IV
Once again the question of a national memorial of Shakespeare in
London has been revived in conditions not wholly unlike those that
have gone before. Mr Richard Badger, a veteran enthusiast for
Shakespeare, who was educated in the poet's native place, has offered
the people of London the sum of L3500 as the nucleus of a great
Shakespeare Memorial Fund. The Lord Mayor of London has presided over
a public meeting at the Mansion House, which has empowered an
influential committee to proceed with the work. The London County
Council has promised to provide a site. With regard to the form that
the memorial ought to take, a variety of irresponsible suggestions has
been made. It has now been authoritatively determined to erect a
sculptured monument on the banks of the Thames.[45]
[Footnote 45: The proceedings of the committee which was formed in the
spring of 1905 have been dilatory. Mr Badger informs me that he paid
the organisers, nearly two years ago, the sum of L500 for preliminary
expenses, and deposited bonds to the value of L3000 with Lord Avebury,
the treasurer of the committee. The delay is assigned to the
circumstance that the London County Council, which is supporting the
proposal, is desirous of associating it with the great Council Hall
which it is preparing to erect on the south side of the Thames, and
that it has not yet been found practicable to invite designs for that
work.
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