I remember doing cross writing for Air Mail letters in the 1950's. Air mail was distinct from and more expensive than first class mail. Low letter weight was crucial. We used a special envelope made of very light paper. The envelope came in an unfolded condition. We wrote on the inside using cross writing. The envelope was then folded and mailed.
From "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Chapter 16: So she brought the letter to the tablecloth under the lamp, and after she had thawed the ink bottle they all sat around the table thinking of last things to say while Ma wrote them down with her little red pen that had a mother-of-pearl handle shaped like a feather. When her neat, clear writing filled the paper she turned it and filled it again crosswise. On the other side of the paper she did the same thing so that every inch of paper held all the words that it possibly could. @@HemingwayJones
Steve Jobs talked about fonts in his famous Stanford U commencement speech. I worked for a Fire Captain he made every log entry a work of art. Different fonts beautifully written. RIP Cap.
I’ve known 2 variations of this writing, both not about directly sending letters. The first I saw it was when my grandmother (born 1912, farmer all her life) would need to write a quick note and the only paper at hand already had writing on it. She would write her notes across the already written page (often a letter). The second time I knew about it was from a journal in a friend’s family papers. When the author ran out of pages, he restarted at the beginning, writing in the 90deg rotation. From what I can remember, this was out on a remote homestead in the 19th century, where you weren’t getting more paper anytime soon. As for letter writing, I have a half memory of someone in my family writing a return letter to someone over the letter sent to them.
This looks very much like my handwriting. I am 77 and this is the style that was taught in my parochial elementary school in the Midwest. The cross writing is something that people in the Great Depression Era used bc you couldn’t afford to buy paper.
For anyone who isn't colorblind. A color blind person won't be able to see it and they are more common than those of us who can see all of the beautiful colors.😢
@@Faesharlyn I like the 3D glasses idea. My (unoriginal) thought was to place colored glass or cellophane over the letter to read the one color, filtering out the other.
My wife and I were watching The Pale Blue Eye on netflix and Christian Bale held up a journal with cross writing. I would not known of it without you sharing. Thank you!
I remember reading mss of early colonists in Hawaii who would pass on letters to relatives and make comments on the margins of letters. I don’t remember them writing over other writing but certainly filling up any blank margin space. And yes I’m sure they were happy to save money on postage. Happy new year. Aloha
You unlocked a memory! I learned this in high-school, one of our assignments was to send letters like this to our classmates and then see if they could read it
Hello HJ. This was a very interesting video. I have only seen this done once and it was over 50 years ago. How I wish I had access to some of the emphemera letters in my youth. Cursive was the norm and eloquent style was abundant. Mostly so, people knew how to construct a perfect rhythmic letter. Nothing compared to the text messages now-a-days with your instant gratification of technology. Letter writing was an art form that should be cherished. I think it is well missed by your followers. Take care my friend.
Thanks so much, Richard! I am digging deep to uncover and reveal some of these lost techniques of handwriting and letter writing. Thanks for being part of it.
Another thing...this would be fantastic to include ultraviolet ink!! Can you imagine black ink one direction, red or light brown ink in another direction..and secret invisible ink in diagonal!!? It would be soo cool!
Yeah, that was my thought. Using different colored inks will help each writing stand out. Didn't think about the invisible diagonal idea, brilliant! In the 18th century this was vary popular as postage was based on distance and method the letter traveled. It was also paid by the recipient not the sender.
I can't imagine 3 different orientation but one in regular ink and one in UV ink seem good. At least you can read the regular one first without the UV one cluttering your view.
Wow, just unlocked a hidden memory there! I remember reading about cross writing years ago. I had completely forgotten about it! Really cool topic, and I think I want to try my hand at it for fun.
If the writing has a fairly consistent forward slant, as yours does, it can be easily read by looking at the paper tilted along that slant. It makes the "vertical" lines appear thicker, and the cross lines thinner. I've written song lyrics, and then the chorus across, just for fun.
It was not just the postage. Paper was expensive too - especially since all your communications had to be by post. Usually people hundreds of years ago wrote in smaller letters with very thin tips with probably more distance between the lines which makes it more legible. If you're used to writing in cursive (as I was taught in school) it is not at all difficult to read and it is a quicker way to write since you didn't have to lift your pen in between the letters which could cause problems with the ink.
Thank you so much for watching and for the interesting and valuable comment.
8 месяцев назад
In one of the Jane Austen novels Miss Eliza Bennet commented on how delighted she was to get a box of quality writing paper as a Christmas gift. How spoiled we are in being able to buy a large box of printer paper for almost nothing!
I did this for holiday cards a few years ago. Green and red ink with lines crossed. They were well received. I'm glad we have a lot more allowance for postage today so letters don't need to be written this way.
I remember receiving letters like this on the very thin Airmail paper. With the translucency, that meant four layers of script, often in blue ink on the blue paper! 😂 I am so glad my eyesight was much better back then! 👓
Most letter-writing sets only come with 1 or 2 pages per envelope, so I wonder if it was about saving paper. Depending on the family's budget and priority for nice paper, you could very quickly use up the paper and be left with a pile of envelopes.
Hi Carol! That is a great theory, but I wonder if that was the case then? I used to order my stationary from Brooks Brothers and it came in a big box with envelopes. When I was younger, I went to a printer. I wonder if people then went to the printers. Also, it may very well have indeed started that way, but there are aristocrats who used this style too; presumably without regard for cost. I sadly don’t know enough yet to give a comprehensive answer. I am working on it. Amazing how much knowledge is lost. Thanks so much for watching!
I remember my Meme would open the envelope and cross write in it, then seal the flap with wax on a ribbon. It sort of looked like modern security printing.
Happy new year everyone. Wow. You did a great job with this. It's so cool. Back in the early 80's I had a pan pal from Australia and every letter she sent was like this. It was so fun to read them !
Wow, thanks so much for the kind words! I am so glad you enjoyed it. I never know how these videos will be perceived. I love that you have a personal connection. Thanks so much for watching!
You could also match the ink colors with tinted glasses, or sheets of plastic, allowing you to make the writing even denser and more incomprehensible on first viewing. And then you can make one set of writing disappear with one tinted pair of glasses, and the other with the other.
Just watched this. I had seen a fellow fountain pen used do this while copying his old family letters and now I do it often, not for letter writing, but more as almost a writing exercise where I just write random words or sentences to practice my writing. It works really well with a Japanese fine nib on 5mm fit grid and double spacing to leave a little breathing room. The benefit of dot grid (whether paper or as a backing sheet) is that you just turn the whole thing sideways to do the crosses writing and it is laid out in a perfect grid. It is definitely much easier to read with a finer nib, particularly if you have really consistent letter spacing and slant to your writing. As others have said, using different colours can work very nicely too, but smaller, slimmer letters seem to give it all more breathing room and it can look quite beautiful.
