Just a sample

I thought this was a pretty funny example of the kind of writing I am trying to decipher as I read some stuff in my research. Fortunately, some poritions of this have been transcribed. (By the way this picture was scanned from Cooper, Trevor. The Journal of William Dowsing : Iconoclasm in East Anglia During the English Civil War. Woodbridge: Boydell Press in association with the Ecclesiological Society, 2001. plate 6 and 7). I was relieved when the publisher wrote that this particular letter written by the guy I am studying was even hard for him to read. I have to keep telling myself: this is English....I should be able to understand this!


It makes me wonder what would happen if someone tried to read my handwriting 350 years from now. If my handwriting were the only representative sample available, they would assume we all lived in thatched huts and drooled for entertainment. All kidding aside, a good bit of this sample and many others have already been transcribed, but there are notes on sermons that I still need to read for myself in the original. I may need to get a new prescription for my glasses when I am done.

Tim