Relief printing for the blind is a subject beset with difficulty. In every country where books are embossed for the blind there are two or three different alphabets. There are systems in which dots and lines and abbreviations take the place of letters; and there are systems where the alphabet is enlarged and modified to suit the requirements of a person who is going to read with fingers instead of eyes. The number of books printed in relief is very small; and the result of using several systems is that a blind reader finds that four out of five of the very small number embossed are unintelligible. He can read Moon or Lucas or Braille, but Frere and Howe and Alston and a host of others he cannot decipher. Bessie spent much time upon the subject of relief printing, and could read nearly everything printed for the blind. She thought that Braille's was in itself the best system, but that Moon's was the only one really useful to adults, more especially to those whose hands have been hardened by labour. All except Moon's system must be acquired by the young and sensitive fingers of a child. Bessie would have liked to see the systems narrowed down to two, if not to one; but she found, as many others have done, that it was impossible to obtain unanimity on this point, as too many interests are involved in it. She made no progress in the matter, and put it on one side.
On the 7th of July the diary tells us she was at the Repository giving advice to "Martha."
Talked much to Martha about her proposed marriage. Told her to ask if her intended husband would wish to go to Mr. Dixon on account of his near sight, saying that if this stood in the way of his getting something to do, and Mr. Dixon thought spectacles would help, he should have them.... L. sent me papa's motto, "The fear of God and no other." I had asked him to have it printed for the boarding-house.
In August of this year Bessie paid a visit to Miss Bathurst, who with her mother, Lady Caroline Bathurst, was then living at Stanmore. She met there Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave and Miss Butler. A friendship formed at that time with Miss Butler continued to the end of her life. She records the meeting in her diary, adding, "talked about the Association." Perhaps we should have been more surprised if she could have recorded that she talked about anything else.