I wonder if this was nore about the cost of paper and ink back then rather than postage. My grandmother was a school teacher back in 1900-1940. I used to talk to her about it. I was more interestested in cattle rustlers than schools but i remember. Everyone had a personal chalkboard like the size of modern conputer tablet they did homework and stuff on. They wrote the problems on the tablet with chalk then took them home, wrote at home and cane back to school with answers. The average student couldn't afford paper. Paper was a luxury 1900s and before.
That is a very good point. The only exception is that aristocrats wrote this way as well. Still, that could be the origin of the style and then it spread.
Thank you for this video-- I am currently planning a presentation on 19th c. letter writing for the Jane Austen Society. I find it particularly interesting that you see reading cross writing as a kind of puzzle solving, since solving puzzles is a recurring theme in Emma, the Jane Austen novel you quoted.
My version I've always done is writing..then writing really small in-between the space of my already written sentences...thats how I write my notes and studies...and probably why nobody in school wanted to copy my notes 😅.
As a not very calligraphy person, but rather utility person in an age that doesn't suffer any scarcity of paper, I'm moderately interested, beyond the novelty conversation level. - However, it might be interesting to try inks with the purpose of having them be 'transparent' to each other. Like light inks of contrasting colors, a minty green and an orange for example. Then you could also try read it through some red/green stereo glasses. If you match the ink colors perfectly, you might be able to write the texts on top of each other, and they'd still be readable through the color filters.
Ah, glasses. Thank you. Color pens are so much fun but practical items are hard even for young eyes to read. Many years later a beloved writing is only available in riped, stained or faded mint green. Accessable scanners and/or printers have produced lovely blank pages but now I have a new way to approach it. Thank you again.
I suspect that with two different colors of ink, if you put the second color at a 45° angle instead of 90° it will actually increase the contrast, and therefore the legibility. Note that this is just my suspicion; I haven't tried it. I do recommend that you use a bit of removable tape on the corners of your stationery to hold it at the 45° angle on top of your lined paper - if it moves while you're writing it will be difficult to put it back in place.
My grandmother had some old letters that were done in cross writing. But after she died my aunt cleared out her apartment and she didn't care for "old junk", so it all got thrown out. Letters from my great grandparents, lace work my great grandmother had done, etc. I remember reading the letters as a kid, it was a bit hard but you get used to it.
I love the look of this style, although I’ve not yet tried it myself. I guess it’s much easier to write it than to read it! On screen, I did not find it very legible but I imagine it would be a bit easier to read in person. Also I had a thought…. Often, while reading a book, people lay a bookmark across the text and move it down the page as they read. I wonder if that approach would also help with reading crossed writing because it would help the eyes focus on one line at a time and maybe make it easier to ignore the crossed writing? I must try it!
I think I should have had the camera linger over it on a still shot. I think that would have improved the video. Sometime this week, I'll take a photo of those pages (I kept them), and put them up on my IG. Thanks!
I'd also try turning the paper 180 degrees, writing between the exisiting lines but in the opposite direction. A very interesting vid, thank you - particularly for the quote from "Emma"; it's nice to understand the social history behind something mentioned in a novel - even if just in passing.
I always assumed that this is what cross writing was.......a character in a fiction novel, that I'd read when I was pretty young, had replied to a letter using the same letter, by turning the page. I imagined she had turned the letter 180, so I tried it out, myself, and thought it was clever. When passing notes to friends in the hallway at school (before cell phones and texts!) I'd reply by writing this way.
HJ - this was a wonderful video. What an excellent way to use our fountain pens! I particularly like it because I use a lot of mixed media in my journals and card making. My favorite background is made with Script background stamps, but now I will make my own script backgrounds using this technique. Thank you and Happy New Year. Love your channel and lives.
I have several post cards written by a relative about a hundred years ago. She had tiny meticulous cursive writing and shared twice as much family news by using cross writing, literally hundreds of words on one card.
I really could have used this the last few days of last year. I had 5 days left of the year and had finished my journal. Of course, I didn't want to start a new one until New Year's Day. Also perfect for more sensitive journal entries.
I love this video! Thank you! 😊 Anne Lister (1791 to 1840) was a voracious writer and diarist. She wrote her letters in this manner. She created a “secret” code when writing in her diaries as well. Interesting that you noted Aristocrats wrote in this manner as Anne was a part of the Aristocracy class. FYI: HBO has a great series on her life. Suranne Jones plays Anne in this series. Thank you again. ❤
Finally got to this video! The technique reminds me of letters from my granny in England. She went blind before I was born but continued to write her own letters. Unintentionally, of course, there was a little cross-writing going on! It was always challenging, especially as a kid, to decipher the words. I will have to dig those out (I have every letter ever sent to me). Not sure if you took the last MB writing class about grief journaling but one of the ideas was to copy and frame a letter from a loved one, especially if hand written. I love that idea and plan to do that with several of mine.
Fascinating. I'd have thought that this style would demand pigmented, water-proof inks; but the Oxblood and other inks seem not to have commingled. I can imagine employing this technique in some sort of dystopian future where paper is simply not to be had; but, as it is, I'm simply grateful that my young correspondents are willing to decipher my cursive at all. Thanks!
A friend during my first years of uni studies used to sit in the bus on his weekend trips to his parents and draft up his assignments like this to make sure he didn't run out of paper. Different colours seemed to be key in a dimly lit bus.
Thank you so much for this video. I almost forgot about this amazing and unique writing technique. Great idea to use 2 different inks - I will certainly try that.
In a word: Fascinating! Thanks for this one, I think I will give this a whirl. And a really enjoyed the Satie at the appropriate volume weaving its way amongst your words and sample writing.
