Writing style before Elements of Style
I am looking for the representative references on writing style in English that would pre-date Strunk and White's The Elements of Style (possibly in the period between 1750 - 2000). I would like to understand the evolution of what was taught to be good style in written English before the only book on the topic that I know of.
British English references would be preferable, but American English is also welcome in the absence of European equivalents.
The reason:
I am working on a short novel where I have a long-lived character (born 1750 - dead 2000), who is described through her epistolary correspondence. The MC is convinced that there is a treasure hidden amidst all these letters. I wanted to give a bit of flavour to it. I can safely alter word usage to give a feeling of older times. I was hoping to be able to adapt the writing style as well.
So far:
I just browsed lazily through period texts. However, rather than imitate specific authors, I was hoping I could put myself in the mindset of an "average" learning writer of that time. [Note: keeping in mind that learning writers might have been far from average in the past]
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