212 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



skill and patience of the Post Office officials that 

 these letters somehow or other ultimately reached 

 their destination ; but it says still more for Mr. Faw- 

 cett's printers at Driffield that they got so accus- 

 tomed at last to my father's handwriting that they 

 very rarely were at loss or even at fault with it. 

 This refers to what he wrote for others to make out. 

 There was another style of penmanship adopted by 

 him which he called his "shorthand/' though "short" 

 only in the sense that it was written at " express " 

 speed, and was intended, happily, only for his own 

 use. Its general appearance was such as to beggar 

 description ; it may, perhaps, best be likened to 

 what it would be if a dozen or so of beetles had 

 tumbled into the ink and run backwards and for- 

 wards for some little time over a sheet of paper. 

 And yet, when he had time and occasion to take 

 special pains, he could write in a hand of remarkable 

 delicacy and neatness. 



