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Bookwise questions

Barbara Hall
Published: 12 June 2005
Can you name these people associated with handwriting? In which books do they appear and who are the authors?

1. In the 18th century, a rector wrote his daughters short, pithy letters in a straight hand, with the lines very close. Sometimes a whole letter was a mere scrap of paper. Later, Miss Jenkyns wrote on a modern, square sheet, her hand calculated to fill up each sheet. Then came the pride and delight of crossing. This younger daughter grew sadly puzzled, for her sister's words gathered size like snowballs and at the end "became quite sesquipedalian".

2. Commenting on the customs of small people in an unusual land, this visitor said: "Their manner of writing is very peculiar, being neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans, nor from right to left, like the Arabians; nor from up to down, like the Chinese; but aslant, from one

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