Key letters: the Secretary Hand e and s

If you can develop the ability to read two particular Secretary Hand letters, the e and the s, without thinking, you will have taken a huge step in Early Modern Scottish palaeography. This is because the letters e and s are the most frequently used vowel and consonant, respectively, in English and Scots.

Secretary Hand 'e's look a bit like the Greek letter theta:𝛉. Once the brain of a palaeographer begins to recognize the Secretary Hand e, without having to stop and think, or r𝛉f𝛉r to a k𝛉y, his or h𝛉r r𝛉ading sp𝛉𝛉d incr𝛉as𝛉s mark𝛉dly, if only b𝛉caus𝛉, the l𝛉tt𝛉r 𝛉 is th𝛉 most commonly us𝛉d vow𝛉l in Scots docum𝛉nts.

Here are some examples of Secretary Hand e from 17th century Scottish documents.

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The letter s in Secretary Hand comes in two forms: the long s, which descends below the line:

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and the short s:

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There was a tendency to use the long s when starting words, and the short s when finishing words: as in the word scandalous below.

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