LIGATURE

"Æ is a grapheme named æsc or ash, formed from the letters a and e, originally a ligature representing the Latin diphthong ae" it says in Wikipedia (where they don't use it).

Sign on that bastion of Victorian gentlemanly worthiness, the West Hartlepool Athenæum Club.

(Update on yesterday: Mum has broken a bone in her left wrist and is just back from hospital. I'm going down there tomorrow morning now. She has been severely told off by nurses and my sister, and she's phoning us all to apologise for "putting everyone's plans out". I think she wanted somebody not to tell her off, but I'm afraid I did too.)