The compilation of a seventeenth-century Kentish manuscript book, its authorship, ownership and purpose

THE COMPILATION OF A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK, ITS AUTHORSHIP, OWNERSHIP AND PURPOSE1 PAUL LEE The Literary Manuscripts collection in Canterbury Cathedral archives includes a large folio book which draws together eleven manuscripts of a legal, administrative and ecclesiastical nature.2 The contents of Lit. MS. B2 are not written or copied by the same scribe, but vary in date from the late fifteenth to the seventeenth century. The four hundred and twelve folios were bound probably in the late seventeenth century within thick brown boards which measure 320 mm. x 220 mm.; the spine, which has no inscription and is badly decayed at the base, is 75 mm. wide. The gatherings of the various documents may mostly be readily distinguished by the different sizes of paper used. Such a collection deserves to be looked at not just for its parts but for the motives which prompted its compilation. First, it is necessary to describe the manuscripts.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF LIT. MS. B2 1. ff. 1-62: St. Augustine's Abbey Accounts This, the first document in Lit. MS. B2, is preceded by a single unfoliated fly-leaf. The text is written in Latin on both sides of good quality paper still in excellent condition, and consists of three sets of 1 This article began life as a paper delivered at the Third Canterbury-York Medieval History M.A. Conference at the University of Kent, 3-5 June, 1994. I would like to acknowledge the assistance given by the cathedral archives conservation manager in suggesting dates for the binding of Lit. MS. B2. I would also like to thank Andrew Butcher for his guidance and suggestions. 2 See Appendix A for a detailed list of contents with measurements. 3 See Appendices B and C for discussions of some hands and watermarks. 389 PAUL LEE accounts for St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. These relate to the manorial farms, bedels and abbey obedientiaries for the year ending at Michaelmas in 11 Henry VIII. Each set of accounts is preceded by a page (ff.I, 26, 45) which bears only the heading in enlarged cursive text on the recto. Each of these is followed on the verso by a contents list of manorial estates and 'Rector Fermarii'; bedels; or obedientiaries. A marginal rubric indicates names of individual items within the text such as farms, movables, stipends, assizes and rents. The accounts are spaciously set out in an ordered manner; the 'Summa' paragraphs are often shaped as right-angled triangles which are set against the right-hand paper edge and widen towards the base. The capital 'S' is always moderately decorated so that they can be easily located. The hand is an upright cursive and is heavily abbreviated; mistakes occur and are crossed out horizontally, occasionally with diagonal strokes. We are able to identify these accounts as belonging to St. Augustine's Abbey because of the farms and estates included in the first two sections.4 In addition, two 'foreign' texts have been interpolated into the abbey accounts at fos. 9 and 10. Neither belongs with the abbey accounts and, although sewn together, they do not belong with each other either. They differ in terms of paper, hands and subject matter. The first of these, fo. 9, is a narrow sheet of paper bearing a text written in a fifteenth-century hand on the recto only. It consists of cautionary verse in English on the subject of buying land, in twelve rhyming couplets with lines of seven to eleven syllables. For example: Whoo will be ware in p•rchesyng Consider the poynte that be folowyng First se that the londe be there In title of the seller Se that he not in prison be And that he be in myende and memore And that it stande no daunger Off no Womannys dower So that the seller be of age And that it be in no mortgage So wher a tayle therof may be founde And whether it stande in statute 4 cf. E. Hasted, The Historical and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, 12 vols. (W. Bristow, Canterbury, 1797-1801) and a printed set of abbey accounts in C. Cotton, 'St. Augustine's Abbey Treasurer's Accounts 1468-9 and others', Arch. Cant., Ii (1939), 66-7. 390 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK Consider whitt since longeth therto And what quyte rent therout must go And yf it meve of a wedded woman Thynk on conert de baron And then maiste in any wise Mabe the chart with warrantise To thyne hayres and assigneis also For thus a wise pi'cheser will do In xv yer if thow wise be Thou shalt ageyn thy money se Se whether the tenure be bonde or fre And se a release of any feoffe The second, fo. 10, lacks even the vaguely common subject of land; it contains a prescription for treating the plague with 'levys of red branble other levys erbe' and 'ginger finely beatyn' mixed 'in a guard' of 'white wyn vineger ... so myxt give it to the pacient cold every day a sponefull'. The paper and hand - a sloping sixteenth-century cursive - are different to those of both of the foregoing texts. 