Dunlop letters
This tutorial illustrates the process whereby someone's handwriting deteriorated after they had left the watchful eye of a writing master. Different scripts (Italic and Secretary Hand) become mixed up and the writing becomes untidy and idiosyncratic. The documents are taken from the Dunlop of Garnkirk papers, held by the Mitchell Library in Glasgow (Mitchell Library reference DC14/2) and are reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Mitchell Library.
They are all written by William Dunlop, a young man from a merchant family in Lanarkshire, who was sent to northern Europe to acquire a business education in the 1680s.