Newcastle University

Manuals

Manuals providing templates for different forms of correspondence and offering instruction on how best to compose a letter first appeared in the late Sixteenth Century, given impetus by the growth of the business classes. The first English manual was William Fulwood's The Enimie of Idlenesse (1568). In 1586, Angel Day's influential The English Secretarie spoke of “Aptness, brevity & comeliness” as the key features of any good letter.¹ Day was a rhetorician - the first two parts of his manual were devoted to the rules and correct forms of letter writing; the third part focussed on grammar and formal language.

In 'Letter-writing instruction manuals in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England' (2007), Linda C. Mitchell describes two educational tools: grammar books and letter-writing manuals. Grammar books provided pupils from the rising classes with a useful foundation in basic literacy skills. Letter-writing manuals, on the other hand, were used by schoolmasters as vehicles for teaching grammar, rhetoric and composition; for preparing pupils for a vocation; and for instilling in pupils appropriate social conventions.²

Letter-writing manuals enjoyed particular popularity in the Nineteenth Century when good penmanship and literacy were taken as indicators of sound character and breeding. Typically, they contained a great number of model letters: The ladies' letter writer: consisting of letters in elegant and choice language, on friendship, courtship, love, and marriage; forms of cards and complimentary notes; directions for addressing persons of all ranks; and a plain and easy English grammar (Glasgow: John Cameron, [n.d.]) reflects the Victorian predilection for written communication, containing letters and responses such as 'From a Mother in Town to her Daughter at a Boarding-school in the Country, recommending the Practice of Virtue'; 'From a Lady to her Lover, who is ordered to join his Regiment'; 'From a Young Lady, requesting a loan of Music'; and 'A Lady's Maid applying for a Situation'. Correspondence was used for a wide range of situations, from soliciting work; to sending condolences; making, accepting and declining proposals of marriage; and encouraging moral conduct in children.