Correspondence writing during the Regency Period

In Regency days, correspondence was very important. It was how friends and family kept up on each other’s lives. Now the problem with so much letter writing was that it cost. The further your letter went the more it cost not to mention the cost for the weight of the letter. So as always, letter writers not only used the one sheet of paper but also used it multiple times.

At the top of the letter they would pen the date and their current address. And then write a very neat letter. If they weren’t finished they would turn the page upside down and write in between the lines they had just written. If they still had more to say they would turn the page 90 degrees and write through the other lines of the letter.

It was a great feat to not only write your letter but also to be able to decipher a letter sent to you.  Then you would take the single page and fold it into three columns the long way, and then the short way. Now you have 9 squares. You fold those on themselves to make three squares. The top and the bottom edges are open, so you would slip the top square into the bottom square and then seal it with a drop of wax or a wafer made of flour and gum on paper. When moist it would adhere just as well as wax and it did not melt in hot temperatures.