The Story of the House of Cassell
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
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