Abstract: This chapter concentrates on the carrying and reading of letters. It explores the mechanics of how letters were delivered by bearers, how women actually read letters, and how their letters were read. Focusing on female reading literacy, it examines the extent to which women could read different sorts of handwriting and how this affected their ability to read letters. This chapter also looks at the intended audience of letters, that is, who read them. During a period in which the categories of ‘public’ and ‘private’ are often difficult to separate, it is argued that the social practices relating to reading correspondence allow one to delineate the kinds of subject matters that were suitable for wider dissemination, and those intended for private consumption. The chapter also examines how letters were read — whether they were read silently or out aloud, whether they were read in full, or merely skimmed for essential details.

Keywords: letter bearers, delivery of letters, reading, handwriting, privacy, public, private,