[Artemisia] How are your deductive skills?

[Iohne MacDhaibhidh]

An initial gander at your friend's diary reveals that the writer appears to be using Shelton shorthand (Tachygraphy)...  The same system of shorthand that was used by Samuel Pepys in his diary.  A quick comparison of a page of of Pepys' diary that I found online reveals quite a few of the same symbols used in this diary.  It was a rather well known system of shorthand used at the time this diary was written.  Shelton's book has been republished, a copy of that should allow your friend to decode the writing.  Here's the information for it:
 
A Tutor to Tachygraphy, Or, Short-Writing; Tachygraphy
by Thomas Shelton
Editor: Robert Matthews 
Publisher: AMS Press; (January 1992) 
ISBN: 0404701450
 



Richard Samul <scascot at appleisp.net> wrote:
Greetings to the list.

I have a friend who lives in Australia, who is in possession of a 
family diary dating to that goes back to his great(x8)-grandfather 
Samuel Tavernor, who was governor of Deal Castle under Oliver Cromwell 
from 1653 until the Restoration in 1660. The provenance of the diary is 
interesting in itself, as his great-great-grandfather Bernard had to 
fight a protracted legal battle for an inheritance including 'ancient 
family relics', which probably included the diary. It cost him 900 
pounds, which was a lot of money in the 1850s, and would probably have 
ruined him if he'd lost. As it was, he had to borrow money from friends 
and acquaintances; they have a cancelled check from him repaying 25 
pounds lent to him by Charles Darwin.

The reason for this post is that there is some manner of shorthand on 
several of the pages, and he is wondering if anyone here could 
translate or decode it for him. A PDF scan of the diary can be found 
at: http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/work/richard.brent/pd/PTDiaryi.pdf

WARNING: This is an extremely large download, on the order of 10 MB. 
Don't try this unless you have high-speed internet, or a lot of 
patience.

If you are able to decode this, please feel free to email me directly, 
and I will pass it along to my friend. Even if you can't decode it, it 
does make for an interesting read.

-- 
Earc
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