A letter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, Cathedral archive document D53a. Image copyright the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral (UK)
Worcester Cathedral Library is closed due to Covid-19. So, what does a medieval researcher do with all this spare time? Yes, I have shelves of books that I have always said I would read when I had the time. I have discovered though there is only so much reading you can do before it becomes a chore. As a result, I decided to take on the challenge of learning to read Secretary Hand. The script that to me, a dyed in the wool medievalist, that can best be described as looking like a spider with four broken legs has wandered over the page.
An excerpt from a receiver general’s account for 1558, document A207. Image copyright the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral (UK)
In this excerpt you can see, from the year 1558, the Cathedral canon in charge of income recorded the money coming in from the bailiffs of some of the Cathedral’s manors. You can probably make out the references to three of those manors: Shipston (upon Stour), Blackwell and the combined manor of Tedington and Aston.
The Cathedral Library has over 1000 handwritten manuscripts written in the C16th and C17th, all of them written with what is called ‘Secretary Hand’. A recent request from the Cathedral’s Bell Master highlighted not only how little I knew of this period, but that the writing can be indecipherable at times. Did I just write “at times”? Well, that is an understatement.
An excerpt from a treasurer’s account of 1643, document A28. Image copyright the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral (UK)
This excerpt shows the coal purchased to keep the guards warm at the Cathedral gates or entrances. Other money was spent on cleaning the Cathedral, and ringing the bells in celebration on the arrival of the county’s sheriff and city governor, Sir William Russell, and John Prideaux, the Bishop of Worcester.
Well, at least it is in English I thought, but not only is the script difficult, one must also cope with archaic language and spelling.
A C16th inventory of a kitchen, or I should write, kycheon, shows that it contained:
xviij platers, xviij pothyngers, xviij sawcers, vj counterfet for potage, iiij brasse potts, a posse net, a greate panne, ij cawtherns, a chaffyng disse, a greate chaffern for water, a brandart, a gredyerne, a flesshehoke, ij gret Racks, ij broches, a byrd broche, a skymer, a brasen morter with a yerne pestell, a ston morter with a pestell of wod, ij trene platters, ij ladvlls.
Please don’t write and ask me what they all are because I still don’t know!
Therefore, I decided with all this spare time I would take an online course. Has this very steep learning curve been worth it? Taking an online course with no tutor is hard. If I had the choice I would do a course with a tutor, believe me you need the help.
However, I am doing this course along with our scientific book researcher. It is great to have the support and we encourage and spur each other on. And even though it is taking me out of my medieval comfort zone and stretching me, I do actually feel I am achieving something.
A letter from Charles I in 1642, Cathedral archive document D21. Image copyright the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral (UK)
But most of all it can really be fun, especially some of the mistakes you make – my most memorable to date was transcribing ‘tantelus corsets’ in a religious tract. Not the sort of language one usually finds in a sermon. It was actually ‘cantelous courses[i]’, definitely more believable.
Vanda Bartoszuk
[i] Cantelous is an obsolete word for cunning or wily
Worcester Cathedral Library and Archive Blog 
What was the date on your “corset” transcription? If it was around 1830 – 1840, it could have been a referene to “Mrs. Cantelou’s corsets,” which were bring advertised in Augusta and Columbus, GA newspapers. I am researching this topic in nineteenth century Georgia (USA) newspapers. 🙂
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