OLD LETTERS.
There were always two divisions of handwriting: the formal hand,
employed for clerk’s work, and a freer, less mechanical, less careful
style, used for private correspondence. Writing was a profession, and,
as late as the sixteenth century, when it was necessary to communicate
with persons at a distance, a professional scribe was employed to
write the letter. Even now in slums may be seen the notice of ‘Letters
written here,’ though this chiefly refers to it being a shop address
to which letters may be directed. But letter-writing was rare, and did
not become general till after the sixteenth century; even then it was
restricted to the upper classes of society. I have in Chapter IV. given
a brief account of the paper used in England. Letter or post paper was
made of a square uniform sheet, folded; it was known as ‘Pot paper,’
from its water-mark. This varied slightly, the jug or water-pot being
much more elaborate in some examples. It came principally from abroad,
either the Low Countries or Germany; each separate factory very likely
adopted a distinct shape; the makers’ initials are to be found upon the
band across the pot, but are difficult to read, nor so far as I know is
anything known about the manufacturers or their names.
[Illustration: (1561) (1563) (1623)]
The three above marks are taken from some old letters, and are good
types of their kind; a more careful study of water-marks would show the
dates of undated papers, and be a safeguard against forgery.
The writing of old letters I have placed after the chapter on
registers, because the latter forms a link between the clerical and
personal handwritings. The letters have changed entirely from the
old black-letter style to a similar style, like that still in use in
Germany, and assuming a distinct character.
[Illustration: SOME QUAINT LETTERS FROM OLD PARISH REGISTERS.]
Therefore, not only was the material for letter-writing (_i.e._,
paper) of foreign manufacture, but also the handwriting bore close
resemblance to foreign styles. This may have resulted from the original
Anglo-Saxon element in the nationality of the people, aided by the
constant immigration of merchants from the Low Countries, who came
over to England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and
established various branches of trade, chiefly in linen or woollen
goods. They naturally introduced also the fashions and customs of
their own nations. Added to this was the marriage of the King, Richard
II., with the German Princess Anne of Bohemia, followed closely by
the religious zeal of the Reformers, bringing Germans and German
ideas strongly to the fore in English politics. The earliest printers
were German, and about the time of this invention the small letter e
written backwards first came into use. Family deeds are usually only
legal matter, but here and there are found among them old letters
and papers of value. Lifelong imprisonment was often the result of
a thoughtless committal of ideas into tangible form. Letters were
dangerous witnesses, and as such were destroyed as soon as read. The
posts and messengers were not safe from inspection; spies were employed
freely on all sides, and men, not afraid to suffer for their opinions,
nevertheless did not care to risk their necks by needless imprudence.
The earliest newspapers had a blank column left to be filled by the
sender with the latest intelligence or local news. These were fitly
called ‘News letters.’ The phraseology of a seventeenth-century letter
seems to us strange on account of the conjugation of the verbs, the
use of ‘hath’ in place of ‘has,’ and the absence of all unnecessary
adverbs; the sentences, too, are longer. The commencing words and the
final winding up of letters have both changed in the past two hundred
years.
With the eighteenth century we see these changes gradually settling
down and altering into the modern forms. The old English y^e for ‘the,’
and the abbreviated & for ‘and,’ and the (symbol) (d) written in its
antiquated shape, still remain, but the German letters by degrees are
given up.
The writing of each generation is most distinctly marked; the dates
from it may be approximately fixed without any difficulty, as well as
the age and character of the writer.
It has been said that the introduction of cheap postage, and the
immense increase of everyday correspondence, has ruined handwriting,
while the typewriter is quickly becoming universal, and banished
for ever the art of composition. True, the short letters of to-day
will not bear comparison with the neat, voluminous diary-letters,
full of graphic scenic descriptions, which our grandparents were
wont to compile for the benefit of relations left at home; now,
when similar correspondence is undertaken, it is copied out by the
typewriter or printed, for few people will take the trouble to read
manuscript compositions. Looking beyond the opening years of the
nineteenth century, we see a marked paucity of ideas and carelessness
of calligraphy in the correspondence. In the seventeenth century men
were the chief correspondents on matters of business; few letters are
preserved except on such topics, which is a pity, for a letter must
always be a unique production, the best evidence procurable of the
writer and his times.
There is little to be said on the subject of old letters. Practice in
reading them makes the lettering familiar, and gives facility which no
guidebook could explain; letters, both ancient and modern, will assume
a new interest when the little trifling, characteristic peculiarities
of the writer are examined by their aid. Old receipts, expense-books,
and farm accounts are found in plenty among old papers. These are
valuable as giving long-lost field-names and other details of parochial
history; but what we should prize now would be descriptions of people
and places as they existed some hundreds of years ago.
[Illustration]