Free Censoring Queen Victoria by Yvonne M. Ward

that no material deemed unsuitable for publication was seen by the publisher or by the humble typesetters.)
    When there were French or German passages or phrases to be translated, Benson asked Mr Hua to verify phrases in the proofs. Esher forcefully directed Benson that the proofs must not be given to Hua without his approval. This was impractical and probably unnecessarily cautious. Hua had impeccable credentials. He had previously been employed by the Royal family to instruct the two sons of the Prince of Wales, Princes Eddy and George (later King George V), in French, and in 1883 he had accompanied them on a trip to France and Switzerland. Further, until the passages were translated, neither Benson nor Esher could judge their meaning or their value.
    The typeset proofs were later made available to John Morley (biographer of Gladstone and later 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn) and to Arthur Bigge (private secretary to Queen Victoria, later Lord Stamfordham), in preparation for the King’s eye and a final edit before publication.
    Throughout this process, Benson, Esher and John Murray referred to the whole project, comprising three volumes, as ‘the book’. The general time frame (1837–61, from Victoria’s accession to the throne to Albert’s death) was established from the start, but the exact scope of each volume was altered several times. In the end, Volume I began with an introductory section on the origins of the Houses of Hanover and Coburg and details of Victoria’s early life and family, followed by selections of correspondence from 1821 to 1843; Volume II contained correspondence from 1844 to 1853; and Volume III 1854 to 1861.
    A major constraint, one which had to be determined as early as possible, was the space available. In the early stages, Benson sent some sample letters to John Murray to be typeset and printed, in order to ascertain how much room they would occupy as a guide to further editing. In March 1904, an introductory passage and letters up to May 1838 (that is, only ten months in to the 24-year range of the book) were estimated to take up 357 pages, which was ‘in great excess of our space’. In the final published work, May 1838 is reached by page 113 of Volume I, which means further editing reduced the selection by almost 70 per cent.
    There were also decisions to be made about the page setting, including the size and choice of typeface. Murray sent specimens for Benson and Esher to look over, including some samples from his recent edition of
The Creevey Papers
, a selection of the letters and diaries of Thomas Creevey, an English politician of the early nineteenth century. The ‘small print of the Creevey page was not at all agreeable,’ Benson complained to Esher.
    Then there were footnotes and an index to consider. Most of the notes were prepared by Hugh Childers; he also contributed some of the introductory passages outlining the major political events of each year; Benson referred to this material, borrowing from Kant, as the ‘Prolegomena’. Benson wanted to submit this introductory material to J.W. Headlam at Cambridge for his opinion. When Esher expressed surprise at the suggestion, Benson placated him, somewhat tongue in cheek: ‘It is essential that this part should be impeccable , and I have therefore arranged that he should criticise … such an arrangement is necessary, even for such gifted amateurs as ourselves!’ Esher and Knollys became anxious whenever ‘outsiders’ were given any access to royal material.
    In preparing these explanatory notes, Childers drew heavily on his own political knowledge and on the networks of Benson and Esher. Trying to ascertain the identity of people mentioned in the letters, as well as the senders and recipients, was often difficult, given so many Christian names were used repeatedly among cousins and down the generations. Making sense of these personages was an essential step;