It is convenient to stand the ink, &c., beside the desk on the left, and for this purpose a little cup-shaped bracket or clip may be attached to the edge of the writing-board. The filling-brush stands in the ink-bottle (p. 51) or pot of colour (p. 176), and is taken up in the left hand; the pen, retained in the right hand, being brought over to the left to be filled.
_The back of the nib is kept dry_ (_a_, fig. 48). A very convenient and perfectly clean method, when care is taken, of removing any ink on the back of the pen is to draw it across the back of the left fore-finger.
In careful work the pen should be tried, on a [p070] scrap of paper, almost every time it is filled (to see that it is not too full and that the ink is flowing rightly).
_The nib is kept clean._ A carbon ink (p. 51), through gradual evaporation, is apt to clog the nib (especially in hot weather); therefore every now and then, while the nib is in use, the spring is taken out and the whole thoroughly cleaned. It is impossible to write well with a dirty pen.
CHAPTER IV ACQUIRING A FORMAL HAND: (3) MODELS
Models -- Notes on Construction: Script I. -- Coupling the Letters -- Spacing: Letters, Words, & Lines -- Uncial Capitals: Script II. -- Numerals & Punctuation Marks -- Of _Copying_ MSS. Generally.
The best training is found in the practice of an _upright round-hand_ (p. 302). Having mastered such a writing, the penman can acquire any other hands--sloping or angular--with comparative ease (p. 323).
The English Half-Uncial writing in Plate VII. is an excellent model. Those who have sufficient time to spare for the careful study of this, or any other legible and beautiful round-hand, should obtain access to the MSS. in a museum, or procure good _facsimiles_ (see Plates at end of Book, & p. 388).
Those who have not sufficient time for a careful and thorough study of an early MS. will find it [p071] easier to begin with a simplified and modernised writing, such as Script I. (fig. 49).
Before copying a hand it is well to examine carefully the manuscript from which it is taken: observe its general appearance: note the character and mode of the ruling, and the sizes and relative proportions of page, text, margins, and ornaments. With regard to the actual forms of the letters and the mode of their arrangement, such a method of analysis as the following will be found useful, as an aid to accuracy in copying, and definiteness in self-criticism. [p072]