[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

OK, Dickens - your favourite - looking at David Copperfield, we have "don't" "couldn't" "there's" "what's" "it's" &c &c &c

Absolutely. Contractions were well and truly there by the later 19th century, when Dickens wrote. But look at Austen, who was writing about 80 or so years earlier - much less common there.