🚀 go-pugleaf

Konrad Neuwirth (A4422DAE@AWIUNI11.BITNET) writes:
>Yes, the smaller s *IS* used in words if they are compound nouns
>(Ausgang is spelled with a round s, not a long s).

In some 17th and 18th Century books (printed in English) that I have, I
see the use of `tall s', which I'll write as `{' for now.

The combination `{s' occurs infrequently, but when it does a ligature is
used, and the result looks very like a German Eszett.

Here's a part of a somehat humourous essay from the Spectator showing the
use of tall-s ({) in English in the first quarter of the Eighteenth century.

I have the entire of this essay, which is not very long, and I should
certainly be pleased to send it to any that request it.



[...]

ON the 9th of October will be run for upon Cole{hill-Heath in Warwick{hire,
a plate of {ix guineas value, three heats, by any hor{e, mare or gelding
that hath not won above the value of 5l. the winning hor{e to be {old for
10l. to carry 10 {tone weight, if 14 hands high; if above or under to carry
or be allowed weight for inches, and to be entered Friday the 5th at the
Swan in Cole{hill, before {ix in the evening.  Also a plate of less value to
be run for by asses.  The same day a gold ring to be grinn'd for by men *.


   The fir{t of the{e diver{ions that is to be exhibited by the 10l.
Race-Hor{es, may probably have its u{e;  but the two la{t, in which the
a{{es and men are concerned, {eem to me altogether extraordinary and
unaccountable.  Why they {hould keep running a{{es at Cole{hill, or how
making mouths turns to account in Warwick{hire, more than in any other parts
of England, I cannot comprehend.  I have looked over all the Olympic
Games, and do not find any thing in them like an A{s-Race, or a match at
Grinning.  However it may be, I am informed that {everal a{{es are now kept
in body-clothes, and {weated every morning upon the heath;  and that all the
country-fellows within ten miles of the Swan, grin an hour or two in their
gla{{es every morning, in order to qualify them{elves for the 9th of
October.  The prize, which is propo{ed to be grinned for, has rai{ed {uch an
ambition among the common people of out-grinning one another, that many
very di{cerning per{ons are afraid it {hould {poil mo{t of the faces in
the county;  and that a Warwick{hire man will be known by his grin, as
Roman-Catholics imagine a Kenti{h man is by his tail.  The gold Ring which
is made the prize of deformity, is ju{t the rever{e of the golden apple that
was formerly made the prize of beauty, and {hould carry for its poe{y the
old motto inverted:

[...]

-- 
Liam Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad, Toronto, +1 416 963 8337
the barefoot programmer