&c?

[freswood]

I understand that "&c" stands for "et cetera", but does anybody know why letters in p&p are ended with it? Somehow it doesn't seem very polite! :D

[Whifflingpin]

"I remain &c" stands for "I remain your lordship's most humble and ever obedient servant," or whichever variant was appropriate. A long and meaningless flourish now reduced to "yours faithfully." (I seem to remember the the Duke of Wellington once concluded a letter "I remain, sir, your humble and obedient servant, which you know damned well I am not, Wellington")

It would probably, as you say, have been impolite for a letter writer actually to have written "I remain etc." In collections or reports of correspondence, however, it was normal to use the abbreviation, rather than waste printer's ink and readers' time in recording the formulae which would have been familiar to everyone.

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[freswood]

Thanks for the clarification!