No doubt some of our faithful Scout Report readers have an interest in reading historic documents, and perhaps a few have some family items written in an ancient and formidable hand that they might need some help reading. If so, this nice online tutorial on palaeography (or the practice of reading old handwriting) from the National Archives (in conjunction with the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at University College London) will be of great interest. Here visitors can learn about where to start in terms of reading and transcribing handwritten documents written in English between 1500 and 1800 and also peruse a quick reference section of historic terms that may be referenced in such documents. Appropriately enough, there are ten documents on which visitors may test their mettle, and as an additional bonus, each document also has a glossary, notes on the palaeography and a full transcript.