Some Stories of Dean Stanley's Caligraphy.

Manawatu Herald, 3 June 1897, Page 2

Some Stories of Dean Stanley's Caligraphy.

Dean Farrar also has some capital stories in the Temple Magazine illustrating the impossibility of deciphering Dean Stanley's handwriting. The article is illustrated by autographs, which enable the readers to understand why the compositors required extra pay when they had to set up Dean Stanley's copy : — Stanley's written words were often only indicated by their first letter. Thus, when be wrote me a letter to Marlbnrnugh College, all that the Post-office authorities coa'd make out was that the letter was addressed to some place of which the name began with " M," and consisted of two words. With admirable sagacity, they sent the letter to Mertbyr Tydvil. The letter, after long wanderings, was sent back to the Dean, who, writing to me again, enolosed the envelope with many notea of admiration after the Marlborough College." I had occasion to mention the other day how, in ••Sinai ana Palestine," the first proofs informed the reader that from the monastery of Sinai was visible <« the horn of the burning beast " !— a fearfully apooalyptic nightmare of the printer's devil— for " the horizon of the Burning Bush"; and that, on turning the shoulder of Mount Clivet in the walk from Bethany, " there suddenly burst upon the spectator a magnificent view of— Jones " t the Dean having written his abbreviation of "Jems." for "Jerusalem." When he answered an invitation to dinner, his hostess has been known to write back and inquire whether his note was an acceptance or a refusal ; and when he most kindly replied to the question of some workingman, the recipient of his letter thanked him, but ventured to request that the tenor of the answer might be written out by someone else, "as he was not familiar with the handwriting ot the aristocracy " I