short-hand systems of "Pitman," "Odell," and "Harding," but
without avail; and eventually Mr. Gurney Archer, of 20, Abingdon Street,
Westminster (successor to the old-established and eminent firm of
Messrs. W. B. Gurney and Sons, who have been the short-hand writers to
the House of Lords from time immemorial), kindly transcribed the
short-hand notes, which referred to a speech relating to a cricket
match, a portion of which had already been written out in long-hand, as
above stated,--but there was not a word in the short-hand about Edwin
Drood!

So far, one portion of the mystery had been explained--not so the
sketches, which were still believed to contain the key to _The Mystery
of Edwin Drood_. As a _dernier ressort_, application was made to the
fountain-head--to Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., the famous illustrator of that
beautiful work. He received me most courteously, scrutinized the
document closely; we had a long chat about Edwin Drood generally, the
substance of which has been given in a previous chapter--but he admitted
that the sketches failed to give any solution of the mystery.

The document was subsequently sent by Mr. Kitton to Mrs. Perugini, who
at once replied that it had caused some merriment when she saw it again,
as she remembered it very well. It had been done by her brother, Mr.
Henry Fielding Dickens, when a young man living at home at Gad's
Hill--that the short-hand notes referred to his speech at a dinner after
one of the numerous cricket matches held there, and that the sketches
were rough portraits of some of the cricketers. The capital letters at
the side referred to a double acrostic. The heads of the speech had been
suggested by his father as being desirable to be brought before the
cricket club, which at that time was in a rather drooping condition.

Now although the original theory about this curious document entirely
broke down, and not an atom has been added to what was already known
about _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, still there is one subject of much
interest which the document has brought to light. The short-hand is the
same system, "Gurney's," as that which Charles Dickens wrote as a
reporter in his early newspaper days--a system not generally used now,
but which he subsequently taught his son to write. Of the many sheets
which Dickens covered with notes in days gone by not one remains. But
there are two manuscripts by Dickens in Gurney's system of short-hand,
now in the Dyce and Forste