Hand: Sixteen Glosses (pp. 46, 49, 397, 398, 443, 463, 464, 476, 477), CUL Ff.1.23 (1156)

Stokes, English Vernacular Script, ca 990–ca 1035, Vol. 2 (PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006)

These glosses were written in a small but rough hand, the base-line and cue-height of which are uneven, the strokes often unjoined, and the letter-forms somewhat inconsistent. Ascenders have small wedges and are usually long but can be minim-length. Descenders can be short or very long and tapering and sometimes also turn left. Minims usually have short approach-strokes and horizontal feet, although the feet can be absent. Single-compartment a was used, the body fairly rounded, the top and back formed with a single stroke, and the back ranging between vertical and about 60°. The a-component of æ is round, and the lower curve meets the back of the e-component well above the base-line. The hooks of æ and e are low and can be somewhat angular, and the tongue is straight and rising. The back of d is very short and can be close to horizontal, although it can also be angled at close to 45°. Horned e is normally found but the letter can have a vertical back but no horn. The tongue and hook of f are both short, angular, and rising. The top of g is flat and fairly long, and the mid-section starts at the extreme left of the top-stroke, bulges out further to the left, then turns back to the horizontal, once ending with a hook up at the tip and once closed in a narrow oblong. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r are usually quite rounded, although a more angular form is also found with m and n. Long s is normal, although the low form is also found (the first clensende on p. 398; siþfate, p. 464). Low s has an angular rising hook. The other form of s is sometimes tall, standing more or less on the base-line, but in other cases has a full descender; the hook is usually narrow and can be quite angular, and in one case approach-strokes are visible at both cue-height and ascender-height (sægað, p. 463). The scribe largely followed the conventional distinction between þ and ð (but siþfate, p. 464, and oþþe, p. 49). The back of ð is long, essentially straight, and angled at about 45°; the through-stroke is long, thin, and hooked very slightly down on the left. Straight-limbed dotted y is found, the right branch hooked left and taller than the left branch.