2.ff. 63-136: Gostling's Archiepiscopal documents In his catalogue of the literary manuscripts, Woodruff makes the following division of these folios: (i) The oath required of persons taking out a licence to practise surgery (1571); (ii) Extracts from the register of Archbishop Parker (1569-72).5 However, when we look at the physical documents we see that these two items belong together. In addition, there is another item not mentioned by Woodruff concerning faculty registration which is linked with these. The three documents are linked by the same sixteenth-century cursive hand; this belongs to a George Gostling, according to the scribal signature at the bottom of the surgeon's admission oath (fo. 63). This oath is a blank (name omitted and 'A.B.' substituted) statement of loyalty to the Queen and church of one admitted 'to exercise the facultie and art of surgarye' in the province of Canterbury. The text fills the page without margins and has a space at the bottom for a signature, below which is Gostling's name and the date 26 February, 1571. 5 C.E. Woodruff, A Catalogue of the Manuscript Books which are preserved in the study X.Y.Z. and in the Howley-Harrison Collection in the Library of Christ Church, Canterbury (Cross and Jackman, Canterbury, 1911), 49. 391 PAUL LEE There are also blank legal formulae relating to marriage and financial agreements referring to ecclesiastical preferment in Kent (ff. 63v-66r). Not only do the extracts in Latin from Archbishop Matthew Parker's Register share Gostling's hand but they begin on the reverse side of the final marriage formulae (fo. 66v). Here, there is a contents list in Latin numbered 1-35 corresponding with paragraph numbers within the text on ff. 67-96 running 1-36, including 34a-g. This paper first used in 1571 for the surgeon's oath here contains register extracts with dates up to 1575: there are various in 1569 and 1570, including marriage and ordination lists (fo. 96); 23 January 1572 (fo. 96r); and 6th October 1574 (fo. 68r). Only the extracts copied on ff. 96v-127 cover the period up to 1575; it is the same hand but smaller and more densely written. That these have been written up separately is also suggested by the numbering of pages (odd only): 1-33, (34), 35-49 on ff. 69-96; and 3-23 on ff. 97-107. The subjects of extracts, which include sections on pluralities, institutions, ordinations, marriage solemnisations and religious feasts, are indicated by a neat marginal rubric. The name Matthew and other prominent words are engrossed in an enlarged textura. Ff. 89-93r are different with an enlarged text, greater spacing and no marginal notes. These Register extracts are followed by texts principally relating to the Court of Faculties (ff. 128-136). The paper and hand are the same as above but the text is in English with the heading 'Observacions for order to be taken in the court of Faculties' . This court belonged to the archbishop. Ff. 128-9 present a list of instructions for filing and registering faculty applications; fo. 131 concerns dispensations to hold two benefices; the heading on fo. 132 is: 'Articles enquyred of the lerned in the lawes ecclesiasticall touching the Faculties'. Fo. 129 is of a different size to the surrounding folios but still in Gostling's hand. The recto contains articles relating to patents, the Exchequer, the 'kynges bench' and penal laws. The verso contains a copy of a letter (the signatures are all in the same hand) accompanying certain articles to be communicated to 'justices of the peace of the countie' on their circuits. It comes from Greenwich, is dated 7th June, 1573, and is 'signed' by Leicester, Knollys, Arundel, Sussex, Burleigh and Thomas Smith. The last page of Gostling's manuscript contains statements in his hand about the authority of the Church of England, baptism and the sacraments, and the temporal government of England by the Queen. 3. ff. 137-9: Letters of petition Woodruff omits mention of these two letters. The paper is stained and torn with holes so that the text is sometimes missing. Folds are visible on ff. 138 and 139. 