Letter Etiquette from 1954

A charming man named Professor Alan C. Ross, of Birmingham University, published an essay called "U and Non-U: An Essay in Sociological Linguistics" in 1954. "U" stood for the English Upper Class, and Non-U for the non-Upper Class. He had much to say on the proper way to address envelopes and end letters, such as:

"On envelopes, gentlemen put Esq. after the names of persons who are, or who might wish to be considered, gentlemen, whether in fact armigerous or not. Esq. is, however, not used of oneself, e.g. neither on a card (which bears Mr.) nor on a stamped-and-addressed envelope enclosed for reply (which has merely A-- B. X-- or A.B.X-- without prefix). Knowledge of at least one initial of the recipient's name is, of course, a prerequisite for addressing him with Esq. If the writer has not this minimum knowledge (and cannot, or is too lazy to obtain it) he will be in a quandary."

"Postal addresses. It is non-U to place the name of a house in inverted commas (as 'Fairmeads') or to write the number in full, either without or (especially) with inverted commas (as Two - worse 'Two' - St. Patrick's Avenue). The names of many houses are themselves non-U; the idea U-address is P-- Q-- R--, where P-- is a place-name, Q-- a describer, and R-- the name (or abbreviation) of a county, as Shinwell Hall, Salop. But, today, few gentlemen can maintain this standard and they often live in houses with non-U names such as Fairmeads or El Nido."

"Letter endings. The U-rules for ending letters are very strict; failure to observe them usually implies non-U-ness, sometimes only youth. In general, the endings of letters are conditioned by their beginnings. Thus a beginning (Dear) Sir requires the ending Yours faithfully, unless the writer hopes to meet the recipient when Yours very truly may be used. Acquaintances who begin letters with Dear Mr. X-- sign them Yours sincerely or Yours very sincerely; perversely, the latter ending is less cordial than the former. People who know each other really well will begin Dear A-- or Dear X-- (males only) and sign Yours ever. The ending Yours is often used even by gentlemen if they are in doubt as to which ending is appropriate."

- Mitford, Nancy. (Ed.)  Noblesse Oblige: Sophisticated Fun About the Speech and Manners of the English Upper Class. P.62 - 67.

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