(Brittany), and the romance of _Huon of Bordeaux_.


BESANT, SIR WALTER (1836-1901).--Novelist and historian of London, _b._
at Portsmouth and _ed._ at King's Coll., London, and Camb., was for a few
years a professor at Mauritius, but a breakdown in health compelled him
to resign, and he returned to England and took the duties of Secretary to
the Palestine Exploration Fund, which he held 1868-85. He _pub._ in 1868
_Studies in French Poetry_. Three years later he began his collaboration
with James Rice (_q.v._). Among their joint productions are _Ready-money
Mortiboy_ (1872), and the _Golden Butterfly_ (1876), both, especially the
latter, very successful. This connection was brought to an end by the
death of Rice in 1882. Thereafter B. continued to write voluminously at
his own hand, his leading novels being _All in a Garden Fair_, _Dorothy
Forster_ (his own favourite), _Children of Gibeon_, and _All Sorts and
Conditions of Men_. The two latter belonged to a series in which he
endeavoured to arouse the public conscience to a sense of the sadness of
life among the poorest classes in cities. In this crusade B. had
considerable success, the establishment of The People's Palace in the
East of London being one result. In addition to his work in fiction B.
wrote largely on the history and topography of London. His plans in this
field were left unfinished: among his books on this subject is _London in
the 18th Century_.

Other works among novels are _My Little Girl_, _With Harp and Crown_,
_This Son of Vulcan_, _The Monks of Thelema_, _By Celia's Arbour_, and
_The Chaplain of the Fleet_, all with Rice; and _The Ivory Gate_, _Beyond
the Dreams of Avarice_, _The Master Craftsman_, _The Fourth Generation_,
etc., alone. _London under the Stuarts_, _London under the Tudors_ are
historical.