392 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK The mark of a red seal can be seen on fo. 138 with the direction to 'Mr pearson prebendarye of Canturburye', addressed as 'your grace' within the letter. Undated, it refers to a previous meeting at Lambeth, presumably the archiepiscopal palace; it is a request from one guilty of unspecified misdemeanours for the renewal of a licence to preach. The second is a petition to a bishop, written by the same late sixteenth-century scribe, appealing on behalf of a vicar's widow who has been left with debts because of a building project undertaken by her husband before his death. The petitioners refer to the potential 'utter undoynge of his poore wifes childe' also saying that some of the 'Syrferge of the parishe are behind in theyre tieithes'. There are eight signatures of which some are very rough indeed and one is quite unreadable. The first on the left is the most elegant: Thomas Engeham. The other names include Thomas Clintrie, two other Thomases, Jhon Mardis(?), Robert Adams and William Grimshore. These appear to be eight men of a parish with various degrees of writing ability who are able to witness and sign documents. Thomas Engeham must be the best educated and the prime mover. 4. ff 140-160: Treatise on the rights and prerogatives of the Archbishop of Canterbury This document written in Latin consists of extracts copied from registers relating to the rights and customs of the archiepiscopacy of Canterbury.6 It is the only manuscript in Lit. MS. B2 written on vellum and is in good condition, except for the blackened edges which show that it has been in a fire at some point. The abbreviated text, in a neat book hand probably of the later fifteenth century, occupies an area neatly ruled up with two columns on some pages. Elaborated capitals at the start of each paragraph and the initial capitals of the right hand marginal text are all outlined in red. This treatment is also given to the consecutive numbers in some margins. The first two or three words of each paragraph and all the marginal text are underlined in red. There are no errors and very few insertions. A later owner has numbered the pages (odd only) 1-41. The contents relate to such matters as archiepiscopal lands and dues, and lists of vacant parishes and sees, including London, Canterbury and Lincoln. 6 Woodruff, ibid. 393 PAUL LEE 5. ff. 161-170: Acts of the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church Canterbury in the matter of the inthronisation of Archbishop Grindall This Latin document is written on large-sized paper on which the text oocupies an unruled area 250 mm. x 130/140 mm. with wide margins. The paper is of a good quality and well preserved; it incorporates a common sixteenth-century watermark.7 The hand is a neat sixteenthcentury cursive with few errors and the ink is now rather faded. There are simple enlarged capitals and the text, which is spaciously set out, is arranged on the first and last pages into neat but unruled boxes that occupy only part of the paper area. Edmund Grindall is named as Edmund 'Eboracum' on fo. 165v and then as Edmund Cantuar in enlarged italics on fo. 167v. The date 1575 appears within an elaborate device on fo. 170r. This pattern of intersecting lines with scroll effects also incorporates the initials R.W., with a motto in Latin: 'Veritas Simplex non embeseit', which correspond with the name in the accompanying paragraph: 'And I Robert Witherne ...' . The prerogatives and privileges of the archbishop of Canterbury are referred to on fo. 166. Some of Grindall's fellow bishops of the time, his 'venerable brothers', are named. 6. ff. 171-182: Christ Church Visitation Record of All Souls College, Oxford The heading of this Latin document, on fo. 171 v, is: 'De visitatione Collegium Universitatis Animarum Oxon. Per Priore et Capitulum Cantuariense'. There is no date but it obviously comes from before 1540 becaus e of the reference to the Prior of Canterbury. The text uniform l y occupies an area 215 mm. x 130 mm. with wide, unruled margins. The hand is a neat, regular, clear italic at the s tart, without flourishes. At first only a few errors occur but abbreviation and untidiness increase so that, by the end, there is a packed scribble with words underlined and crossed out. It does, however, seem to be the original document because six red wax seals are affixed to the paper on ff. 17 8 v (three), 181 (two) and 182v. The ink is unfaded, and the paper is uns tained or damaged. A date not too much earlier than 1540 might be expected. 