Shorthand - repeat call

[HeatherLynne]

The original poster Pendennis was last online on 4th May this year (if you click on a poster's name you can see various information about them including the date of their last visit to Rootschat).  Pendennis should receive a notification that this thread has been added to so they may reply soon.   

Heather

Edited to add:  am in awe of Stenog's skill at recognising and deciphering these old versions of shorthand, I always had enough trouble reading my own shorthand let alone anyone else's!

[stenog]

Well, another day lost to shorthand! The transcription is basically complete, and follows below.

Some editorial comments are in order: this type of shorthand is notoriously ambiguous (the same problems face readers of Pepys, a similar, but earlier, system). A particular bane for the modern reader is the confusion of `the' and 'thy'. Luckily in this case we are dealing with `hymns', so `thy' is actually rather easy to disambiguate.

Another characteristic of these shorthands is the complete lack of punctuation. I have liberally punctuated the transcription, which includes quotation marks where I think they are needed. Feel free to disagree.

One complete line (1v.c1.03) has eluded me, as have five other individual outlines. I provide the consonantal skeleton as far as I can work it out in <angle brakets>. Crossword gurus might be able to make something of them. Anyone interested in the shorthand system per se can find a copy of Gurney's Brachygraphy at archive.org (http://archive.org/details/brachygraphyorea00gurniala). Our diarist departs from the published system in a number of easily spotted ways.

Finally `Hymn 2' and `Hymn 3' have what look like dedicatory names attached to them. Hymn 2 is possibly to a `Wm ______' (William ____), and Hymn 3 appears to be to a `_____ Doderidge'. Don't know if those names make sense to the OP's genealogy.

Anyway, here's what she wrote, by page (1v or 2r), column (c1 or c2) and line (01...):

1v.c1.01        3
1v.c1.02        On to Grace, how great a debtor
1v.c1.03        <D-L>  < ... >  Lord  <R-S-S>
1v.c1.04        Let Thy Grace, Lord, like a fetter,
1v.c1.05        Bind my wandering heart to Thee!
1v.c1.06        Pain to wander, Lord, I feel it,
1v.c1.07        Pain to leave the God I love.
1v.c1.08        Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it!
1v.c1.09        Seal it from Thy <C-W-T-S> above!
====================================

1v.c2.01        Hymn 2. Wm. ________
1v.c2.02        From all that dwell below the skies
1v.c2.03        Let the Creator's praise arise!
1v.c2.04        Let the Redeemer's name be sung
1v.c2.05        Through every land, by every tongue:
1v.c2.06       "Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord,
1v.c2.07       "Eternal Truth attends Thy Word!"
1v.c2.08        Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore
1v.c2.09       'Til suns shall rise and set no more.
======================================

2r.c1.01        Hymn 3. ________ Doderidge
2r.c1.02        Ye hearts with youthful vigour warm,
2r.c1.03         In smiling crowds draw near,
2r.c1.04        And turn from every mortal charm,
2r.c1.05        A Saviour's voice to hear!

2r.c1.06        2.
2r.c1.07        He, Lord God of all the world, on high,
2r.c1.08        Stoops to converse with you,
2r.c1.09        And lays His radiant glories by,
2r.c1.10        Your friendship to pursue:


2r.c2.01        3.
2r.c1.02       "The soul that longs to see My face
2r.c1.03       "Is sure My love to gain,
2r.c1.04       "And those that ever seek My Grace
2r.c1.05       "Shall never seek in vain."

2r.c2.06        4.
2r.c2.07        What object, Lord, my soul should move,
2r.c2.08        If <B-?> compared with Thee?
2r.c2.09        What beauty should command my love,
2r.c2.10        Like what in Christ I see?

2r.c2.11        5.
2r.c2.12        Away! Ye false delusive toys,
2r.c2.13        Vain tempters of the mind!
2r.c2.14        To here I fix my lasting choice;
2r.c2.15        Fro' here true bliss I find.
=======================================

Some quite pretty rhymng.

Sean.

!!!Edit: updated with Wiggy's `Saviour's reading in Hymn 3.
!!!Edit: corrected typo: for `pain the' read `pain to' (1v.c1.07)

[HeatherLynne]

Well done indeed!  I hope Pendennis sees this soon 

Heather

[Wiggy]

Well done stenog!!     

Could the last line of hymn 3 verse one be 'Saviour's' maybe??    Not translating - just guessing from what you've already done?

Wiggy   

[stenog]

...
Could the last line of hymn 3 verse one be 'Saviour's' maybe??    Not translating - just guessing from what you've already done?

Nice! Looking at the shorthand outline again, a very strong case can be made for <S-V-W-R-S>. V and P (and R and L) differ in how much of an apex they have. I read them as fairly rounded, but the outline is one of the more cramped on the page, and I can easily see how I could have mis-read it. The little squiggly circle in the middle, my -W-, is the diarist's sign for -ou- and -ow-, so Saviour's fits perfectly.

Good call Wiggy. Saviour's it is. I've modified the original post with your correction.

Thanks

S.

[Penndennis]

I had completely given up any hope of getting this sorted out, so I am immensely grateful to stenog (and the rest for the suggestions.)  I only have another half dozen pages to go!!

My mum, who passed the book on to me is delighted that we now know what it is, but disappointed that it is not, as had been speculated, the true thoughts of a dominated wife!!

Thanks again.

[Wiggy]

Well done stenog - amazing tenacity shown there!!


Having read through those verses again, I know the first one  - somewhere deep in my memory is the word that is missing from the last line of the first verse.     It will surface . . . . . some day!!!

Couldn't be 'throne' could it??     1v.c1.09

Wiggy 

[Penndennis]

How about 'courts' rather than 'throne'?  Seems to match the letters from stenog.

[Mike in Cumbria]

O to grace how great a debtor
 Daily I’m constrained to be!
 Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
 Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
 Prone to leave the God I love;
 Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
 Seal it for Thy courts above.


It is verse 4 of "come thy fount of every blessing" by Ro­bert Ro­bin­son, 1758.
It  ap­peared in his"  A Col­lect­ion of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel Al­ley, Bi­shop­gate, 1759.

(Google search!)

Mike