his untrue statement, would avoid using his
ordinary handwriting, as already appearing in the letter in question
(No. 3), which he had ascribed to Mrs. Tresham. He, therefore, disguises
his writing, so far as having to write off-hand and under the
observation of the Lieutenant of the Tower and an attendant Justice,
with the consciousness that he is writing what is false, and while
having to be careful not to reproduce his former disguised hand, as seen
in the anonymous letter, permits him; and the hand thus produced betrays
him as the writer of that letter, with which the writing is, in itself,
identical. The long "s" is invariably used for a word commencing with
that letter, even when not a capital; there are the same peculiar "t's,"
though in a less disguised or elaborated form than those of the
anonymous letter, but there they clearly are; the "w's" have no side
loops, but in Vavasour's note at foot of No. 3 a conspicuous example is
seen; there are no "g's";[27] the "y's" are particularly noticeable,
being in two varieties: Vavasour's ordinary "y," of which the tail is
tucked back; in the other, the tail is brought forward; and no one can
fail to see that the latter are by the same hand as those in the letter;
the "hangers" of the "h's" invariably drag below the line; and
generally, the writing may throughout be detected as by the same hand
that wrote the anonymous letter.

The best specimen of Vavasour's handwriting, although not so useful as
No. 4 for identification purposes, is in the MS. entitled "A Treatise
against Lying," etc., identified by William Tresham as having been
transcribed by Vavasour for Francis Tresham, which is now in the
Bodleian Library (Facsimile No. 2). To anyone familiar with the
handwriting of the period, Vavasour's writing is the usual law-writer's
or copyist's hand, such as appears in conveyances and deeds of the
time,[28] and is not the style of hand that an educated person would
then write. Each initial "s" is of the long form; each "w" has a side
loop; the "g's" are flat-topped; and the "h's" come below the line, etc.
Tresham's dying statement (No. 3) appears to be in a similar but
smaller[29] and less carefully written hand. Vavasour wrote a neat,
small hand, which, when disguising, the probability is that he would
attempt an opposite style. If it were not for the testimony of the
Lieutenant of the Tower, that the untrue statement (No. 4) was actually
written in his presence by Vavaso