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Welcome to Victoria's Study
Victorian Letter
Writing Etiquette
Today, letter
writing seems to be obsolete. We don't have the time for lengthy letters,
and of course, we have our e-mail to do the job. But, back in
the Victorian days, letter writing was a very proper and formal operation.
There were many different types of letters that had to
be written by the Victorian housewife. The Victorians wrote letters of apology, letters of
congratulations, letters of introduction, just to mention a few. The Victorian housewife was judged by her letter writing
skills. Her letters had to be proper, which would indicate fine breeding. The Victorian ladies writing style had to match to whom
the letter was addressed to. If the letter was to a business tradesman, it was polite
but distant in its tone. For private letters, special paper was used, usually
with a soft color tint to the paper. When sending a personal letter, postal cards must never
be used, because they were perceived as being a "cheap" version
of a letter. But, late in the l800's it became proper to send a
postal card for a short message only.
 Wax
seals were becoming very popular. However, you had to use the right
color of wax. For instance, letters of mourning used black wax ; as of
letters of business used red wax and so on.
You were not allowed to use
abbreviations, because it would seem the letter was written too quickly.
The typewriter was
considered the most vulgar thing to use on a letter. Imagine what our
ancestors would think of our computer e-mail!
Maybe today, we should take
a little bit more time in writing our letters and show the person receiving
them that we are of proper breeding.
Happy Letter Writing
From livingvictorian.com
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