Hand: Main Hand, BL Additional Ch. 19795

Name

Main Hand

Manuscript

BL Additional Ch. 19795

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

DigiPal Scribe 35. Saec. xi1/4

Date

Saec. xi1/4

Place

Worcester

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

This quite fine but somewhat disorderly hand is relatively rounded and spaced, particularly for a boundary clause, and indeed there is little difference in script between the bounds and the attestations except for size and the relative length of ascenders. Ascenders and descenders in the charter-bounds vary in length but can be quite long, although ascenders are usually about the length of minims. Wedges are irregular: they can be very long and pointed, trailing to the left, or shorter but symmetrical about a horizontal axis. Descenders can be quite short, particularly in þ, but are usually longer than minims; they are also straight and taper slightly. Almost all minims show approach-strokes and thin horizontal feet, although wedges like those on ascenders are found sometimes on i. Caroline a was used, with a short head and prominent bowl, and the loop of the bowl is quite flat on top and angular at the bottom, almost like an inverted . Caroline a can also appear in æ but is usually more rounded; the a-component hangs very awkwardly off the back of, and is much shorter than, the e component, the result looking very much like those of S.1394-1 and S.1399-1. The back of d is very long and angled at about 70–80° but then curves back to the right. Horned e was used, but the round form appears when conjoined with a preceding t and sometimes elsewhere. The tongue of f extends slightly left of the descender. The tail of g is open and fairly curved, the mid-section hangs from the middle or left of the top-stroke, and the resultant form is S-shaped. Only tall s only is found except for one occurrence of low s (syndon, line 7). Tall s is much taller than Caroline s and descends slightly below the base-line. The Caroline s+t ligature was also used. The scribe only had two opportunities to use ð in the boundary-clause if he was following the conventional distinction between that letter and þ, but he only used ð once (hyrð, line 10; cf. æþelnoþ, line 10, and note also þurferð, wulfwarð in the witness-list). The structure of ð is much like that of d but with a prominent cross-stroke which is hooked down on the left. Dotted straight y was used throughout, even though the round dotted form was used in Latin; the right branch of y is hooked slightlly right. Latin is distinguished by script.