_Planning_ and _drawing_ are dealt with in Vol. I. of these ‘Hints.’ _Copying_, as distinct from either, applies to inscriptions. A hand-copy of an inscription as well as a mechanical reproduction should always be made, partly because it has the better chance of surviving the accidents of travel, partly because, if a stone surface is at all perished, anyone with a keen eye and power of concentration ought to see more lettering on its worn parts than will appear on a photograph or ‘squeeze.’ The copy should be as near a facsimile on a reduced scale as time and other considerations will allow. It should be made on ruled paper, if possible on paper ruled in squares (_en quadrille_), and the relative position of the letters to one another must be kept as far as possible. All broken parts of letters are to be scrupulously copied (they can often be distinguished from stone-flaws by feeling along the bottom of the groove with a knife-blade; if that finds an even line, the groove is probably part of a letter), and all intervals where letters have perished beyond the copyist’s power to recover them should be measured, and by comparison of equal intervals containing decipherable letters in other parts of the inscription, the number of lost letters can be estimated. These should be indicated by dots in a shaded patch. Letters, about which the copyist is not quite certain, must be dotted or drawn in faint line. If a stone be imperfect at the sides, and there be any means of estimating its original breadth, the line of its true centre should be marked on the copy. Such an observation will be invaluable to the restorer of the text. All letters that have peculiar forms should be carefully drawn at least once, as specimens. If the text is grouped about, among, or in any relation to, sculptures, such relation should be indicated, even if the whole sculpture be not drawn. Marks of punctuation or division, ligatures of one letter with another, and ornate initials and finials, should be looked out for and noted. On beginning a copy it is well to transcribe first the most obviously easy parts of the inscription: they will give an inkling of the character of the text, teach the forms of lettering used, and accustom the eye to the inscribed surface. On finishing a copy, if there be time, read it over, try to translate it, and in the light of the probable translation, attack again the harder parts of the inscription. In the case of stones with two or more texts inscribed one over the other (as frequently happens on Roman milestones, which may be geographical documents of great importance), a ‘squeeze’ must be got at all costs, for an untrained copyist will make little or nothing of them, and find it very difficult to draw an accurate hand facsimile. 3. _Literary Memoranda._