HOW SHALL I END MY LETTER?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19225, 16 July 1924, Page 5

HOW SHALL I END MY LETTER?

Criticism has recently been levelled against the use of “Yours truly” and the modern “Cheerio” as endings for letters, says a writer in the Daily Mail. It used to be necessary for the last words of a letter to correspond with the beginning. If “My dear Jones” was the form of address, then the ending had to be “I am, my dear Jones, ever yours, —”; but this custom is now scarcely ever recognised. Lewis Carroll (the Rev. C. L. Dodgson) was expert in the art of writing light, amusing letters to his numerous young friends. “Your affectionate friend” was a favourite ending, but he had many variations, often with lengthy postscripts added. lie wrote; “Your loving friend C. L. Dodgson. I send you 4J kisses”; “Your fifteen-minute friend, C. L. Dodgson” ; “I am yours affectionately, O. L. Dodgson. P.S.—I never give wedding presents; so please regard the enclosed as an unwedding present” and: Give them my love. Who do I moan by “them”? Never mind. Your affectionate friend, Lewis Carroll. In the case of love-letters there can obviously be no set formula. The stereotyped phrase would not ring true enough; it would bo too impersonal; too cold and formal. A direct simplicity seems to be the keynote, of Madame Du Barry's sending in a characteristic letter to her lover: “Good-bye. 1 embrace you heartily,” and when the devoted Louis XV wrote begging her to come to him he ended with the very similar, though rather happier, phrase;' “Good-bye. Believe that I love you.—Louis.”