1 See Appendix B. 394 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK 7. ff. 183-216: Copy of the Sandwich Custumal The folios are all the same size and shape, each one having a uniform curved section cut out of the bottom. The thin paper is of good quality. The English text is neatly written with few errors in blocks 215 mm. x 105 mm., with equal margins, in a secretary hand. It is divided into paragraphs some of which have headings (mostly in Latin) and the initial two words have elongated ascenders and moderately elaborated capitals. Ff. 210-216 are different; the hand is possibly a new one, the ink is blacker, there are no paragraph headings, the initial capitals are more elaborate with patterns of intersecting lines and there are some untidy marginal notes. The ink is black at first and fades through the document until it is orange by fo. 209. The first line on the title page fo. 183r is in Latin and the first and third lines of English are in an enlarged script with long and gently curving ascenders: Lex et consuetudo ville Sandwici The Lawe and Custome of Sandwiche in Englisshe The chasing of the mayer and Jurates A block of text on this subject follows, below which is a heading for the next page: 'Election of officials and constant ordinances'. Around the text on the title page are scrawled random letters and words, in different hands and inks, which have no apparent meaning. In addition, this rhyming couplet is written up one margin: He that in youthe no vertue wyll use All honor in age wyll refuse Whether this was an official or personal copy of an old custumal, it has clearly passed through the hands of a number of people. Subsequent pages are much cleaner, however. Woodruff dates it to the sixteenth century.8 8. ff. 218-244: Thomas Godfrey's Book of Lydd This manuscript is compiled from fragments written at different times. Close attention to such physical evidence as paper, watermarks and the hands9 is needed in order to date and distinguish sections. It is a version s Woodruff, foe. cit. in note 5. 9 See Appendices. 395 PAUL LEE of the Lydd custumal which, according to the inscriptions, was compiled by Thomas Godfrey in 1587. The title page (fo. 218r), which is badly torn diagonally so that only half the page remains, itself contains four headings in different hands: (i) 'Thomas Godfreys Booke May 6th 1587' This is in a late sixteenth-century cursive which matches the hand and orange ink colour of fo. 219. It is a flowing script leaning to the right with long curved ascenders and descenders. We can take it to be the hand of Thomas Godfrey himself. (ii) 'Thomas Godfrey his booke' This is in a neat, curved hand in black ink . The G and d are very elaborate and join at the top. (iii) 'Thomas Godfrey his booke' The style is much simpler and more modern; the capital T, h, capital G, r and y are more angular with straight lines. Simple curves provide the only elaboration. (iv) 'Question whether the following Customes and Usages belong to the Town of Lydd?' This hand is also more recent than the sixteenth century, but it is more curved and a finer quill has been used. It may be a reference to the general Cinque Port material included at the end of the book. Analysis of the hands and watermarks suggests a division of the book of Lydd into five parts, although the division between the fourth and fifth parts is unclear: ff.218+219 ff.220-28 ff.229-32 ff.233-? ff. ?-244 -Thomas Godfrey, 1587. - Fifteenth-century fragment. - Godfrey, different date? - Fifteenth-century. - Late fifteenth-century, c. 1483? (see below). The folios are numbered 1-26 from fo. 219 in black ink in a sixteenth-century hand which may correspond with that of ff. 229-232. Similarly, the paragraphs on ff. 219v-229v are numbered up to 79. The first late fifteenth-century fragment incorporated by Godfrey (ff. 220-228), in English, is heavily annotated and would, therefore, seem to have been much consulted. Godfrey's hand appears in the brown and black ink of his two main sections, the black text sometimes writes over or incorporates earlier notes in the same hand in brown ink, as on fo. 227v; pointing hands or the word 'note' are added in the margin next to certain paragraphs and one of these is 396 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK incorporated into the gloss: 'A note that the baylife may stresse and sequester' . There are also the original fifteenth- and some seventeenth-century annotations. The second fifteenth-century fragment (ff. 233-?), in L atin, opens in the middle of a sentence; there is no enlarged capital as at the beginnings of the following paragraphs. When the hand changes or becomes untidier, around fo. 236, the margins which before have limited the text to an area 220 mm. x 145 mm. are abandoned. As mentioned, the paper is unchanged at this point. English reappears and alternates with Latin from fo. 241. The ordinances deal with Lydd's trades, market regulation, law and order, its ruling body and officials, and there are many references to the customs of the Cinque Ports and their Members from fo. 229. The Lydd freeman's oath on fo. 229v emphasises commonality with the Ports: Yea shall well and trewly use support & maynteyne all the L i bertyes Francheses priveleges costums usages of all the v portes & ther members and especially of this towne of Lydd ... On fo. 241 is a section dealing with the exclusive rights of freemen of the Ports and particular references to Hastings (hence the sceptical comment of the fourth hand of the title