This was so much fun to watch! I do something like this all the time. Short notes I take to remind me of something or just thoughts crossing my mind. I'm chronically short of scrap paper so I use what ever is available. Often a used envelope. Certainly each little note does not follow another by straight and even vertical and horizontal lines. The paper is not usually lined. Written with a variety of instruments including any colors handy. A ton of ideas start out as somewhat straight across left to right. I often circle or underline it if it is only a word or two. By the time I've gone from top to bottom I start again on the margins up on the left side and down the right. Too often I will then write over the original diagonally so it stands out but I can still read all of it with a bit of work. I thought I was just terribly disorganized! And scolded myself as I then have to spend so much time looking for a specific part! My handwriting is not neat. My spelling takes some deciphering too like missing the e at the end of words or using made-up abbreviations. If I'm in a hurry it tends to be much larger and in cursive. In block print small and neater when I'm focused and not just scribbling something down before I forget it My grandmother always had notes all over her house. Much neater and legible than mine. Ten years after she passed we were still finding them tucked into books that had no relation to what she was writing. I thought it was just a habit I learned from her I never guessed people intentionally wrote like this! I can see how it could save paper or be a cute style if it was intended as a letter to be read by someone else I must say I'm less cross with myself now, looking over at a dozen pieces of paper around my room. And your examples are much more attractive than mine! LoL. Thank you for the video!
You are entirely too kind about my handwriting and I appreciate it. I love this approach to note taking. I love the sound of this and the aesthetic it describes. I have always preferred interesting and unique handwriting over perfect. Thanks so much for watching!
When I was about 12 or 13, my friends and I used to write letter this way.at times. It was a lot of fun to do. I had a couple of pen pals at that who I corresponding with where we would write part or all of our letters using that method. Thanks for reminding me of something that I haven't done in decades! :)
@@HemingwayJones Thanks. I hadn't thought about that technique (or whatever one wants to call it) at all until I saw your video. Thanks for making me smile. :)
My great-aunt had some of these letters her grandfather had written (my great great grandfather). He wrote one direction on one side of the paper and the other on the other side; I always assumed to save paper/space as it was from the battlefield during the civil war. He was a surgeon. I had a lot of trouble reading them as the ink had bled through, so although I transcribed them there are missing words. Fascinating stuff though!
I love writing cursive style with my fountain pen usually using Quink blue/black ink. I don’t cross write, but I do continue writing round the margins of the page once it is full. For me that is more satisfying.
I never stopped writing in cursive. My hand is not perfect, but good enough for me to read after decades, still. This "Cross Hatching" is lovely, but the one thing that irks me is your grip. That clutch grip chafes me. Keep writing!
i first saw this in the 2005 pride and prejudice movie adaptation, and i was bewildered at the concept of writing letters like that. it’s certainly ingenious and i’d like to try it in the future, but i fear my dyslexia would make it hard to read jajs. this was a great video! very informative and with great editing, as usual. thanks for posting!
Thank you very much for the kind words. I am so glad that you enjoyed this video. I will have to revisit that version of Emma. Thanks so much for the delightful comment.
I have a Civil War soldier's diary where he did this, cross writing both directions, but he did this, had to, because it filled up the very small one, a very cool thing. I didn't think it was as odd, but didn't know that this style can be as an art too...like collage writing!...thanks!
It seems as if I remember a Jane Austin quote that one of her characters "crossed and recrossed the page." This is a fun video. And I'm thinking we must be near the same age, with similar cursive styles. Your handwriting is quite, quite nice! Thanks for a fun peek into the past!
It is so exciting that so many have watched this video and are now exposed to our fabulous "corner of the internet" that you have created for us, Hemingway! I'm adding this style to my journaling just to spice it up a little!
An absolutely fascinating style. I love my fountain pens, I love having a go a some calligraphy styles, but cursive still brings back a shudder & bad memories. I came through in a time when the main control that teachers had was corporal punishment. In about year 4 at school we HAD to use a style called “modified cursive” and you were disciplined if you didn’t. As I could write perfectly legibly with printing, I failed to see any point in writing illegibly in a style which gave me writers cramp in a few minutes. Apart from some specific daily writing exercises, I would print. So they would discipline. So I would rebel more. So they would discipline more. So I rebelled more etc. Didn’t get me anywhere, but I wouldn’t do it their way no matter how many screaming & beating sessions. It was a nice change getting to high school (years 7-12) where absolutely no-one cared how you wrote as long as it was legible!
I love my fountain pen! I use a TWSBI medium point. I have come across "crossed" writing in novels but never knew exactly what it meant, and now I know! Thanks!
In 1986, an elderly woman spoke to my 2nd grade class about what it was like to attend a 1 room schoolhouse. She showed a sample of how they filled the margin all around and then used cross writing to get enough room. The sample was done on a sheet of cow horn rather than paper, and I understood the horn sheet to be a somewhat reusable medium for children to practice with.
I've often wondered how this worked--having read about it often in 19th century novels--and never seen it before. I was especially skeptical because I know people wrote in ink, which I assumed would smear the writing underneath. I love how they sometimes filled "the envelope" too, which was essentially just another sheet of paper, wrapped around the other sheets. Interesting video--thank you.
Yes, I am sure you are right. It looks much better on a TV! The colors help immensely. If I were to send a letter to someone like this and I will soon, I would use the two colors. Thanks for watching. I appreciate it!
This calls for further research. The living history group I am part of demonstrates life at an 1820's frontier fort. Conserving paper would have been particularly desirable with the nearest stationer's shop being six weeks' travel away.
I am a great aficionado of fountain pens and hand-written notes and letters. If I were to do the "Cross Writing" technique I think I would use two different colours of ink. Thank-you for the video.
Even though I learned cursive with pens that had nibs that you dipped in ink, I never heard of cross writing. Thank God the nuns didn’t insist on it! Frankly, I’m not too impressed by it. Too difficult to read!
It was more of an 18th & 19th C thing, but I saw it occasionally when I was young in the 70s. I think people knew about it as a space saver, but rarely did it. except for those WWII letters. So much was crammed in those.
Thanks for another great video. I remember seeing some letters between my pre-nuptial grandparents done this way. I must visit my sister and see them again with time to peruse. Another advantage is that it will likely take the receiver at least as long to read as it took the sender to write. (One of my disappointments with Emails is the hasty reading then speedy scrolling down with little thought or consideration, especially a missive over which much labor was spent and craft invoked.) By the way, do you prefer receiving longer or shorter letters?
Hello and thanks for the comment. I am so glad that you have hands on experience with this and you make some excellent observations. I think for me, it’s not about length, as long as it’s interesting! Thanks very much.
First, Sir, your penmanship is stunning. I really enjoyed your video. It was a suggestion from RUclips. I'm going to write a letter to my sister. I know she will love it even though I can walk up the street and visit. My penmanship is very good, as was my dear mother's. My aunts and uncle also do. I wonder if there is an artistic gene? My father and siblings, let's just say they missed penmanship class.
Thank you so much! Your comment is very kind. I hope you will visit the Channel again soon. I do quite a bit on handwriting, penmanship, and obscure handwriting techniques like this one. I also agree that there is a bit of artistry and a control of aesthetic to finer handwriting. This is something I aspire toward. Thanks very much for watching and all the best!
