Dunlop Letters: Letter 2

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Dunlop Letters: Letter 2 - Take The Test

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Background Information

In this second letter, written from Dort shortly after letter 1, William Dunlop reverts mainly to Italic, but there are some Secretary Hand forms, such as the long s.

The main problems for modern readers are phonetic spelling of some words and the writer's idiosyncracies, such as the use of the letter v, where we would use w, for example in the word vhom at the end of line 3. He also uses -ine in words where we would expect -een or -ene, for example in bine at the end of line 1.

Scots	English
Dort	Dordrecht, a Dutch port
Rotterdam	Rotterdam, a Dutch port
Stedable	steadfast
Cifering	ciphering, in the sense of book-keeping and arithmentic using arabic numerals
Stretnes	straitness or tightness (his clothes are becoming too small for him)
Gulders	guilders (Dutch currency)

Images reproduced with permission of Glasgow City Council, Mitchell Library (Mitchell Library reference DC14/2).

Take The Test

The document has been divided into 4 sections. Read the section shown in the image and transcribe the word you think is missing from the text below by typing in the appropriate blank space. The text be red as you type and will turn black when you have transcribed the word correctly.

If you would prefer to complete the tutorial on paper go to Print The Test.

Lines 1-8 of a letter written by William Dunlop in 1681, Mitchell Library reference DC14

Transcription of lines 1-8

Lines 9-17 of a letter written by William Dunlop in 1681, Mitchell Library reference DC14

Transcription of lines 9-17

Transcription of lines 18-25

Transcription of lines 26-32

Transcription of lines 33-41

Read the full transcription