page?). Indeed, ff. 235-244 of Godfrey's book are not specific to Lydd but deal with the Cinque Ports in general with accounts, ordinances and regulations, and a list of the Ports bracketed with their members (fo. 237). On fo. 239v there are sums of money entered with reference to the hundred of Langport within which Lydd was situated. There is further help in dating the final section of this book on ff. 239v-240r; here there is written out a complete list of kings and queens of England from Alfred to Elizabeth. The list goes up to Edward IV in the original hand and is completed up to Elizabeth in two additional ones. L engths of reigns are also given throughout including for Edward IV in the original hand which thus gives us an earliest date of 1483. That this agrees with the dating of the paper, and that Richard III and, interestingly enough, Edward V are not written out in this hand suggests that 1483 may be the exact date. The first additions stop at Henry VIII, having also omitted Edward V (inserted by the third scribe), indicating that at least one other person had possessed this fragment before Godfrey incorporated it in his book in 1587. The third hand is not Godfrey's and post-dates 1603 since it gives the length of Elizabeth's reign, although the different inks used suggest that the list has been worked on at different times. 397 PAUL LEE 9. ff 245-269: Laws of Alfred, Athelstan and Inae This is the first of two Old English manuscripts within Lit. MS. B2. The text is plain, neat and clear with only a few errors. It occupies an area 240 mm. x 140 mm. with spacious borders on the outside and bottom edges and is written on one side only of the paper. Between ff. 246r and 261v the sections are numbered 1-16, omitting 5. The three sections have Latin titles written in cursive script. The text is neither complete nor continuous, as comparison with a printed version discussed later demonstrates. Ff. 246-7 are inserted out of order into the Laws of Alfred, there is a similar disruption in the text between ff. 250 and 252 and this section breaks off abruptly at the bottom of fo. 261r. The 'Legis Athelstani' start abruptly, on fo. 262v, and finish similarly on fo. 266v. The 'Legis Inae' open in the middle of the text and continue to the end. There are other minor discrepancies such as words and titles missed out or changed. Analysis of the paper suggests a sixteenth-century date. 10 JO. ff 270-311: Anglo-Saxon Gesta servatoris The full Latin heading of the second Anglo-Saxon text in Lit. MS. B2 given on fo. 272 is: Gesta servatoris domini nostri Jesu Christi quae invenit Theodosius Magnus imp era tor in Jerusalem in Pretoria Pontii Pilati in codicibus publicis The paper is much smaller than in any other text in the compilation and the seventeenth-century italic hand makes it the latest. The text occupies boxes neatly ruled in ink which often has transferred itself to the opposite page. The title page is similarly ruled up into smaller boxes which contain the short title 'Gesta servatoris dni nostri Jesu Christi' and a simple, decorous squiggle. The only annotation is the marginal comment in Latin on fo. 272r which seems to indicate the source of the manuscript: 'MS. Cantab in Archivus Bibliothecae Publicae ad finem 4°r Evang. Sax'. 11.ff 312-412: Chancery Lawyer's Book This manuscript collection of legal formulae and precedents is itself a collection of texts within the overall compilation, for it also contains a verse epitaph and a collection of recipes and medical prescriptions at the end. 10 See Appendix B. 398 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK The legal texts appear on ff. 312-402. Latin and English alternate throughout with marginal glosses sometimes in English for the Latin paragraphs. An index occurs on folios 312-13 which refers to ff. 314-73; the texts concern such matters as the gathering of evidence, making leases, surrendering land or tenements into a lord's hands, the solemnisation of marriage, rent payment, indentures for all sorts of financial matters, and the partition of inheritance between sisters. The procedure to be followed is given in each case. The lists of charges for Chancery Court services, with lists of payments to Chancery officials, occur on ff. 370-74 and 40lv, and include the master of the rolls (£3), the 'clerke of the privie seale' (26s. 6d.), the 'clerke of the petie bagg' (40s.), the 'lord great chambrelayne' (40s.) and the 'greate seale' (43s. 4d.). The pages have been cut down to a uniform size so that some text and the original folio numbers are missing. The abbreviated text is closely written, at first in a neat and compact cursive which may be different to that of the index. Thick borders are drawn to the left of the text with a simple decoration at every paragraph break; gothic initial words of