] .... While not directly related to JA's works, I was wondering if anyone knew where to find information on the form of handwriting used in the late-18th C and early-19th C.

Actually, we can make this one JA-related quite easily. Remember the anagram game Emma plays with Harriet, Frank, Jane and Mr Knightley? Well, the letters they use are ones Emma has written out individually to help her nephews learn their alphabet. (Picture beautifully, hand-written scrabble tiles.) As they play, Emma's father picks up the odd stray letter, and comments on Emma's beautiful writing. I think it's perfectly acceptable to wonder just how she would have written these 'pattern' letters. Here's a clue.

I've got an 1806 book called THE INSTRUCTOR OR Young Man's Best Companion. I contains the following examples of penmanship for young men to emulate:

(Big file coming up - sorry. But if I had made it smaller, you wouldn't be able to read the letters.)