The Decline and Fall of the British Empire; or, The Witch's Cavern

Published anonymously in 1890 and dedicated to Lord Randolph Churchill, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire; or, The Witch's Cavern is a manifestly Tory dystopia by the Australian author and clergyman Henry Crocker Marriott Watson, author of Erchomenon (1879). The novel opens in the far future with its protagonist, a Melbourne University student named Furley, traveling through a prosperous, conservative Australia before arriving in London in the year 2990, where England has been reduced to a shrunken city of ten thousand inhabitants. Watson attributes the decline to a combination of causes, among them the diversion of the Gulf Stream producing a dramatic drop in temperature, the interference of socialist governments with economic freedom, the loss of religious faith, and the growing equality of women. From this ruined future, Furley is transported back through a sibylline trance in the Witch's Cavern to witness nineteenth-century London and the forces Watson believed were already setting England on the path to ruin. The novel inverts the sleeper-awakes formula, with the protagonist encountering the catastrophe first and only then shown its causes.

The same year, an American edition was issued under the title The Witch's Cavern: A Realistic and Thrilling Picture of London Society, credited to "One Who Knows." The British first edition carries the phrase "two thousand" on the title page, seemingly indicating a second impression; however, according to L. W. Currey, no copies lacking this phrase have ever been located. An eight-page undated publisher's catalogue is inserted at the rear.

Hardcover. First Edition. Octavo, original bevel-edged blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, white endpapers with floral pattern printed in brown [LWC]. London: Trischler & Company, 1890. #11151.
Rubbing at spine ends and corners, binding is slightly shaken, but holding firm. Overall, very good for its age.