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From Henry Pitman   24 April 1880

41, John Dalton Street, | Manchester.

Apl 24 1880.

From | Henry Pitman.

To Charles Darwin Esq

I am writing a series of papers on “Shorthand Writers of Renown”, specimens of which I send; & desiring to include your illustrious grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin.1 I venture to ask if you can afford me more information than I find on page 17 of your Notice in the book by Ernst Krause.2 You will see by the enclosed letter that I have tried elsewhere before troubling you.3 Can you oblige me with the loan of the letters, (or copies) written by Erasmus Darwin to Reimarus respecting shorthand?4

Yours truly | Henry Pitman.

1
The specimens have not been found, and the papers have not been identified. Pitman later included a section titled ‘Shorthand writers of renown’ in his essay ‘Spelling reform and phonography’; the first writer mentioned in this section was Erasmus Darwin (see Pitman 1890, pp. 252–5).
2
In Erasmus Darwin, p. 17, CD mentioned that, based on a passage in a letter from Erasmus Darwin to Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus, it appeared that Darwin had corresponded about shorthand writing with Thomas Gurney. Darwin had taken notes as a student in Gurney’s ‘brachygraphy’ course, and wrote a poem to Gurney that was published in the second and later editions of Gurney’s Brachygraphy: or short-writing (Gurney 1750); see Ritterbush 1962 for more on Darwin’s use of Gurney’s system). CD did not mention the poem to Gurney, but he may have received a later edition of Gurney 1750 from Reginald Darwin (see Correspondence vol. 27, letter from Reginald Darwin, 17 November 1879 and n. 1).
3
The enclosure has not been found.
4
CD possessed copies of six letters from Darwin to Reimarus (DAR 227.1: 12–13; see Correspondence vol. 25, letter to E. H. Sieveking, 11 December 1877 and n. 2). No mention of shorthand occurs, except for that which CD had already mentioned.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12589,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12589