PENMANSHIP AND LETTERS
_Ink alwais good store on right hand to stand
Brown paper for great haste or else box of sand.
Dip pen and shake pen and touch pen for haire
Wax, quills and penknife see alwais ye beare._
--_A New Book of Hands, 1650 circa._
In glancing over old school contracts it will be noted that in a
majority of cases the teacher is specified as a writing-master;
without doubt the chief requisite of a satisfactory teacher in
colonial days was that he should be a good teacher of penmanship.
We have seen in our own day distinct changes in the handwriting
of an entire generation; the colonists whose lives ended with the
seventeenth century had a characteristic handwriting which retained
certain elements of old English, even of mediæval script. It was a
handsome and dignified chirography and an impressive one, and was
usually easy to read. The writing of the first Pilgrim and Puritan
fathers was not over-good. Governor John Winthrop's was not much
better than Horace Greeley's. Bradford's we are familiar with
through the beautiful facsimiles of his _Relation_.
The first half of the succeeding century did not send forth such
good writers; nor did it send forth writers so universally; the
proportion of signatures to public documents by cross instead of
writing increased. Our grandparents and great-grandparents all wrote
well. In hundreds of century-old letters which I have examined an
ill-written letter is an exception. Children at the close of the
eighteenth century wrote beautifully rounded, clear, and uniform
hands, if we can judge from their copy-books. Little Anna Green
Winslow, writing in 1771, showed page after page in a hand far
better than that of most girls of her age to-day.
Claude Blanchard was commissary of supplies for the French army
which landed in Newport in 1780. He visited the Newport school and
gave this tribute to the scholars:--
"I saw the writing of these children, it appeared to me to be
handsome; among others that of a young girl nine or ten years
old, very pretty and very modest, and such as I would like my
own daughter to be when she is so old; she was called Abigail
Earle, as I perceived upon her copy-book, on which her name was
written. I wrote it myself, adding to it 'very pretty.'"
An "exhibition piece" is here given of the penmanship of Anne
Reynolds, a little girl of Norwich, Connecticut, who died shortly
after this "piece" was written.
Writing-masters were universally honored in every community. A part
of the funeral notice of one in Boston, who died in 1769, reads
thus:--
"Last Friday morning died Mr. Abiah Holbrook in this town. He
was looked upon by the best Judges as the Greatest Master of
the pen we ever had among us, of which he has left a beautiful
Demonstration."
This "beautiful demonstration" of his penmanship was a most
intricate piece of what was known as fine knotting, or knotwork. It
was said to be "written in all the known hands of Great Britain,"
and was valued at £100. It was bequeathed to Harvard College unless
it was bought by the Revolutionary patriot, John Hancock, who had
been one of Master Holbrook's pupils and, as we know from the fine
bold signature of his own name to the Declaration of Independence,
was a very creditable scholar.
[Illustration: Exhibition "Piece" of Anne Reynolds]
This work had occupied every moment of what Abiah Holbrook called
his "spare time" for seven years. As he had, in the year 1745, two
hundred and twenty scholars at one time in one school, his spare
time must have been very short. He and other writing-masters of the
Holbrook family left behind a still nobler demonstration than this
knotwork in the handwriting of their scholars--Boston ministers,
merchants, statesmen, and patriots--whose elegant penmanship really
formed a distinct style, and was known as "Boston Style of Writing."
The "hands of Great Britain" were many in number; among them Saxon,
Old Mss., Chancery, Gothic, Running Court, Exchequer, Pipe Office,
Engrossing, Running Secretary, Round Text, and the "Lettre Frisee,"
which was minutely and regularly zigzagged.
A well-known Boston writing-master was familiarly known as Johnny
Tileston. He was born in 1738 and taught till 1823, when he was
pensioned off. He was a rough-mannered old fellow; his chief address
to the scholars being the term, "You gnurly wretch." His ideal was
his own teacher, Master Proctor, and when late in life he saw a
scholar wipe his pen on a bit of cloth, he approached the desk,
lifted the rag and said, "What's this? Master Proctor had no such
thing." Tileston himself always wiped his pens with his little
finger and in turn dried his finger on his own white hairs under his
wig. An old spelling-book has these lines for a "writing-copy ":--
"X things a penman should have near at hand--
Paper, pomice, pen, ink, knife, horn, rule, plummet, wax, sand."
It will be noted that a penwiper is not upon the list.
