hand-writing

plural hand-writings

1. archaicuncountableusuallyArchaic form of handwriting.

   The Fac Similes (at pp. 90, 288,) shew the character of the hand-writing of two of the oldest MSS. contained in this Volume.

   1848, “Preface”, in Taliesin Williams, Iolo Morganwg, Thomas Price, Owen Jones, editors, Iolo Manuscripts, page vi

   4 more examples

   Yet, Sir, think you, that your Omission, must so farre charme us to oblivion, as to make us forget, that as King Charles the first, did in plene Parliament, An. 1641. under his hand-writing, ratifie the Nationall Covenant, with the explication, and Bond thereto annexed, and prior Acts made anent it, with such solemnities and concurrent considerations, as it is impossible to question it;

   1671, Robert MacWard, The true non-conformist in answere to the modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist about the present distempers of Scotland

   Ye are next to aſſure all Perſons, vvho are ſo kind as to give you Audience, that to prevent the leaſt Suſpicion of Spurioſity, they may ſee every Letter I have ever printed of Mr. Pope’s in his Ovvn Hand-VVriting, […]

   1736, Alexander Pope, “To the Sisters”, in Mr Pope’s Literary Correspondence, volume IV, London: […] E[dmund] Curll, […], →OCLC, page iv

   Being left alone with him after they had dined, he obſerved, that however ſtrongly he was convinced of Zeluco’s being the writer of the letter, yet as he had had the precaution to diſguiſe his hand-writing, it would be fruitleſs to found any legal proſecution upon that circumſtance.

   1789 May 27, [John Moore], chapter XXII, in Zeluco. Various Views of Human Nature, Taken from Life and Manners, Foreign and Domestic., volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 203

   I was breakfasting at the Ellisons,—and her letter, with some others, was brought to me there from my lodgings. It happened to catch Sophia’s eye before it caught mine—and its size, the elegance of the paper, the hand-writing altogether, immediately gave her a suspicion of its nature.

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 174–175