Fashions in handwriting

This post is a change from a book review. I have not been spending as much time reading recently, because I have embarked on a voyage of discovery. From the comfort of my home I can explore the past. Have you guessed? I am researching the family history of various branches, particularly my mother’s maternal line and both lines of my mother-in-law. I have made more progress with the latter as people had more varied and less usual names.

I like to look at the original transcriptions of census records. Enumerators copied the information from the forms filled in by heads of households. Some of the writing is almost indecipherable. Typed transcriptions are available. Often some of the details have been omitted or incorrectly transcribed.

An example of my earlier handwriting. Notice how upper case T and I were written.

At school I was taught cursive writing. I didn’t find it easy to write neatly using this style. I held my pen too tightly and tried to write too quickly. In my teens I changed to italic script. However, many of the records are written in the style I was taught. Some capital letters are quite different from most of the fonts we are familiar with today.

An older style of writing was copperplate. It is a very even form of joined-up writing. Many historical documents were written in copperplate.

I have managed to deduce what some of the indecipherable words were by looking at census records for the same families at different times. What I jotted down as ‘Renul Maker’ turned out to be Pencil Maker. Pencil-making was an important industry in the Lake District. There is a pencil museum in Keswick, where the history of he local industry is presented.

But back to fashions in handwriting. By the time my children were learning to write, the style chosen was much rounder than earlier generations had been taught.

Styles of handwriting are also different from one country to another. In the past I used to correspond with pen-friends in France and Germany. Their style of writing was different from that taught in English schools. Where our n and m had arches theirs had gullies like our u.

How were you taught to write? Do you still use the same style of writing?

Two books about the countryside

Before I read the books about trees, I had just finished reading The Women’s Land Army by V. Sackville-West. My mother was a land-girl during WW2. Although I must have seen the book many times on her shelves, I had not opened it before it came into my possession. The author, Vita Sackville-West, was an aristocratic woman with knowledge of the countryside and gardening. She wrote many books – fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

The Women’s Land Army includes many photographs and anecdotes collected by the author from land-girls. The Women’s Timber Corps was also included in this book, although it does not appear in the title. In 2008 when the UK government decided to recognise the contribution of those who had served in The Women’s Land Army and The Women’s Timber Corps with badges and certificates, the two titles were used. I found the book very interesting, being able to compare the experiences of other women with the tales I heard over the years. It is well written in the language of the time and reflects the social structure of wartime Britain and the contemporary culture.

It was published in 1944 and contains many statistics. The list of possible occupations for women leaving the Land Army as the male farm labourers returned to their homes and work was particularly interesting. Nowadays a wider range of occupations is available to women. Nursing was included; my mother trained to be a nurse. All proceeds from the sale of the book went to the Women’s Land Army Benevolent Fund. It was published by Michael Joseph ‘under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries’. There was also a statement about compliance with wartime economy standards. Materials for book production were in short supply like everything else.

The second book was one I borrowed with the two books about trees mentioned in a recent post. It was related to the book about the Land Army as the farming methods, which had been introduced as a result of WW2 had led to a decline in the wildlife in the countryside. Wilding – The return of nature to a British Farm by Isabella Tree is the story of how she and her husband, Charles Burrell, allowed and encouraged wildlife to return to his family farm (Knepp) in Sussex, which had become unprofitable due to industrial farming practices.

It is a fascinating book with photographs illustrating the text. There is a wealth of information about agriculture and animal husbandry as well as the personal story of how rewilding a site was not always straightforward. There were regulations to follow and neighbours to pacify! There are literary quotes as well as a timeline from 12^th century to 2019, a map of the land in its local context and an index.

The story of how a board of advisors for the project was set up and of places overseas with relevance to this project is fascinating. Explanations of the loss of habitat for birds, which were common around seventy years ago are sobering. The discussion of the pros and cons of reintroduction of some animals, which prey on others, is very interesting. There is a list of all the sources of information for each chapter and another bibliography lists many books about nature.

Wilding represents a huge amount of research and record-keeping. This book won the Richard Jeffries Society/White Horse Bookshop award for Nature Writing 2018. It also gained a special commendation from the judges of the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize in 2019, which was won by Robert Macfarlane’s Underland.

You may be interested to learn that the lady who guided the wildflower walk I wrote about on Sue’s words and pictures had recently returned from a visit to Knepp, where tourism is one of the ways the farm has diversified.

Another surprising connection is that the old castle at the farm was built by William de Braose in the 12^th century. A historical novel I reviewed recently has a member of the de Braose family as its main character.

Dramatic monologue paint chip poetry prompt

Linda Kruschke’s paint chip poetry challenge can be found here with a definition of dramatic monologue and the paint chip colours as well as her poem.

This week we are in the D section of the dictionary and I’ve decided to challenge you all to write dramatic monologue…

…You may decide who your speaker will be first, and then figure out what they will say using the paint chip words and phrases. Or perhaps the paint chips will help you decide who your speaker will be. It’s up to you. Please title your poem “____________ Speaks.” And please include at least four of these words and phrases in your dramatic monologue: bluebird, Earl Grey, pearl, mountain town, baby sweater, rain forest, and cello.

Earl Grey speaks

In my home county of Northumberland
My family was thought rather grand.
The countryside has grandeur too
With miles of hills to ride or drive through.

My upbringing was highly privileged
Our dinner services were gold-edged.
Our entertainment was high class
Strings, like cello, rather than brass.

In parliament I sought to serve.
The Tories thought I had a nerve.
The pearl of great price I strived for,
Was that folk would be slaves no more.

It seemed completely out of order
That folk from outside our border,
From mountain town or rain forest
Should have to follow our behest.

I also wanted more people to vote.
This reform was something of note.
But people mostly know the tea
That was oddly named after me.

Facts about the former Prime Minister, Earl Grey were found here.