each paragraph and a marginal text aid reference. There are changes in presentation (but not paper type or subject matter) after fo. 373 when the hand, possibly a new one, becomes denser, untidier and more abbreviated; the decorated border lines are abandoned, as are the margins themselves from fo. 399; new sixteenthand seventeenth-century hands appear on ff. 318v, 330v, 398r, 402v and 404-12, filling up spaces and blank sides, especially with recipes from fo. 402. On fo. 401 v paragraphs on costs at the Chancery Court are juxtaposed with prescriptions such as a treatment for burns using parsley and hyssop soaked in wine. It is the same hand but in three different inks, perhaps written at different times. The paper deteriorates in condition from fo. 374 when it becomes browned and stained with tom edges obscuring some parts of the text. However, it is of a uniform size and type throughout the manuscript, including the section from fo. 401 v containing recipes and prescriptions. The date of the watermark11 agrees with the dates in the text: 1579 (fo. 312) and 20 Elizabeth I (fo. 398). Only fo. 412 with a religious text on the verso is different paper; however, recipes on the recto show that it belongs with the preceding folios. The Epitaph on fo. 403r also belongs with both the legal texts and the recipes; it shares the same hand as the legal texts and many of the recipes, which continue on fo. 403v with six cures for the toothache. 11 See Appendix B. 399 PAUL LEE The full title is: 'An Epitaphe uppon the death of Master Horton Sincere preacher of the word of god in the citye of London'. It is a 46- line panegyric, with general thoughts on death, in rhyming couplets of long 14 and 15 syllable lines. The author of this verse, named as T. Brice, paints an admiring picture of the 'sincere preacher': His fervent zeale in godly lyffe the godly sort can tell His brething sweet of sweetest christ which sweetly out did flowe From mouthe at him that sweetlye sought that faithe might creace and growe Thus sweet he was ... Nay gon thou art by grace to him whose grace thy sincere zeale Displayed with power, wy horton wy in Blisfull heavenly weale. After the Epitaph, the recipes and prescriptions continue in the same hand, sometimes in different inks. One of the new hands on fo. 402, a sloping sixteenth-century cursive, appears again on fo. 406v. It takes over on fo. 409 and continues to the end with additions inserted in a later squared hand which also appeared on fo. 402. There are no more legal texts. Every sheet is packed with a mass of writing with over a hundred cures and recipes, many added wherever there is room by the people who have subsequently gained possession of the manuscript. Particularly numerous are treatments for the toothache, falling sickness, nose bleeds and common cold. A wide range of herbs and other ingredients is obviously available to whoever uses them; mentioned are root of dragwort or filipenclula, marigold, ground pyne, root of satyryon, boiled goat's milk, henfoot, ryeflour, honey, gynger, cynamond, pepper, red nettle, nettle seeds and parsley. One cure for the vertigo calls for wormwood, 'magwort spearemint', 'licoris', 'anniseed' and stoned raisins: 'Boyle all together in a bottle of mustadell and of much water then drink it five spoonefull evening and morning' (fo. 402v). The cures are variously taken internally, rubbed on the back, stomach, chest or bruises. Some are marked with black crosses perhaps indicating their efficacy. Not all the recipes are medical: fo. 410, for example, has recipes for 'macaroones' and 'fine sugar cakes'. On the other side of fo. 412 from the religious diagram, amongst recipes and a testimony to the efficacy of one 'Ladie Estfeild Master Ailesporths sister"s cures for the falling sickness, is a line which expands the scope of the collection further: 'A new horsturd layed in your chamber will draw all the gnats unto the same'. Indeed, there also appear some personal accounts across the bottom of fo. 410v and a reference to playing cards on fo. 406r. 400 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK The religious text on fo. 412v is a word diagram which expresses different aspects of the word of God as a spur to action, source of grace and spiritual nourishment, and a key to the gates of heaven. It is set down with bold black lines and gothic lettering. There is no indication of its origin and it has subsequently been scribbled on. It is the final page in the book. AUTHORSHIP, OWNERSHIP AND PURPOSE The examination of internal and external evidence and contexts reveals a greater degree of coherence and meaning in this compilation of manuscripts than might at first be apparent. This allows suggestions to be made as to what sort of person(s) might have collected them and had them bound together. Most