[Illustration: Writing-master's Initial]
In olden times but one kind of a pen was used, one cut from a
goose-quill with the feathers left on the handle. The selection and
manufacture of these goose-quill pens was a matter of considerable
care in the beginning, and of constant watchfulness and "mending"
till the pen was worn out. One of the indispensable qualities of
a colonial schoolmaster was that he was a good pen maker and pen
mender. It often took the master and usher two hours to make the
pens for the school. Boys studied arithmetic at eleven years of age,
but were not allowed to make pens in school till they were twelve
years old.
Ink was not bought in convenient liquid form as at present; each
family, each person had to be an ink manufacturer. The favorite
method of ink-making was through the dissolving of ink-powder.
Liquid ink was but seldom seen for sale. In remote districts of
Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts, home-made ink, feeble and
pale, was made by steeping the bark of swamp-maple in water, boiling
the decoction till thick, and diluting it with copperas. Each child
brought to school an ink-bottle or ink-horn filled with the varying
fluid of domestic manufacture.
[Illustration: Writing of Abiah Holbrook]
A book called _The District School_, written as late as 1834, shows
the indifferent quality of the ink used. The writer complains that
the parents made a poor ink of vinegar, water, and ink-powder, which
the child could not use, and permitted to dry up while he borrowed
of the teacher. The inkstand is then "used at the evening meetings
as a candlestick." Other inkstands with good ink are seized and used
for the same purpose and the ink ruined with grease and nothing left
to write with when the teacher sets his scholars to work.
There are no remains of olden times that put us more closely in
touch with the men, women, and children who moved and lived in these
shadowy days than do the letters they wrote. Old James Howell said
over two centuries ago: "Letters are the Idea and the truest Miror
of the Mind; they shew the Inside of a Man." Certainly the most
imaginative mind must be touched with a sense of nearness to the
heart of the writer whose yellowed pages he unfolds and whose fading
words he deciphers. The roll of centuries cannot dim the power of
written words.
In the Prince Library, in Boston, are the manuscripts known under
the various titles of the _Mather Papers_, the _Cotton Papers_,
the _Torrey Papers_, etc. They are delightful to see and to read,
for the ink is still clear and black, the paper firm and good, the
letters well-formed, and the text breathes a spirit of kindness,
affection, and loving thoughtfulness that speaks of the beauty
of Puritan home life. Some of the letters are written by Puritan
women; and these letters are uniformly well spelt, well written,
and intelligent. Perhaps only intelligent women were taught to
write. These letters are on fine Dutch paper; there was no English
writing-paper till the time of William and Mary. They are carefully
folded with due regard to the etiquette of letter-folding, and
plainly and neatly addressed.
The letters are very tender and gentle; sometimes they are written
to children; they begin, "My deare Child"; "My Indear'd Sonn"; "To
my dearly loved Friend and Child." One ends, "With my Indeared Love,
committing thyself and thy duty and service to all our friends, and
to the protection of the Almighty, I am thine." A mother addresses
on the outside her letter to her son in these words, "To my very
good friend, These Present," etc. John Cotton addresses a letter
externally thus: "These, For the Reverend, his very deare Brother,
Mr. Increase Mather, Teacher of a Church at Boston, Present."
Sometimes the address ran, "Messenger present these to, etc." Hence
it may be seen that the word "Present" sometimes seen on modern
letters properly is the imperative verb Present. Occasionally the
words "Haste! post haste!" were seen, as on English letters, but I
have never seen the old postal inscription, "Haste! post, haste! on
your Life! on your Life!"
A very genuine and pleasing letter was written by John Quincy Adams
when he was nine years old to his father, President John Adams:--
"BRAINTREE, June the 2nd, 1777.
"DEAR SIR: I love to receive letters very well, much better than
I love to write them. I make but a poor figure at composition,
my head is much too fickle, my thoughts are running after bird's
eggs, play, and trifles till I get vexed with myself. I have but
just entered the 3rd vol of Smollett tho' I had design'd to have
got it half through by this time. I have determined this week
to be more diligent, as Mr. Thaxter will be absent at Court, &
I cannot persue my other studies. I have set myself a Stent &
determine to read the 3rd Volume Half out. If I can but keep
my resolution, I will write again at the end of the week and
give a better account of myself. I wish, Sir, you would give
me some instructions with regard to my time & advise me how to
proportion my Studies & my Play, in writing I will keep them by
me & endeavour to follow them. I am, dear Sir, with a present
determination of growing better yours. P.S. Sir, if you will be
so good as to favour me with a Blank Book, I will transcribe the
most remarkable occurrences I meet with in my reading which will
serve to fix them upon my mind."
