Crafts in Southampton Row, London, has just been showing ' some of the results of the work it has one in the past 20 years or so to revive the art of script writing. The specimens that have been dis-Played are of great beauty, and compare most favourably with the finest work in the court style of the 15th or 16th centuries, and with that in the ecclesiastical hand of an variier period, Mr. C. W. Beckett, the curator of the schools, stated that this revival has had' a great' influence in schools of art throughout the coun try, so that to-day there is a large body of students, both men and women, whose work is quite equal to the' beautiful script which was written before the age of printing.
"It is sometimes forgotten," he said, "that the pen, after all, is the natural lettering tool, and, if properly used, produces almost inevit ably pleasant and beautiful forms. The easiest and most. natural way of producing a book is by writing it in a good hand. Printing only becomes the necessary substitute for the written book when. lar numbers of copies are required.
Tae Beavty or Writixc.
The great value of script writing, Mr. Beckett pointed out, is that, just as the earlier printers were so successful in producing beautifully printed books because they had before them as a model the fine writing of the time, so again to-day it is an advantage to them to see how beautiful looks the page that is carefully written with the pen. It sets. he said, a standard which the printer can aim at followi When the class of fine writing and illuminating was first started at the school it was hoped that the English type-founder would take the opportunity of studying the work. This hope was disappointed. The German authorities, on the other hand, were quick to see the possibilities. introduced the methods in their own schools of art land encouraged their type-founders to base their designs on the rasutzs of the English research and pra tice. The result was, Mr. Beck said, that before the war type-founders in this country were importing types from Germany which had originated from the work of English students of script writing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.