This is so cool... Ive been writing letters to my friends who say my flowing style of writing is difficult to read - I suppose they are too used to typewritten letters. Im going to really shake them up with this cross writing... The only sort-of cross writing Ive ever seen was a journal written by some doomed explorer who ran out of paper and wrote across the pages of a bible..... I think. Red was commonly available back in the day. I wonder if the red/black cross writing combination would be easier to decipher
This kind of writing would be exceptionally difficult for nosey persons to decipher by holding the envelope up to the light. Perhaps it served a privacy as well as an economical function.
I've always used cursive writing, even today. I was born in 1961. I that in 2019, I wrote a note with some instructions to a co-worker that asked me too. I handed her the note she looked at it and asked me in what language was the note written in, LOL!!! I looked at her and told her it was cursive; she was 19 or 20. She has never taken cursive in school or college. Her mother did know what cursive was because she was Gen-X.
Honestly, I see cross writing as not much more than a gimmick these days, but cursive I use for virtually everything. Not only is it handy, writing things out is also a good way to clarify one’s thoughts, and is also a great learning tool.
This reminds me of "palimpsest" docs where they scraped off the ink of an old writing, turned it sideways, and wrote their new writing. Sometimes they didn't scrape off the old ink first.
There's a book you might enjoy "To the Letter" by Simon Garfield. He has a chapter on Jane Austen (Why Jane Austen's Letters are so Dull ...) and has an example of her own use of cross writing (it was very neat although difficult to read).
I actually was absent from school when they taught us cursive, I got three days of lessons before falling very ill. This ended up in in my handwriting being a hodgepodge of cursive-print mixup letters that only my mother can properly read. My handwriting isn’t bad or messy but my odd lettering gets people confused
Wow, that's a concept. I thought you were gonna turn it upside down and write between the lines. I feel like that would work better, especially with the secondary writing being smaller & in a different colour. This is a great excuse to use the different inks that we inevitably collect alongside fountain pens, & I definitely want to try it now. It should look cool enough to justify the technique in its own right
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I remember doing cross writing for Air Mail letters in the 1950's. Air mail was distinct from and more expensive than first class mail. Low letter weight was crucial. We used a special envelope made of very light paper. The envelope came in an unfolded condition. We wrote on the inside using cross writing. The envelope was then folded and mailed.
I remember that light blue paper, as thin and light as can be!
Hello everyone! I may be going home this Friday 🎉! After 3 months in the hospital! I am excited!
Hello. May the new year bring you much health and swift recovery.
That is great news! Prayers for your continued recovery.
Thank you.
Yay! The best news I have heard in a long time!
Welcome home!
I always use cursive writing, even for notes. Anyone else do this too?❤
I use it for almost everything. Thanks for watching.
Me too!
absolutely! have since I was 11 - won writing competition then - never looked back!!!
Yes, I am old. Since my Danish father was born in 1897, I have seen this many times in younger days.
Yes. It's a crime to not teach cursive any more.
In one of the "Little House on the Prairie" books, Laura observes her mother doing cross-writing. Paper was a scarce resource.
Love this! Thanks. I'll do some research on this.
From "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Chapter 16: So she brought the letter to the tablecloth under the lamp, and after she had thawed the ink bottle they all sat around the table thinking of last things to say while Ma wrote them down with her little red pen that had a mother-of-pearl handle shaped like a feather. When her neat, clear writing filled the paper she turned it and filled it again crosswise. On the other side of the paper she did the same thing so that every inch of paper held all the words that it possibly could.
@@HemingwayJones
This is wonderful! Thank you!!!!@@strega42
I was coming here to write just this!! I’m so glad someone else remembers Ma doing that! 😄😄
Steve Jobs talked about fonts in his famous Stanford U commencement speech. I worked for a Fire Captain he made every log entry a work of art. Different fonts beautifully written. RIP Cap.
I’ve known 2 variations of this writing, both not about directly sending letters. The first I saw it was when my grandmother (born 1912, farmer all her life) would need to write a quick note and the only paper at hand already had writing on it. She would write her notes across the already written page (often a letter). The second time I knew about it was from a journal in a friend’s family papers. When the author ran out of pages, he restarted at the beginning, writing in the 90deg rotation. From what I can remember, this was out on a remote homestead in the 19th century, where you weren’t getting more paper anytime soon.
As for letter writing, I have a half memory of someone in my family writing a return letter to someone over the letter sent to them.
That is pretty great. I remember people writing letters back on the same letter. Thanks for watching.
This looks very much like my handwriting. I am 77 and this is the style that was taught in my parochial elementary school in the Midwest. The cross writing is something that people in the Great Depression Era used bc you couldn’t afford to buy paper.
I learned Palmer in Philadelphia in the 1970s, so we are very similar. Thank you very much for watching.
I found that using red and green ink gives a really nice contrast. It does not cover up the preceding lettering but just changes the coloring.
That sounds like an excellent strategy. Thanks!
My Danish father, born in 1897 used different colored inks all the time. Letters to and from Europe were written on tissue weight paper.
For anyone who isn't colorblind. A color blind person won't be able to see it and they are more common than those of us who can see all of the beautiful colors.😢
Red and blue, then use a 3D glasses to filter each color. You can cross write twice on the same page
@@Faesharlyn I like the 3D glasses idea. My (unoriginal) thought was to place colored glass or cellophane over the letter to read the one color, filtering out the other.
My wife and I were watching The Pale Blue Eye on netflix and Christian Bale held up a journal with cross writing. I would not known of it without you sharing. Thank you!
Thanks so much! I’m pretty sure I watched that and didn’t notice. Thanks for watching.
I remember reading mss of early colonists in Hawaii who would pass on letters to relatives and make comments on the margins of letters. I don’t remember them writing over other writing but certainly filling up any blank margin space. And yes I’m sure they were happy to save money on postage.
Happy new year. Aloha
Marginalia is another fascinating focus of handwriting. Thanks so much and Happy New Year to you and yours!
You unlocked a memory! I learned this in high-school, one of our assignments was to send letters like this to our classmates and then see if they could read it
That is such a fun and creative assignment. Here’s to that teacher.
Hello HJ. This was a very interesting video. I have only seen this done once and it was over 50 years ago. How I wish I had access to some of the emphemera letters in my youth. Cursive was the norm and eloquent style was abundant. Mostly so, people knew how to construct a perfect rhythmic letter. Nothing compared to the text messages now-a-days with your instant gratification of technology. Letter writing was an art form that should be cherished. I think it is well missed by your followers. Take care my friend.
