Shorthand - can you help decipher?

[mare]

... with your help Deb  perhaps it is the name of a town then Motor Hotel? 

Ian assumes it is in English, and hopefully someone can throw some light on a few words but I'm lost! As others have said, anyone using shorthand often developed their own shortform style though also as Greensleeves mentioned the vowels are there but no lines or light and heavy strokes.

[c-side]

I think it's Water Hotel too - did they have Motor hotels in 1876?

Also, if the rest of the notebook is in longhand English them I assume that this is also in English.  The shorthand itself could be of German origin, though.

Christine

[AMBLY]

Bridge Water Hotel??

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/manning/pn/B/b25.htm

"Bridgewater
In Adelaide it was a subdivision of sections.........It is now included in Birkenhead and was laid out by Alfred Watts (1814-c.1885) in 1855 - The Register of 6 February 1856 at page 4b claimed it to be:
The nearest high ground to the Port, [it] possesses an unlimited supply of fresh water [and is] in close proximity to the railway station.  .......Another interesting fact is that James Addison called the local hotel "Bridgewater'', four years before the town was laid out.'....."

And the Hotel certainley seemed to still be going well past the 1870's and into the 1890's-1900's?
http://collection.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/CollectionOnline/detail.jsp?ecatKey=626

Cheers
AMBLY

[cando]

If you read the Manning Index info you will see it refers to two separate entries....one for the subdivision of Port Adelaide and the other for the town in the Adelaide Hills....miles away.    I am quite familiar with the town in the Adelaide Hills and the pub.
http://www.postcards.sa.com.au/features/bridgewater_host.html

Like many others, I also learned and used Pitman's Shorthand and used it in the workplace until 12 years ago.  Absolutely lost with these pages however.

Cheers
Cando

[mare]

Can see Bridge Water Hotel quite clearly with the suggestion just as I did with the Mrs Robinson Ian had already given 

I think it's Water Hotel too - did they have Motor hotels in 1876?

Also, if the rest of the notebook is in longhand English them I assume that this is also in English. The shorthand itself could be of German origin, though.

Christine

Wasn't exactly engaging my brain there in my rush was I 

Best of luck with any further info Ian

  mare

[Anny]

Hi Yelkcub. don't know if this is any help but I learned a form of shorthand here in Australia called Dacomb which is quite similar to Pitman but much more basic.  The symbols do look very familiar but it has been about 40 years since I used it.  If you could get hold of a Dacomb reference book from the library it might help you to decipher it.  Lots of luck.

Anny

[yelkcub]

I was amazed, when I logged on after breakfast, to see so many postings - thanks to all who have contributed, for your interest and ideas, and for the offers to pass on the image for others to puzzle over.
A very kind person in Australia (also related distantly to James Page, author of the notebook) was kind enough to send me a mass of material, without which I would not have been able to find out so much about his life. She tells me that the pages of shorthand come immediately after a page containing two drawings, uncaptioned - one shows two koalas up a tree, and the other shows a couple of settlers' cottages. Appaently James was in the habit of making trips into the country round Adelaide - around this time he moved out to Mitcham in the hills. I think you are right - the longhand writing is Bridge Water Hotel - I had already deciphered Mrs Robinson.
Whether the writing is in English - I have no way of knowing, though I would have thought it likely. Interesting poing - if he had wanted to keep the contents of this note secret, he could simply have written in one of his other languages: his obits mention that he knew several. James was, among other things, a consular representative for France and Switzerland.

As far as I can make out from a quick Google - Dacomb shorthand was later than 1876, its inventor born in 1863. The Wiki article on shorthand mentions a German 'Gabelsberger' system from 1834 ...

Again, so many thanks to all for your interest - and for continuing to spread the image among those who might hold the key
Ian

[Peonie]

Hi Yelkcub,

you might be right about it being written in another language - French perhaps. Have a look at

www.steno.ch/htm/141.htm

I don't think it is Gabelsberger.

Peonie

[cornishpasty]

Samuel Pepys' (17th century) shorthand notes contain some of the strokes used by James Page, that have been puzzling me.   Pepys' unusual shorthand is often called a "secret code", but in fact was his own version of an existing system called the Shelton shorthand.  His diary was only transcribed in the 19th century.  Let's hope it doesn't take 2 centuries to unravel your mystery, Yelkcub.

Have a look at the following website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/famouspeople/teachers/worksheets/pepys01.shtml

This website, too, is interesting - read "The Code".
http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/bookresources/p/prpepysdiary.htm

Maybe James Page did the same thing?  Who knows, but I am determined to crack his "code".

CP