How was writing letters in Regency times different to letter-writing today?
What did they write on?
I love reading Regency Romances myself, but sometimes I come across something that makes me think ‘that isn’t right’, and it pulls me out of the story. Something that I’ve seen more than once is a heroine writing a letter on vellum or parchment.
Parchment is made from animal skin, cleaned, bleached, stretched and smoothed. A variety of different animal skins can be used; vellum is parchment made from calf skin. Vellum is still used in the UK for printing laws, because it lasts much longer than paper. However our Regency heroines would have used paper. Some modern writing and drawing materials are referred to as parchment and vellum, but these are modern products made from plant materials.
