@Ken Fraser : A question about Copperplate/English Roundhand: In your alphabets, some of the ascenders are looped but in your quote exemplars, those same ascenders are not looped (ie #05: the l and h). I'm asking because I do often see copperplate with non-loop ascenders, but I'd rather use looped ascenders as I would rather "write" it than "draw" it (if that makes sense? minimal lifts is what I'm getting at here) and I already use looped ascenders in my regular handwriting, so it seems more natural to me.
Much of my Copperplate is influenced by examples in The Universal Penman where almost all of the ascenders are straight. I believe that the looped ascenders were a later development. I like both ways, but never mix them in the same piece of writing.
I understand your preference for looped ascenders being "written" as opposed to being "drawn" with minimal interruption, but, in fact, both straight and looped ascenders can be easily written smoothly without pen lifts.
The looped ascenders are written with an upward hairline to the right of the letter continuing without a break, anticlockwise into the shaded downstroke. The motion is virtually the same for a straight ascender. The hairline is produced upwards on the slope line and without stopping at the top, the tines are spread open and the downwards shaded stroke covers the hairline to the base line. Both styles of letter can be written smoothly and without pen lifts.
AFAIK Straight ascenders are never used in Engrosser's Script or in Spencerian.