Thanks so much, Richard! I am digging deep to uncover and reveal some of these lost techniques of handwriting and letter writing. Thanks for being part of it.
In Gone with the Wind, the book not the movie, Scarlet gets a letter from her father writen like this.
Wow! Thanks for this! I love the references. Thank you!
Another thing...this would be fantastic to include ultraviolet ink!! Can you imagine black ink one direction, red or light brown ink in another direction..and secret invisible ink in diagonal!!? It would be soo cool!
That sounds supercool! Thanks.
Yeah, that was my thought. Using different colored inks will help each writing stand out. Didn't think about the invisible diagonal idea, brilliant! In the 18th century this was vary popular as postage was based on distance and method the letter traveled. It was also paid by the recipient not the sender.
I can't imagine 3 different orientation but one in regular ink and one in UV ink seem good. At least you can read the regular one first without the UV one cluttering your view.
Wow, just unlocked a hidden memory there! I remember reading about cross writing years ago. I had completely forgotten about it! Really cool topic, and I think I want to try my hand at it for fun.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and for being here.
This sounds like a fun thing to do for a prop in my D&D games to give to my players to make messages more interesting to decipher
If the writing has a fairly consistent forward slant, as yours does, it can be
easily read by looking at the paper tilted along that slant. It makes the "vertical"
lines appear thicker, and the cross lines thinner. I've written song lyrics, and then
the chorus across, just for fun.
Great tip. Thanks and thanks for watching.
It was not just the postage. Paper was expensive too - especially since all your communications had to be by post. Usually people hundreds of years ago wrote in smaller letters with very thin tips with probably more distance between the lines which makes it more legible.
If you're used to writing in cursive (as I was taught in school) it is not at all difficult to read and it is a quicker way to write since you didn't have to lift your pen in between the letters which could cause problems with the ink.
Thank you so much for watching and for the interesting and valuable comment.
In one of the Jane Austen novels Miss Eliza Bennet commented on how delighted she was to get a box of quality writing paper as a Christmas gift. How spoiled we are in being able to buy a large box of printer paper for almost nothing!
You have gorgeous handwriting!
You are very kind.
I did this for holiday cards a few years ago. Green and red ink with lines crossed. They were well received. I'm glad we have a lot more allowance for postage today so letters don't need to be written this way.
That is wonderful that you have had hands on experience. Thanks for watching and for the interesting comment.
@@HemingwayJones I look forward to seeing more of your videos :)
This really reminds me of such artistic times. I'm going to use this in my common book.
Wonderful! Thanks for watching.
I remember receiving letters like this on the very thin Airmail paper. With the translucency, that meant four layers of script, often in blue ink on the blue paper! 😂 I am so glad my eyesight was much better back then! 👓
Hear, hear! I remember that airmail paper with the red, white, and blue diagonal striped borders. Thanks for watching.
@@HemingwayJones Yes, that's the stuff!
Most letter-writing sets only come with 1 or 2 pages per envelope, so I wonder if it was about saving paper. Depending on the family's budget and priority for nice paper, you could very quickly use up the paper and be left with a pile of envelopes.
Hi Carol! That is a great theory, but I wonder if that was the case then? I used to order my stationary from Brooks Brothers and it came in a big box with envelopes. When I was younger, I went to a printer. I wonder if people then went to the printers. Also, it may very well have indeed started that way, but there are aristocrats who used this style too; presumably without regard for cost. I sadly don’t know enough yet to give a comprehensive answer. I am working on it. Amazing how much knowledge is lost. Thanks so much for watching!
@@HemingwayJones It may be that for some it was a cost cutting measure and for others it was simply fun.
I remember my Meme would open the envelope and cross write in it, then seal the flap with wax on a ribbon. It sort of looked like modern security printing.
I’ve seen the paper turned upside down and the new writing is between the first lines
Happy new year everyone. Wow. You did a great job with this. It's so cool. Back in the early 80's I had a pan pal from Australia and every letter she sent was like this. It was so fun to read them !
Wow, thanks so much for the kind words! I am so glad you enjoyed it. I never know how these videos will be perceived. I love that you have a personal connection. Thanks so much for watching!
You could also match the ink colors with tinted glasses, or sheets of plastic, allowing you to make the writing even denser and more incomprehensible on first viewing. And then you can make one set of writing disappear with one tinted pair of glasses, and the other with the other.
You know, I think I need to make it more elongated and loopier like interconnected lace. I am going to work on it.
Just watched this. I had seen a fellow fountain pen used do this while copying his old family letters and now I do it often, not for letter writing, but more as almost a writing exercise where I just write random words or sentences to practice my writing. It works really well with a Japanese fine nib on 5mm fit grid and double spacing to leave a little breathing room. The benefit of dot grid (whether paper or as a backing sheet) is that you just turn the whole thing sideways to do the crosses writing and it is laid out in a perfect grid. It is definitely much easier to read with a finer nib, particularly if you have really consistent letter spacing and slant to your writing. As others have said, using different colours can work very nicely too, but smaller, slimmer letters seem to give it all more breathing room and it can look quite beautiful.
Thanks so much! I definitely think more
Room helps. Good luck and thanks for watching
I wonder if this was nore about the cost of paper and ink back then rather than postage. My grandmother was a school teacher back in 1900-1940. I used to talk to her about it. I was more interestested in cattle rustlers than schools but i remember. Everyone had a personal chalkboard like the size of modern conputer tablet they did homework and stuff on. They wrote the problems on the tablet with chalk then took them home, wrote at home and cane back to school with answers. The average student couldn't afford paper. Paper was a luxury 1900s and before.
That is a very good point. The only exception is that aristocrats wrote this way as well. Still, that could be the origin of the style and then it spread.
Thank you for this video-- I am currently planning a presentation on 19th c. letter writing for the Jane Austen Society. I find it particularly interesting that you see reading cross writing as a kind of puzzle solving, since solving puzzles is a recurring theme in Emma, the Jane Austen novel you quoted.
Thanks so much. I didn’t know that. I appreciate this interesting comment. Thank you for watching.
My version I've always done is writing..then writing really small in-between the space of my already written sentences...thats how I write my notes and studies...and probably why nobody in school wanted to copy my notes 😅.
That works too. Marginalia is another interesting concept.
There's a name for it!!!!???
