Hand: Scribbles (107r), BL Royal 7.C.iv

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

These notes were written with a thin pen in very small script with little pen-lift. The text is partly obscured by a cut in the parchment. The scribbles were perhaps written by the same scribe who glossed the main text: letter-forms are much the same, although the scribbles are messier and less regular. Ascenders and descenders are both longer than minims; descenders are straight, and ascenders can have wedges, or barbs, or lack decoration entirely. Minims have small wedges or small feet, or both or neither. Single-compartment a was used, sometimes with a rounded top formed by the same stroke as the back, but usually with a more pointed top. The back of d is low, sometimes bilinear and sometimes rounded and rising slightly above the base-line. Round e was used, the tongue thin and rising. The hook of f is short and branches from close to the base-line, and the tongue is long and flat. The top of g is wide and flat, the mid-section hangs on the left, swings well to the right, then is angled down and left before hooking up at the tip. The shoulders of h, m, n and r are often somewhat angular, and are often deeply split, sometimes branching from the base-line. Caroline r is sometimes found in an Old English context. Tall s is found before c and descends only slightly below the base-line. Latin is not generally distinguished by script, except for straight-backed d and an angular 3-shaped g.