This is an excerpt from the Sherlock Holmes novel named The Hound of the Baskervilles (emphasis mine):
"Well, Sir Henry, your uncle had a letter that morning. He had usually a great many letters, for he was a public man and well known for his kind heart, so that everyone who was in trouble was glad to turn to him. But that morning, as it chanced, there was only this one letter, so I took the more notice of it. It was from Coombe Tracey, and it was addressed in a woman's hand."
Here a character is talking about a letter that was sent to someone.
It is mentioned that it was addressed 'in a woman's hand'.
What does 'woman's hand' mean here?
Could it be that the character was able to infer somehow that the author of the letter was a woman?
Or is it the way in which the letter was closed,posted,etc back in Britain during the time in which the novel is set (I don't know when that is, but I guess it's in the 1800s)?
EDIT: How could the character infer from the handwriting that the author of the letter was a woman? Is it possible to determine the gender of the writer just by looking at their handwriting?