As a not very calligraphy person, but rather utility person in an age that doesn't suffer any scarcity of paper, I'm moderately interested, beyond the novelty conversation level. - However, it might be interesting to try inks with the purpose of having them be 'transparent' to each other. Like light inks of contrasting colors, a minty green and an orange for example. Then you could also try read it through some red/green stereo glasses. If you match the ink colors perfectly, you might be able to write the texts on top of each other, and they'd still be readable through the color filters.
That sounds like a lot of fun. It pushes decipher-ability to encoding. Love it! Thanks for watching. Always nice to see you in the comments.
Ah, glasses. Thank you. Color pens are so much fun but practical items are hard even for young eyes to read. Many years later a beloved writing is only available in riped, stained or faded mint green. Accessable scanners and/or printers have produced lovely blank pages but now I have a new way to approach it. Thank you again.
I suspect that with two different colors of ink, if you put the second color at a 45° angle instead of 90° it will actually increase the contrast, and therefore the legibility. Note that this is just my suspicion; I haven't tried it. I do recommend that you use a bit of removable tape on the corners of your stationery to hold it at the 45° angle on top of your lined paper - if it moves while you're writing it will be difficult to put it back in place.
My grandmother had some old letters that were done in cross writing. But after she died my aunt cleared out her apartment and she didn't care for "old junk", so it all got thrown out. Letters from my great grandparents, lace work my great grandmother had done, etc. I remember reading the letters as a kid, it was a bit hard but you get used to it.
That’s sad that they are gone. I’m sorry about that. Thanks for watching.
That is sad.
I love the look of this style, although I’ve not yet tried it myself. I guess it’s much easier to write it than to read it! On screen, I did not find it very legible but I imagine it would be a bit easier to read in person. Also I had a thought…. Often, while reading a book, people lay a bookmark across the text and move it down the page as they read. I wonder if that approach would also help with reading crossed writing because it would help the eyes focus on one line at a time and maybe make it easier to ignore the crossed writing? I must try it!
I think I should have had the camera linger over it on a still shot. I think that would have improved the video. Sometime this week, I'll take a photo of those pages (I kept them), and put them up on my IG. Thanks!
I'd also try turning the paper 180 degrees, writing between the exisiting lines but in the opposite direction. A very interesting vid, thank you - particularly for the quote from "Emma"; it's nice to understand the social history behind something mentioned in a novel - even if just in passing.
Thanks very much! I had fun researching this and was glad to have found the Austen quote. Thanks!
I always assumed that this is what cross writing was.......a character in a fiction novel, that I'd read when I was pretty young, had replied to a letter using the same letter, by turning the page. I imagined she had turned the letter 180, so I tried it out, myself, and thought it was clever. When passing notes to friends in the hallway at school (before cell phones and texts!) I'd reply by writing this way.
HJ - this was a wonderful video. What an excellent way to use our fountain pens! I particularly like it because I use a lot of mixed media in my journals and card making. My favorite background is made with Script background stamps, but now I will make my own script backgrounds using this technique. Thank you and Happy New Year. Love your channel and lives.
Wow! Thanks so much for your kind support. Comments like this are really encouraging and I appreciate it very much. Thanks!
This is so cool! I especially like using two different colours, since that is completely legible. Blue and Oxblood are my favourite ink colours.
Oxblood is the best! Thanks so much for the kind words. I am so glad you enjoyed this. Thank you!
I have several post cards written by a relative about a hundred years ago. She had tiny meticulous cursive writing and shared twice as much family news by using cross writing, literally hundreds of words on one card.
That is wonderful!
I really could have used this the last few days of last year. I had 5 days left of the year and had finished my journal. Of course, I didn't want to start a new one until New Year's Day. Also perfect for more sensitive journal entries.
That is a brilliant idea! I have written on the end papers of journals before, to get it all in. What did you do?
@@HemingwayJones I wrote on loose sheets and taped them in. I am not keen on the aesthetic, howerver, it worked.
Your did what you had to do. I’m glad it worked out. @@carolwelcome3348
Thank you for this video. Fascinating! I want to get out my old fountain pen! It's been years!
Nice! You should! And follow the Channel for inspiration!
I love this video! Thank you! 😊 Anne Lister (1791 to 1840) was a voracious writer and diarist. She wrote her letters in this manner. She created a “secret” code when writing in her diaries as well. Interesting that you noted Aristocrats wrote in this manner as Anne was a part of the Aristocracy class. FYI: HBO has a great series on her life. Suranne Jones plays Anne in this series. Thank you again. ❤
Thanks very much for the references. I will seek them out. Thanks for watching and for your encouraging words. All the best and drop by again soon.
The series is called Gentleman Jack.
@@itsacarolbthing5221 I think I have seen that on one of the streamers. Thanks!
Finally got to this video! The technique reminds me of letters from my granny in England. She went blind before I was born but continued to write her own letters. Unintentionally, of course, there was a little cross-writing going on! It was always challenging, especially as a kid, to decipher the words. I will have to dig those out (I have every letter ever sent to me). Not sure if you took the last MB writing class about grief journaling but one of the ideas was to copy and frame a letter from a loved one, especially if hand written. I love that idea and plan to do that with several of mine.
I missed that MB class. I love those and try to do as many as I can. Thanks for watching.
Fascinating. I'd have thought that this style would demand pigmented, water-proof inks; but the Oxblood and other inks seem not to have commingled. I can imagine employing this technique in some sort of dystopian future where paper is simply not to be had; but, as it is, I'm simply grateful that my young correspondents are willing to decipher my cursive at all. Thanks!
Thanks so much for watching and for the great comment. I hope we avoid any dystopia! Thanks!
Oh my friend, you always inspire me! What a great joy to be with you today!
Thanks very much!
A friend during my first years of uni studies used to sit in the bus on his weekend trips to his parents and draft up his assignments like this to make sure he didn't run out of paper. Different colours seemed to be key in a dimly lit bus.
Wonderful! Thanks so much for watching!
Thank you so much for this video. I almost forgot about this amazing and unique writing technique. Great idea to use 2 different inks - I will certainly try that.
Thanks so much! I am so glad that you enjoyed it. I am always happy to see you in my comment section.
Very cool way of writing. I have seen it as a way of altering your writing so others cannot read what you have journaled. I like it.
Thanks so much and thanks for being here!
Cool idea of exploring different writing styles. I think using different nib sizes or grinds would also help.
That's a great idea! I did a little of this with the flex nib. A stub vs fine or EF would be that much better. Great suggestion. Thanks!
In a word: Fascinating! Thanks for this one, I think I will give this a whirl. And a really enjoyed the Satie at the appropriate volume weaving its way amongst your words and sample writing.
