the lives had increased. ‘The explanation seems to be the satisfactory one, that more information has been given, not that a greater number of words has been employed to give the same amount of information. The fact, however, makes some difference in calculations as to the probable length of the whole work.’ Accordingly he begged contributors to condense their articles. In 1890 the two editors repeated the appeal, and suggested various expedients for saving space. In 1895, when the letter P had been reached, Lee perceived clearly that not less than sixty volumes would be necessary.
‘While I gratefully acknowledge the zeal and ability which contributors have brought to the service of the Dictionary, I cannot ignore a tendency on the part of some writers to expand their manuscripts beyond reasonable limits. Every effort is made in the Editor’s office to remove superfluous detail before the articles are published, but greater condensation might possibly be secured if some writers co-operated rather more actively in the work of abridgement. I would invite contributors, after completing an article, to peruse it carefully with a view to determining whether each of the facts recorded is fairly certain to be useful to those who may be expected to consult the Dictionary. . . . The practice of introducing the last scrap of information that patient research can reveal is not to be condemned lightly, but if the Dictionary is to be confined within manageable bounds information of trivial interest must be sacrificed. To present the essential facts in the career of the subject of the memoir so as to suggest readily to the reader the character and value of his achievements, is the only practicable aim.’[1]
Lee was himself too much inclined to the fault he mentioned to be a very effective preacher. Stephen was pleased to receive a new scrap of information and to take it into account in an article. Lee liked to hunt for one and to put it in. He had also a tendency to give a somewhat excessive number of bibliographical details. Nor did his own style ever attain the conciseness which marked Stephen’s. But the expansion of the Dictionary was mainly due to other causes: to the exertions of the staff and the contributors.
The home of the Dictionary was the top floor of No. 14, Waterloo Place, next door to the premises of Smith, Elder, & Co., which were No. 15, and connected with the publisher’s office by a speaking tube. The small back room of the flat was the editor’s sanctum. The large front room looking into Waterloo Place was the workshop; several large tables, many ink-pots, piles of proofs and manuscript on chairs and tables, a little pyramid of Stephen’s pipes at one end of the chimney piece, a little pyramid of Lee’s pipes at the other end. The narrow side room opening out of it held on its shelves a fine assortment of reference books, sets of the Gentleman’s Magazine and of Notes and Queries, Wood, Le Neve, and other biographical collections.
The number and composition of the editor’s staff varied at different dates. When Stephen fell ill more help was needed, so Mr. C. L. Kingsford and Mr. W. A. J. Archbold became in succession assistant sub-editors. Later Mr. Thomas Seccombe replaced Mr. Archbold, and in January 1893
- ↑ Circular 9, November 1895.
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