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:๐. Once the brain of a palaeographer begins to recognize the Secretary Hand e, without having to stop and think, or r๐f๐r to a k๐y, his or h๐r r๐ading sp๐๐d incr๐as๐s mark๐dly, if only b๐caus๐, the l๐tt๐r ๐ is th๐ most commonly us๐d vow๐l in Scots docum๐nts.
Here are some examples of Secretary Hand e from 17th century Scottish documents.
The letter s in Secretary Hand comes in two forms: the long s, which descends below the line:
and the short s:
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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