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A, ha,/Ll' . ,*inin/ c**yiatit* ;i lrrtl *,r*il,/,y e€yj,\s ahrwthrrsl,u,Jt is tyrn t0 a,n!/w wl,w hat an m,twtst ingoo/t o+ l+wnfuwLii rg,"ww im,ftrttt fir nws ww sr|y'' Lw)/nwwrwn'6 "SitjZn){r,.q>, iw h.arwd'r di,rg, -Tor tcn o'l,wn a, wd, -f r rh. 6 e,r 6', ryi ry t/'vr' .-yi h -\\l--, _.-- lu'stnt wL at] c6 lU arn' d 7 o Ufg /a'y lrg. -Qgcrr^\--r 4,wi't't t*I-!$;>) =/ --*+9 -A, gwytr /rifu ta ltnl'k lHnnlnwimg' by nwrnbrV{ruvE f_-.*r9t!-/t- 'a-a,wi,labk , 'llinws 7wr*ar'lw J*oU nolo'50, imol'ud,i,rg ' L/a"kl,?A ,il.n*Oos t//. -fbntta,Jc 4tt'*fs,inchdrhgV 9u,bsr,ri,rd'wILatw Ailwlts'/tb us. 22, ( umdtr rS),.{A * us .f e'i "tN@" T $ lMors fury*n&dwa,tt4rna,U, fzo tr us -9*o ea- ).\ -l-IHE lREEor t7t(NowLEDqL -A'yyAcailoru/orrru - ,),{n*c, Issue 34 September 2008 ISSN 1468-9537 yl"d.d,rcss' Edited by Nicholas Caulkin 203 Dyas Avenue, Great Barr, Birmingham B42 lHN, England r-Trl, .YryMLL, ?Lea'c tnolzc c/uqL6 po'ydhlz lo 'fl,w 5 rH ' arwl' ssnl' fi : .-2 I'ttclul.A Crurl,hi4L,5n; zo3 \as An.,lnor\um B'h'un a+z ruu Contributors A Word from the New Chair: Foster Neville TheJollowing people have contributed to this edition: - Wilfrid Blunt, Richard Bradley, Ken Brookfield, Fred Many of you will know Wilfrid Blunt's book Sueet Roman Eager, Betty Eskenazi, Alfred Fairbank. Holly Kirkwood, Hand, its title taken from Tuelfih Night. I saw a Kathy Lacy, Foster Neville, nickthenibs, Reg Nutting, Paul production of Shakespeare's play this summer. On the Standard & Martin and Lola Taylor. line "I think we do know the sweet Roman hand", the actor - with a suitably theatrical flourish - produced a page, not of Italic but of...Copperplate! Square by Thomas Clowes Over the past few weeks, together with our Secretary Nick, I have been selecting material which might appear on the Society's new website. Old SIH Bulletins and Journals are a rich source of information not available elsewhere. In particular there are a number of historical articles we hope to make accessible to members online. The substitution of Copperplate for Italic in Ttelfih Night is perhaps inevitable in an age when communication is almost exclusively by mobile 'phone, text message or email. I imagine most twenty-first century theatre audiences would regard fine writing as something either unattainable or unsuitable for everyday use. The difference between the Roman hand (as Italic was known in England in this period) and Copperplate now regarded as specialist knowledge. In 1987 the piece set for the Society's Handwriting Competition was a paragraph from Alec Guinness' Blessings in Disguise, where he describes his correspondence with Sir Sydney Cockerell, and makes referece to Cockerell's Italic hand and his encouragement (via a gift of Patrick Barry's Handutriting Sheets) that Guinness sl^culd improve his hand. (Incidentally, if you're ()'I'he SocictyJor Italic Handwritir,g 2008 wondering, the winning entry that year was penned by CopS,rioht r: hcl,! h,y the Sll! rirh thc riylhts assigned to the original authors. one Nicholas Caulkin). The riexs antl oytnions cxprcsscrl urc thosc 1l thc outhors and not necessorily oJ'the SIH I'ront t,tvcnlcrt<1tvrl hS, nichtltcnibs 'fhe Sll! t: a rcet.stcrc,l tltortty nunhu lli7889R Revcnue numher X99153A 24 published Viett'ts of The Editor of the old Butletin HeNn Foxrs the form of short extracts from Handwiting These took I have produced to date fiction and non-fiction), which mentioned Here are the hand fonts that books {both Kettlewell. I draw them, he digitises them for handwriting. A contemporary example from 1959 was with David John Updike's novel The Poorhouse Fair. This featured a type! with a "somewhat studied Italic hand"' (Studied character be made into or not he managed to 'scribble'in it, which seems quite an This shows that good handwriting can Perhaps readers of Writtng achievement to me). The narrator of The Poorhouse Fair computer fonts if you know how! just enjoying writing with pen and seems to hold the same opinion as found