Sir 
Wilts Obituary. 213 
a paper started in 1849 in conjunction with Mr. A. J. Ellis, advocating 
phonetic spelling reform, expired within a year. In 1850 he published The 
Bible in phonetic spelling. The Phonographic Teacher, The Phonographic 
Reporter’s Companion (1846), The Vocabulary, The Phonographic 
Instructor —of which fifteen thousand copies were sold in 1852-3— 
The Manual, The Phrase Book, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Phonetic 
Reading Books contained the full development of the shorthand system 
begun in his earlier works. By 1862 one hundred and seventy thousand 
copies of The Manual, two hundred and eighty-five thousand of The 
Teacher, and twenty-five thousand of The Reporter had been issued. In 
1867 he published a large work, The Reporter's Assistant, the first edition 
of which was lithographed, the second printed. ‘“ Phonography”’ reached 
its seventeenth edition in 1888, and an immense number of standard works 
printed in shorthand were issued from the Phonetic Institute. In 1887 the 
Jubilee of Phonography was celebrated by a gathering of phonographers 
from all parts of the British Empire, and gold medals and a marble bust 
were presented to Mr. Pitman. In 1894, at the instance of Lord Roseberry, 
he received the honour of knighthood. He lived to see his system of 
shorthand in use by 95 per cent. of the reporters in the English-speaking 
world; whilst, on the other hand, the system of phonetic spelling which he 
so long laboured to advance—in spite of its advocacy by Professor Max 
Miiller and others—has made no practical impression. The Times (leading 
article and obit. notice, Jan. 23rd, 1897) says of him: “ His death closes a 
useful and unpretentious life. It may fairly be said of him that many a 
more famous man has done less good in his generation. He worked with 
remarkable success in an industrial bye-path of his own, and will be re- 
membered, not as the advocate of a futile attempt to change the spelling of 
our language, but as the ‘inventor of an admirable system of shorthand 
which has had a considerable though indirect influence on our newspapers 
and our politics.’’ ‘The single-minded earnestness with which Sir Isaac 
Pitman followed out his chosen course during a long and laborious life 
deserves all praise.’ A good sketch of his life and character, by T. A. Reed, 
appeared in the New-Church Mag., March, 1897: the same writer having 
published in 1890 “ A Biography of Isaac Pitman (Inventor of Phono- 
graphy), illustrated; London: Griffith, Farran, &c. ; cloth, post 8vo, pp. 
vii., 191; with two portraits and process of the bust by Brock. Portraits 
also appeared in the Idlustrated London News, January 30th, and Christian 
Herald, Feb. 4th; and full obit. notices in Times, Daily Chromicle, and 
Standard, Jan. 23rd, and Devizes Gazette, Jan. 28th, 1897. 
Thomas Fraser Grove, Bart. Died Jan. 14th, 1897. Buried at 
Berwick St. John. Son of Dr. John Grove, of Ferne, and the Wardrobe, 
in the Close, Salisbury, by Jean Helen, d. of Sir William Fraser, Bart. 
Born Nov. 27th, 1821. Joined Inniskilling Dragoons, 1842 ; Capt., 1847; 
retired, 1859. He was many years connected with the Wilts Yeomanry, 
joining as Cornet in 1852, becoming Honorary Lt.-Col. in 1881, and retiring 
in 1888. M.P. for South Wilts, 1865—1874, and for the Wilton Division, 
1885—1892. Succeeded to the Ferne estates on the death of his father in 