Thank you very much! I struggle with sound mixing. I think my videos coming out in March finally have it right. Thanks so much for watching.
My cousins were educated with chancery cursive. It was so beautiful.
This was so much fun to watch! I do something like this all the time. Short notes I take to remind me of something or just thoughts crossing my mind. I'm chronically short of scrap paper so I use what ever is available. Often a used envelope.
Certainly each little note does not follow another by straight and even vertical and horizontal lines. The paper is not usually lined. Written with a variety of instruments including any colors handy.
A ton of ideas start out as somewhat straight across left to right. I often circle or underline it if it is only a word or two. By the time I've gone from top to bottom I start again on the margins up on the left side and down the right. Too often I will then write over the original diagonally so it stands out but I can still read all of it with a bit of work.
I thought I was just terribly disorganized! And scolded myself as I then have to spend so much time looking for a specific part!
My handwriting is not neat. My spelling takes some deciphering too like missing the e at the end of words or using made-up abbreviations. If I'm in a hurry it tends to be much larger and in cursive. In block print small and neater when I'm focused and not just scribbling something down before I forget it
My grandmother always had notes all over her house. Much neater and legible than mine. Ten years after she passed we were still finding them tucked into books that had no relation to what she was writing.
I thought it was just a habit I learned from her I never guessed people intentionally wrote like this! I can see how it could save paper or be a cute style if it was intended as a letter to be read by someone else
I must say I'm less cross with myself now, looking over at a dozen pieces of paper around my room. And your examples are much more attractive than mine! LoL. Thank you for the video!
You are entirely too kind about my handwriting and I appreciate it. I love this approach to note taking. I love the sound of this and the aesthetic it describes. I have always preferred interesting and unique handwriting over perfect. Thanks so much for watching!
So impressive! I’m very passionate about cursive anyway. TY ✍🏽
You are so welcome! Thanks so much!
Never seen anything like it. Thanks for the introduction.
Thanks for watching! This is why I am here! Thanks!
When I was about 12 or 13, my friends and I used to write letter this way.at times. It was a lot of fun to do. I had a couple of pen pals at that who I corresponding with where we would write part or all of our letters using that method. Thanks for reminding me of something that I haven't done in decades! :)
Wow, that is so amazing. What a great memory!
@@HemingwayJones Thanks. I hadn't thought about that technique (or whatever one wants to call it) at all until I saw your video. Thanks for making me smile. :)
My great-aunt had some of these letters her grandfather had written (my great great grandfather). He wrote one direction on one side of the paper and the other on the other side; I always assumed to save paper/space as it was from the battlefield during the civil war. He was a surgeon. I had a lot of trouble reading them as the ink had bled through, so although I transcribed them there are missing words. Fascinating stuff though!
That is amazing. What a Treasure! Thank you!
I love writing cursive style with my fountain pen usually using Quink blue/black ink. I don’t cross write, but I do continue writing round the margins of the page once it is full. For me that is more satisfying.
That sounds very interesting. Nicely done.
A pen friend of mine and I write letters like this and it makes it fun and interesting!
I never stopped writing in cursive. My hand is not perfect, but good enough for me to read after decades, still. This "Cross Hatching" is lovely, but the one thing that irks me is your grip. That clutch grip chafes me.
Keep writing!
Thanks Man! I am glad you enjoyed the video! I’m glad you are still writing!
Deep breath. Deep breath. Let it go....😉
i first saw this in the 2005 pride and prejudice movie adaptation, and i was bewildered at the concept of writing letters like that. it’s certainly ingenious and i’d like to try it in the future, but i fear my dyslexia would make it hard to read jajs. this was a great video! very informative and with great editing, as usual. thanks for posting!
Thank you very much for the kind words. I am so glad that you enjoyed this video. I will have to revisit that version of Emma. Thanks so much for the delightful comment.
I imagine contrasting colors would work even better.
I covered that in here. Thanks for watching.
What is this wizardry?!?!? Super interesting-had no idea! Thanks so much for sharing this!
Thanks so much for watching and for being here!
I have a Civil War soldier's diary where he did this, cross writing both directions, but he did this, had to, because it filled up the very small one, a very cool thing. I didn't think it was as odd, but didn't know that this style can be as an art too...like collage writing!...thanks!
This is absolutely fascinating! Thanks for letting me know.
It seems as if I remember a Jane Austin quote that one of her characters "crossed and recrossed the page." This is a fun video. And I'm thinking we must be near the same age, with similar cursive styles. Your handwriting is quite, quite nice! Thanks for a fun peek into the past!
Thanks so much! I appreciate the kind words!
Hi HJ! I've seen cross writing also on some OLD postcards, where space was obviously limited. Very interesting!
It is so exciting that so many have watched this video and are now exposed to our fabulous "corner of the internet" that you have created for us, Hemingway! I'm adding this style to my journaling just to spice it up a little!
Thanks so much, Amy! I appreciate that and good luck! It sounds amazing. I may do some letters like this.
An absolutely fascinating style. I love my fountain pens, I love having a go a some calligraphy styles, but cursive still brings back a shudder & bad memories. I came through in a time when the main control that teachers had was corporal punishment. In about year 4 at school we HAD to use a style called “modified cursive” and you were disciplined if you didn’t. As I could write perfectly legibly with printing, I failed to see any point in writing illegibly in a style which gave me writers cramp in a few minutes. Apart from some specific daily writing exercises, I would print. So they would discipline. So I would rebel more. So they would discipline more. So I rebelled more etc. Didn’t get me anywhere, but I wouldn’t do it their way no matter how many screaming & beating sessions. It was a nice change getting to high school (years 7-12) where absolutely no-one cared how you wrote as long as it was legible!
I had some sadistic nuns myself. Well, this is a much gentler approach!
Most fun video!!! Thanks for exploring that!
Thanks for watching!
I love my fountain pen! I use a TWSBI medium point. I have come across "crossed" writing in novels but never knew exactly what it meant, and now I know! Thanks!
Awesome! I am happy to have you here!
Oh, I had seen this! Quite interesting. Using the different color/width does help with contrast between the 2 directions of text
Thanks so much, My Friend!
In 1986, an elderly woman spoke to my 2nd grade class about what it was like to attend a 1 room schoolhouse. She showed a sample of how they filled the margin all around and then used cross writing to get enough room. The sample was done on a sheet of cow horn rather than paper, and I understood the horn sheet to be a somewhat reusable medium for children to practice with.
Wow, that is amazing. I’ve never heard of cow horn. Thank you!
