I'm a confessed
Janeite---otherwise known as a Jane Austen devotee. The Regency
Period is such a beautiful era with empire gowns, fine furnishings
and literary wonders such as Jane Austen. I've been to the town of
Bath, the “in” place of the Regency A-listers, several times and
it's a place filled with history, culture and atmosphere. If I could
go back in time I would love to visit Bath during the Regency hayday,
but since I cannot, I live vicariously through Jane Austen's novels
and more specifically, her characters.
One of the challenges
for Lettermo is to write a Jane Austen Letter, which dictates you
write your letter with ink and pen or a quill if you dare! I'm
getting more proficient with my dipping pen and have recently written
several letters in this fashion. Then I saw a swap on Swap-Bot to
write a crossed letter a la Jane Austen. A crossed letter is a
frugal way of saving on postage by writing your letter and then
rotating the paper 90 degrees and writing again across what you have
just written. I've seen crossed letters and they look a bit
confusing so I was curious how difficult it would be to actually
write one and found myself joining the swap.
This past weekend I set
out my pen and ink...I'm not brave enough to cut a quill...and began
composing my letter. Writing the first “page” was easy enough,
though when I turned my paper I have to admit I was very nervous of
ruining what I'd just written and creating a mess. And for good
cause as I dripped ink once I turned the paper and there was no help
but to start anew. Sigh. I began again and sailed through the first
page, turned my paper, held my breath and wrote my first line across
the existing lines. Once I had gotten a few lines on the paper it
became easier, then disaster struck as my sleeve brushed across the
page smearing one entire side to oblivion which was very vexing. I
had forgotten to move the ink to a more strategic position and had begun
reaching across the letter to dip my pen. Sigh.
I felt sure after all
the experience I was getting that my third attempt would be the charm
as they say. I'd already written this letter a couple of times so I
had quite a flow going after I pushed up my sleeves, repositioned
my ink and forged ahead. When I finished, I thought it looked
respectable, but the final test would be presenting it to my husband
for approval. He is a lifetime member of the Brontë Society and was
involved in original research which allowed him to see letters
written in this manner. I was pleased when he told me my missive was
quite authentic looking.
Reading the letter was
not as daunting as I imagined. Once you fix your line of vision on
the specific lines, which ever way they have been written, the
writing done in the other direction seems to fade into the background
amazingly.
The next challenge was
to fold and seal my letter. This should have been the easy part! I
folded the letter relatively easily but the wax seal was not so
forgiving even though I practised beforehand. I got the wax seal
affixed in the end but I concede a bit more practice is needed in
that area!
It was an interesting
experiment, though I don't know if I'd want to write all my letters
in that fashion, although I do have an unopened pack of
aerograms...hmmm