Hand: Identification (þis is ælfhelmes cwide), BL Stowe Ch. 36

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

This brief note was added on the dorse of the charter in a neat somewhat rounded but laterally compressed script of medium weight and some shading. The hand is very similar to that of the endorsement and of the main text but is more regular, more upright, and more laterally compressed. Indeed, it may well have been added in the mid-eleventh century, but the passage is too short to be certain. Ascenders are about 1.5–2 times the length of minims, are straight and fairly upright, and show wedges which tend towards curving forks. Descenders are long and taper slightly. Minims bulge slightly to the right and show wedges and small rising feet. No a appears in the text, but the a-component of æ is rotund with the rounded top formed by the same stroke as the back, and the small eye is closed with a tight hook which meets the long straight rising tongue. Round c is found with a short hook, and d is bilinear and has a back which extends slightly beyond the bowl. Horned e is found on all three occasions, the eye of which is again quite small and the tongue straight, long and rising. The tongue of f is concave up and short, and the hook is even shorter. The shoulders of h, m, and n are all rounded, bulging, and consistently hooked up at the tip. Only tall s is found: it descends slightly below the base-line and has a relatively large hook.