We cannot wonder at the precision and elegance of the letter-writing
of our forbears, when we know the "painful" precepts of parents
in regard to their children's penmanship and composition. In the
letters written by Ephraim Williams, a plain New England farmer,
from his home in Stockbridge in the years 1749 _et seq._ to his son
Elijah, while the latter was in Princeton College, is shown the
respect felt for a good handwriting. Nearly every letter had some
such sentences as these:--
"I would intreet you to endeavour daily to Improve yourself in
writting and spelling; they are very ornimentall to a scholar
and the want of them is an exceeding great Blemish."
[Illustration: David Waite, Seven Years Old]
"I desire you would observe in your Wrighting to make proper
Distances between words; don't blend your words together use
your utmost endeavours to spell well; consult all Rules likely
to help you; Such words as require it allways begin with
a capitoll Letter, it will much Grace your wrighting. Try to
mend your hand in wrighting every day all Opportunities you can
possibly get. Observe strictly Gentlemen's meathod of wrighting
and superscribing, it may be of service to you: you can scarce
conceive what a vast disadvantage it will be to leave the
Colledg and not be able to write and spell well. Learn to write
a pretty fine Hand as you may have Ocation."
He urges him to study the spelling rules laid down in the _Youth's
Instructor in the English Tounge_, and tells him not to follow his
(the father's) writing for an example as he has "but common English
learning." He reproves, admonishes, and finally says Elijah's
sisters will prove better scholars than he is if he does not have a
care, which was a bitter taunt.
Major Dulany of Maryland wrote to his little daughter some very
intelligent advice, of which these lines are a portion:--
"In letter writing as in conversation it will be found that
those who substitute the design of distinguishing themselves
for that of giving pleasure to those whom they address must
ever fail. Having decided upon what is proper to be said
accustom yourself to express it in the best possible manner.
Always use the words that most exactly correspond with the
ideas you mean to express. There are fewer synonymous words in
our language than is generally supposed, as you will find in
looking over your Dictionary. It has been remembered upon as
a great excellence of Gen'l Washington's writings that no one
could substitute a single word which could so well express his
meaning. I have heard (whether it be true or not I cannot say)
that for seven years of his life he never wrote without having
his Dictionary before him."
The letters of Aaron Burr, written at a little later period to
his beloved daughter Theodosia, show as unvarying and incessant
pains to form perfection in letter-writing, as was displayed by
Lord Chesterfield in his letters to his son. When she was but
ten or twelve we find Burr giving her minute instruction as to
her penmanship; its size, shape, the formation of sentences, the
spelling, the exact use of synonyms. He sends her sentences bidding
her return them in a more elegant form, to translate them into
Latin. He exhorts her to study the meaning, use, and etymology of
every word in his letter. He has her keep for him a daily journal
written in a narrative style. Even when on trial for treason in 1808
he still instructed her, reproving her for her negligent failure to
acknowledge letters received. He commended her style, saying she had
energy and aptitude of expression; altogether I can fancy no rule
of correct epistolary conduct left unsaid by Burr to his daughter.
That he had a high opinion of her powers we cannot doubt; but the
specimens of her composition that exist show no great brilliancy or
originality.
As books multiplied after the Revolution, many letters were modelled
on effusions that had been seen and admired in print: this at a loss
of much naturalness and quaintness of expression. Letter-writing
guides formed the most pernicious influence. Miss Stoughton of East
Windsor inviting sprightly Nancy Williams of East Hartford to a gay
party began her note in this surprising way: "Worthy Lady."
Children (and grown people too) had a very reprehensible habit of
scribbling in their books. Of course each owner wrote his name, with
more or less elegance and accompanying flourishes, according to his
capacity. Some very valuable autographs have by this means been
preserved. A single title-page will often bear the names of several
owners. They also wrote various rhymes and sentiments, which might
be gathered under the head of title-page lore.
The most ancient rhyme I have seen is dated 1635 and is in an
ancient _Cocker's Arithmetic_:--
"John Greene (or Graves), his book
God give Him Grace theirein to look
Not oneley to look, but to Understand
That Larning is better than House or Land."
This rhyme is frequently seen, sometimes with the added lines:--
"When Land is Gone and Money Spent
Then Larning is most excellent.
If this you See
Remember Me."
Another rhyme is:--
"Steal not this Book for if You Do
The Devil will be after You.
Longer and more formal rhymes are found in the books of older
owners. Occasionally a child's book had a valentine sentiment, or a
riddle, or a drawing of hearts and darts; crude pictures of Indians
and horses are many. I have seldom found verses from the Bible or
religious sentiments written in childish hands. Whether this is the
result of profound respect or of indifference I cannot tell. As a
special example of book scribbling, one of historical interest is
given, a page of the famous "White Bible," which contains the entry,
much disputed of genealogical and historical societies, that John
Howland married Governor Carver's "grand-darter."
[Illustration: Page from "White" Bible]