ABSTRACT
In addition to his active political career, Charles Stanhope endeavoured to increase knowledge in many fields. Amongst his papers in the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, is a draft of a letter dated August 1803 from Andrew Wilson, proprietor of the 'Stereotype Office' in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, which had been recently established to develop stereotype printing for commercial use. Stanhope presumably was attracted to the idea that Baldwin's scheme would allow music to be typeset by the same compositors who set text, which would lower the cost of, and therefore increase the market for, printed music. Stanhope recognised that if letter-music were to have widespread appeal it could not be limited to expressing melodies such as those Baldwin had rendered into 'short hand'. One reason why Stanhope may have rejected the 1806 method was its inability to present diverse rhythms that occur simultaneously in a single part.
