142 ON ERRATA RECEPTA. ^ 



art of printing is " regressing," — to coin a word at least as good as 

 its correlative and opposite — and we think it strange that any art at 

 this era should " regress." But we soon see that the exquisite legi- 

 bility secured by the round openness of even the smallest sized 

 character in this style of printing will account for its return to public 

 favour. We have also here, perhaps, a visible sign of a begun re- 

 .-action against the loose un- Addisonian English, of which, as prevalent 

 in certain quarters. Trench and Alford have been for some time com- 

 jplaining. A lately established clever journal entitled " The Realm" 

 is wholly printed in the style referred to : its advertisements, all in 

 l)eautiful clear brevier and diamond, have the air of paragraphs in the 

 " Gentleman' s Magazine " in Johnson's day. 



In connexion with movements apparently retrograde, we may refer 

 to the rather extravagant medisevalism which threatened a few years 

 ago to render monuments and inscriptions unintelligible to the mass. 

 It was especially enamoured of intricate initial letters, with wide- 

 gadding, low-trailing appurtenances, covering an undue proportion of 

 the page or legendal riband. This was a passing foible in a certain 

 class ; but it has left traces too durable in a number of works of art, 

 in glass, metal and stone, which, although in themselves, in many an 

 instance, exquisitely significant, yet fail to interpret themselves, as 

 such monuments ought to do, to the eye and mind of the general 

 public. 



A collection of all the alphabets, serious and facetious, which 

 have been designed of late years for ornamental and quasi-ornamental 

 purposes, in magazines, advertisements, and books in general, would 

 be exceedingly curious, " The Builder " every week throws out an 

 ingenious and graceful initial idea. In some recent numbers of that 

 periodical there have been beautiful developments of such ideas in 

 representations of imaginary ornamental iron work. Over-intricate 

 illuminated capitals continue to be am.usingly and very cleverly carica- 

 tured by " Punch." 



But to return from a' digression. It is not many years since Lord 

 Palmerston considered the deterioration of form in English cursive 

 script to be an evil so great and so extended as to call for formal con- 

 demnation. Since his memorable dictum on this subject, a good deal 

 of attention has been given in public offices and schools to the essen- 

 tial forms of the script letters ; and it is now not unfashionable for 

 signatures to be legible. The plain unaffected autographs of the 

 Prince of Wales and Duke of Newcastle will be remembered. 



