More about S's
Well not really
Yesterday I went on my first paint out with a new group I joined Preserving A Picturesque America. PAPA is a group of artists that are recreating several scenes from a very old book called Picturesque America, in an effort to encourage people to value and protect them.
I love the idea of keeping history alive and preserving these special places.
My plein aire excursion turned out about the same as last week. I showed up two hours late, even though I wasn’t procrastinating this time. Sometimes things just don’t go the way you plan. I didn’t get any painting at all done this time, but I did meet some nice artists and said “hi” to some friends. I also got to see an amazing place and took some pictures. A lot of pictures.
St. James Church in Goose Creek, South Carolina is the oldest church in the state. In fact it was the very first church built here in the early 1700’s. It is said that the presence of the royal coat of arms over the pulpit saved the church from destruction in 1779 to 1780 when British troops overran South Carolina during the Revolution.
The inside of the church was not like any church I had every seen. Instead of pews, the church was sectioned of with little doors that you could swing open. It seems like families must have each had their own box seating. The pulpit was prestigiously elevated at the front of the room with a spiral staircase that led to it. I’ll bet that made for impressive sermons. I started to ascend the stairs to peek at the pulpit, but it was so regal, I felt it would be disrespectful to go into such a holy perch.
Aside from the ornate detail, my first impression was, “man, there are a lot of dead people in here.’ All over the room were fancy signs saying someone of great importance is buried right about here.
Pretty soon I spotted another curious thing. It would Seem there were Some SuSpiciouS SpellerS in the paSt.
Everywhere you looked from the 10 commandments, Lords prayer, and apostles creed, it looked as though some words with ‘s’ had been replaced with an ‘f’” such as “Jefus Chrift”. This curious feature really intrigued me. After looking more closely, I noticed these s’s that look like f’s weren’t quite f’s after all. I couldn’t bear it. After I got home I googled the “s” ‘f” usage in the 1700’s. Why does the letter 'S' look like an 'F' in old manuscripts? Turns out it is a ‘long s’.
The long s can be traced back to Roman times, when the lowercase s typical took an elongated form in cursive writing in Latin. According to librarians at the New York Academy of Medicine, people were using the long s at the beginning and middle of words by the 12th century.
The long s and the more familiar short s represent the same sound, and the rules for using long s versus short s varied over time and place, Overholt said.
Some of the rules written in English included not using the long s at the end of a word ("success" becomes "ſucceſs") and not using the long s before an f ("transfuse" becomes "transfuſe") and always using the short s before an apostrophe.
Okay, it’s a wonder anyone ever learned to read with all these weird rules.
Oh, back to my mission to paint historical places. I still haven’t touched a brush or pen. I do think I will give it a try today.
You fure are a filly little goofe fheila.