Hand: Added Glosses, BL Cotton Vespasian A.i

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

Most of these glosses were written in a fairly regular and fairly set hand with a thick pen which was held fairly flat. Ascenders are longer than minims and have wedges or approach-strokes. Descenders are shorter than ascenders, are usually about the length of minims, and are straight. Minims have short approach-strokes and can have short feet or lack feet entirely. A rounded but essentially teardrop-shaped a was used, the body sometimes wider than it is tall. A similar form was often used for æ, although a flat-topped form is also found in a low ligature. In both cases the hook is rounded and the tongue is straight and rising. Round c was used throughout, as was bilinear d and round e, and the tongue and hook of e are like those of æ. The tongue of f can be flat or concave up, and the hook is consistently short. The top of g is flat, and the mid-section hangs from approximately the centre and bulges only slightly to the left before turning right and then curving into a rounded and three-quarters-open tail. The shoulders of h, m, n, and particularly r can be quite angular and can branch from below cue-height. Tall s was used throughout, the down-stroke of which usually extends slightly below the base-line and can turn left at the tip. No ð is found. Straight-limbed y was used throughout, normally dotted (but not dotted in hyspton, Ps. 1019); the right branch is hooked left.