Hand: Land Grants, Hand 1 (47v11–15), BL Cotton Domitian vii, fols. 15–45 (and added fols.)

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

This small, slightly forward-leaning and relatively neat hand was written with a relatively thick pen and shows a good deal of shading. Ascenders are long and wedged, and descenders are straight and tapering. Minims are small and have wedges and small feet. Teardrop-shaped a was used throughout with a relatively thick back and narrow loop. The a component of æ, in contrast, can be very rotund and laterally extended, the top and back being formed with a single stroke, the top of the eye is quite rounded, and the tongue is rising. Round c appears throughout, and the back of d is very short and vertical-tipped. Both horned and round e appear, the eye of which squints somewhat, and the tongue is straight, rising, and extends beyond the eye. A tall open-e ligature occurs twice (feregenne, 47v13; mete, 47v15). The tongue of f is long and flat. The mid-section of g is straight and angled and turns sharply into a round open tail and a slight upward hook at the end. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r can be quite angular, and the minim is often quite straight but angled slightly back to the left. The descender of r can be very short, and the letter is deeply split, the hook branching from close to the base-line; one example of the o 2 monogram occurs (feorðan, 47v12). Tall, round, and low s all appear: tall four times, three initially (sce twice, ediscum, sylle), round once (syleð), and low elsewhere. Round s is slightly larger than the surrounding letters and rises above cue-height, tall s sits almost exactly on the base-line, and low s branches from close to the tip of the descender. The scribe used ð exclusively except for one occurrence of the abbreviation for þæt (47v12). The back of ð is thick, long, and turned upwards at the tip, and the through-stroke is short, symmetrical about the back, and shows very small ticks at either end. Both straight-limbed and round y were used, neither dotted. Round y is bilinear and deeply split, and the straight-limbed y has a thick left branch, and the upper right branch is hooked left. The top of 7 is very concave up, beginning almost vertically before sweeping back up and finishing with a downward stroke which ranges from around 60° to almost 90°.