Hi Listers Recently searching through an on-line digitised Parish Register of Essex baptisms, marriages and burials circa 1750, I saw that the opening page had been used by the Parish Priest to 'work in' his quill pen before he began writing up entries. (The steel pen nib was evidently not patented until 1810, and so all these early registers would have been written using a quill - cut with a shaped quill knife and not with the sort of pen knife that we are familiar with). Various letters and numbers had been repeatedly written at random across the page (including little subtraction sums taking one date from another, obviously in order to calculate the age of the deceased), but amidst all the doodlings appeared the following sentence:- Thomas Bunting in the West of England you may observe in many places. It seems that this may have been a practise phrase to incorporate most (but not all) the letters of the alphabet. I well remember being required to type over and over The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog when learning how to touch-type. Has anyone else come across this sort of note in PRs? John