I've often wondered how this worked--having read about it often in 19th century novels--and never seen it before. I was especially skeptical because I know people wrote in ink, which I assumed would smear the writing underneath. I love how they sometimes filled "the envelope" too, which was essentially just another sheet of paper, wrapped around the other sheets. Interesting video--thank you.
Thanks so much for watching! It must have been interesting using a quill for these!
Ill be honest, on a tiny phone screen it was hard to read until you did different colors.
Might try it to see what it's like in person.
Yes, I am sure you are right. It looks much better on a TV! The colors help immensely. If I were to send a letter to someone like this and I will soon, I would use the two colors. Thanks for watching. I appreciate it!
This calls for further research. The living history group I am part of demonstrates life at an 1820's frontier fort. Conserving paper would have been particularly desirable with the nearest stationer's shop being six weeks' travel away.
Very good point! That Living History Group sounds wonderful. Thanks for watching!
I am a great aficionado of fountain pens and hand-written notes and letters. If I were to do the "Cross Writing" technique I think I would use two different colours of ink. Thank-you for the video.
Thanks for watching!
Even though I learned cursive with pens that had nibs that you dipped in ink, I never heard of cross writing. Thank God the nuns didn’t insist on it! Frankly, I’m not too impressed by it. Too difficult to read!
It was more of an 18th & 19th C thing, but I saw it occasionally when I was young in the 70s. I think people knew about it as a space saver, but rarely did it. except for those WWII letters. So much was crammed in those.
Wow beautiful
Thank you very much!
Thanks for another great video. I remember seeing some letters between my pre-nuptial grandparents done this way. I must visit my sister and see them again with time to peruse. Another advantage is that it will likely take the receiver at least as long to read as it took the sender to write. (One of my disappointments with Emails is the hasty reading then speedy scrolling down with little thought or consideration, especially a missive over which much labor was spent and craft invoked.) By the way, do you prefer receiving longer or shorter letters?
Hello and thanks for the comment. I am so glad that you have hands on experience with this and you make some excellent observations. I think for me, it’s not about length, as long as it’s interesting! Thanks very much.
Try a right oblique fountain pen. 1.0 mm or 1.5mm. This gives a beautiful look and disguises the the inconsistencies in one's penmanship.
I have an MB cut that way. I should use it more often.
My boyfriend is picking up cursive again..and its lovely to see. I suggested cross writing..he said too much work..haha.
He does have a point! That is fun that you have similar interests.
First, Sir, your penmanship is stunning. I really enjoyed your video. It was a suggestion from RUclips.
I'm going to write a letter to my sister. I know she will love it even though I can walk up the street and visit.
My penmanship is very good, as was my dear mother's. My aunts and uncle also do. I wonder if there is an artistic gene? My father and siblings, let's just say they missed penmanship class.
Thank you so much! Your comment is very kind. I hope you will visit the Channel again soon. I do quite a bit on handwriting, penmanship, and obscure handwriting techniques like this one.
I also agree that there is a bit of artistry and a control of aesthetic to finer handwriting. This is something I aspire toward.
Thanks very much for watching and all the best!
This is so cool... Ive been writing letters to my friends who say my flowing style of writing is difficult to read - I suppose they are too used to typewritten letters. Im going to really shake them up with this cross writing... The only sort-of cross writing Ive ever seen was a journal written by some doomed explorer who ran out of paper and wrote across the pages of a bible..... I think.
Red was commonly available back in the day. I wonder if the red/black cross writing combination would be easier to decipher
Thanks for watching. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Take care and stop back again.
Really interesting video HJ. Not something I will try myself but a great content.
Thanks so much! I appreciate it. My primary goal is to be entertaining, so I appreciate your watching and the comment. Thanks!
HJ, Congrats on reaching 10,000 subscribers!
Thank you very much!
All old people where I live write cursive. I can if I want to.
Very cool. Never seen nor heard of this before.
Thanks very much!
This kind of writing would be exceptionally difficult for nosey persons to decipher by holding the envelope up to the light. Perhaps it served a privacy as well as an economical function.
That is a very good point!
It seems to me to make it easier to read if you use a ruler or whatever to cover up the right-angled/other-direction writing while you’re reading.
I used to do this when making cards to bring to tests in the 80s lol
Funny! I remember those days. There were some mad cheat sheets.
I've always used cursive writing, even today. I was born in 1961. I that in 2019, I wrote a note with some instructions to a co-worker that asked me too. I handed her the note she looked at it and asked me in what language was the note written in, LOL!!! I looked at her and told her it was cursive; she was 19 or 20. She has never taken cursive in school or college. Her mother did know what cursive was because she was Gen-X.
That is insane. Haven’t these people ever been invited to a wedding!? Thanks for the great comment.
Honestly, I see cross writing as not much more than a gimmick these days, but cursive I use for virtually everything. Not only is it handy, writing things out is also a good way to clarify one’s thoughts, and is also a great learning tool.
This reminds me of "palimpsest" docs where they scraped off the ink of an old writing, turned it sideways, and wrote their new writing. Sometimes they didn't scrape off the old ink first.
That is an excellent point! Thank you!
There's a book you might enjoy "To the Letter" by Simon Garfield. He has a chapter on Jane Austen (Why Jane Austen's Letters are so Dull ...) and has an example of her own use of cross writing (it was very neat although difficult to read).
Thanks so much, Peter! I shall check it out. (I could have used that example for this video!)
This style, I am not certain how if I like it. Will try it out at home, maybe that will help.
Was cross writing more popular than just using both sides of the paper?
Sometimes they did both. I didn’t touch on that. Thanks!
I actually was absent from school when they taught us cursive, I got three days of lessons before falling very ill. This ended up in in my handwriting being a hodgepodge of cursive-print mixup letters that only my mother can properly read. My handwriting isn’t bad or messy but my odd lettering gets people confused
That sounds amazing to me!
Such a fun experiment!
Thanks for watching and for being here.
Wow, that's a concept. I thought you were gonna turn it upside down and write between the lines. I feel like that would work better, especially with the secondary writing being smaller & in a different colour. This is a great excuse to use the different inks that we inevitably collect alongside fountain pens, & I definitely want to try it now. It should look cool enough to justify the technique in its own right
Thanks so much. I did it with two different colors of inks in this video. Thanks for watching.
@@HemingwayJones Got me so riled up I had to comment before I was done watching
Nice! I appreciate you getting through it. This is a long video. Thank you!
It’s also a way to make notes for class.
Just do it like my math professor when nobody wiped the blackboard. Take the next color and write over the below layer.
Interesting, thank you!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!
Outstanding video!
Thank you very much! Thanks for watching!