in the following Matiers will be better lines from Hamlet (ActV, ii): paper; it is far less stressful! I once did hold it, as our statists do, I appreciate all you do for the Society and your excellent A baseness to write fair... work for Writing Mqtters. was news' The In 1959 of course, ltalic handwriting Richard Bradley, Gosport, Honts., England Society was reviving a tradition of fine writing in England' Many writers have favoured the 'sweet Roman hand' for use themselves. To readers of the old Journals, the names Fon Snt-s of antiquary John Leland (1506 - 1552) and the dramatist We have some old Journals and Bultelins to disPose of, and scholai Nicolas Udall (1505 = 1556) might be familiar' namely: John Cheke (1514 - 1557) and Roger Ascham (1515 - 1568) are other notable sixteenth century exponents of The Bulletin of the SIH, Nos. 4 - 16 (excluding No. 9), 1983 - Italic. What these people had in common was that they 1989 lived in a letter-writing age, when the Italic hand was The Journal of the SIH, Nos. 99 - 122 (excluding i10), used, for example, for diplomatic correspondence' Summer 1979 - 1998 Ascham was letter-writer to Cambridge University' The Netusletter of the S/H, .l{o. -7, Spring 1991 I wonder if members have discovered their own examples All Journals and Bultetins are in good condition and in need of the Italic hand figuring in other works' Perhaps Views of a good home. of Handtaiting could appear in Witing Matlers' These are our contact details: Someone who corresponded with Alec Guinness was 1 Towneley Road West, Longridge, Lancashire PR3 3AB Dodie Smith, the author of I Capture the Castle and 701 Phone: O1772-784444 Dalmations. In Valerie Grove's 1996 biography of the Email; pqnrnandirect@supanet. com writer, Dear Dodie, adopting the Italic hand is shown as a in pleasant pastime, like taking up the piano or painting, Lola LMartin Taylor, Longridgc, Lancashire, England 1950s England. Instead Dodie opted for italic calligraphy. Hours each day were spent on improving her Sign of the Tines: hand and she kept detailed notebooks of her \r progress for the next four years: .I thought I r our uorresPc,ndence had set my way of making ascenders with a kick to the right, so - h" k, I, b - but on this page I seem to be making the tops dead Srrpure PENs - AcRIN straight.' I recently visited Florence where I saw a pen and stationery shop with a couple of Stipula pens in the window! No, it (The author is let down by her typesetter, who wasn't, "Hurrah! IVe found one!" The price was €268. Even presumably had no italic type with that characteristic I didn't have the nerve to go in and ask if a) they had any kick to the right. So, ironically, the 'tops'or ascenders on left handed italic versions and b) could I try them out. My the printed page become straight too.) Italian was not really up to a discussion on the subject when I had no intention of buying one at that price. Pity, I In fact her handwriting, already neat and rather wish I had. legible, became 'astonishingly'fine, and the Swan calligraphic pen became her favourite. When I visited Art in Action in July, there was a pen stand Sir Ambrose (Heal), a collector of italic with Piero of Reading, the Artisan pen makers, who make manuscripts, gave advice. pens in all sorts of beautiful wooden barrels. I indulged in a Cocobolo wooden one with an Italic nib. It was supposed Oddly Smith seems to have drafted her letters in Italic to be a fine nib but'was more of a medium. The nib is quite and then had them typed up by her husband, Alec. firm but the ink flow is good and writes smoothly. Kathy Lacy, Farningham, Kent, England This is a five times reduction of SN d6 q ry4asdtn & ta,nilq nr. n,1 Nfi Dif: fla i,,a*h ;N r,r( E l ttu.a 1t w ii,^i. k ilr ttuIh4 U.I,U the letter to the readers'stories q1;.u tua tua -tmr.,l tu tu 7. lu cU fit e?. ,4 dis^n a 4ry + tk tbd.t tita. page of a Scandinavian htud ft b.atel'e't r Na^6t.-t1 tu lql.L.a ^d. Fryl.lq,a &!,rlrirtdM@t brdhtul6i firL.r6l.,F,-aUi * cai: n' magazine, as printed earlier this year.