Lord Salisbury appointed him chairman of the Lands Settlement Commission, and he went out to South Africa. Before leaving England he gave his secretary written authority to destroy all his papers if he did not return alive—for the Boer War was still in progress. He had, in fact, several narrow escapes from capture by the enemy. He was recalled from South Africa by Lord Salisbury's offer of the post of Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, which he was proud to accept.
It may be added that for many years Arnold-Forster represented the House of Cassell on the London Chamber of Commerce, and was one of the chief members of the Council of that body.