This written pattern should not take more than twenty minutes for its entire preparation: it is intended to be used as a check on the previous calculation (not as an exact _plan_), and as a _copy_, it being easier to copy from your own, than from another's, handwriting.
If the original draft is typewritten, it is hardly necessary to make such a pattern.
(5) Check this _copy_ very carefully with the original to see that the words, &c., are correct.
(6) Cut, rule, and pounce the _parchment_ (pp. 343, 174).
(7) On some _scraps_ of parchment, ruled with a few similar lines, and pounced, try one or two lines of writing, both in vermilion and black, to see that all goes well. This enables you to get the pens and inks into working order, and will very likely save the carefully prepared _parchment_ from being spoilt.
(8) Write out the address, leaving suitable gaps for _gold_ or special letters.
(9) Put in special letters, decorative capitals, and any other decoration.
(10) Check the finished _address_ very carefully with the original draft (see (5) above) and look it over for mistakes, dotting i's, and putting in commas, &c., if left out. It is important that such a formal document should be accurate.
_General Remarks._--The above simple mode of planning out can be further simplified in custom and practice. By the penman _keeping to regular shapes, proportions,[108] and modes of treatment for regular [p360] occasions_, the addresses, &c., will practically "plan themselves" (p. 101), and better workmanship is the natural result.
Generally the simpler the form and the treatment of an Illuminated Address, the better the effect. The most effective decoration is the plain coloured or gold capital, and the finest ornament is a coat-of-arms (see "_Heraldry_," below; and for general, [p361] simple Illumination, see Chapters VII. to XIII.). A symbolical mark, such as a crest, badge, monogram, cypher, or other device (p. 362), boldly and decoratively treated, may be used in place of a coat-of-arms.
There is too much "Illumination" in the conventional "Address," which looks like a "_piece of decoration_" _with a little writing_. A really reasonable and effective Illuminated Address is _a piece of writing suitably decorated_.