of the manuscripts in Lit. MS. B2 are of a legal, administrative and often ecclesiastical nature which may manifest professional interests. Further, the selection and juxtaposition of items within individual manuscripts allow inferences to be made about what sort of person was responsible for their assemblage in terms of their professional and personal pursuits and sympathies. Their inclusion within the larger compliation suggests that these interests were in some measure shared by the lawyer(?) who may have compiled the whole book. The recipes and Chancery business, which are juxtaposed in the same hand on fo. 401 v of the Chancery lawyer's manuscript, are relevant to each other in that they reflect the enthusiasms and mindset of the scribe who has put them together. Similarly, the interpolations into the St. Augustine's Abbey accounts have no direct connection with that document but they may reflect interests and enthusiasms of the overall compiler of the bound collection. The right sort of lawyer would be familiar with the matters of buying land, mortgage, tenure and inheritance raised in the verse on fo. 9. He must have appreciated them expressed wittily in verse. That he was also fond of medical prescriptions is suggested by the plague cure on fo. 10 as well as the recipes on the final pages of the last manuscript in his collection. The Epitaph (fo. 403), which is copied by the Chancery lawyer at the end of his legal texts amongst the recipes, tells us more about his personal sympathies and commitments. It is not great poetry, being rather clumsy in its use of paradox, wordplay and melodramatic rhetoric (Brice cries: 'O monster thou ingratitude . . .'), but it expresses devotion to the deceased preacher which we presume our Chancery lawyer shared. T. Brice, the author of this verse, probably was the Thomas Brice, Protestant martyrologist, priested in 1561 by Edmund 401 PAUL LEE Grindall when Bishop of London. In 1559, he wrote 'A Compendious Register in Metre ...'1 2 and 'A briefe register in meter conteining the names of martyrs in time of Marie' 13 which was used by Foxe when compiling his Acts and Monuments. In Mary's reign he smuggled Protestant books into Kent and London.14 The Epitaph must have been written by 1570 when Brice died and so it has been copied out some time afterwards by our Chancery lawyer whose text is dated 1578/9. The sincere preacher of the City of London, Master Horton, was probably the Thomas Horton, rector of St. Magnus the Martyr in the City, who died in 1564. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge in the 1540s, ordained deacon in London in 1550 and priested in 1560,15 a delay not necessarily unusual but perhaps caused by Mary's reign if he was a committed Protestant. Our Chancery lawyer of 1579 might have known him, if he was working or studying at the Inns of Court in the 1550s and early 1560s. The possible Protestant sympathies of our Chancery lawyer and by implication the compiler of the book are further suggested by the religious text on fo.4 12v. It might be a piece of scrap paper found and used to add more recipes, hence the idle scribbling around the main text. However, this devotional text gains significance when seen in the context of the protestant Epitaph and as the last side of paper of the whole manuscript collection. One does not use scrap paper like this lightly; its bold black lines and gothic hand cannot be ignored. Similarly, the disparate texts of the Gostling manuscripts are all connected by the author's interest in the archiepiscopacy of Canterbury. The form of the surgeon's admission oath which precedes the extracts from Archbishop Parker's Register has more to do with loyalty to postReformation Church and State in the province of Canterbury than with the art of surgery. The Archbishop's Court of Faculties materials are followed by the statements about the authority of the new Church of England, its prayer book, articles and sacraments, which has particular relevance to Matthew Parker. Gostling was perhaps a scribe or official working in Archbishop Parker's administration (1559-75). George Gostling might have been a member of the Kentish Gostling family later to be connected with Canterbury Cathedral. They lived in the cathedral precincts in the seventeenth to early nineteenth century; 12 S.T.C. 3726. 13 S.T.C. 3727. 14 Dictionary of National Biography, ii, 1219-1220. 15 J. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Pt. i to 1751 (Cambridge University Press, 1922), vol. ii, 411. 402 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK John Gostling (1650-1733), a famous Restoration bass singer, and his son William (1696-1777), an antiquarian and naturalist, were minor canons of Canterbury who held various parochial appointments in Kent during their lifetimes. John was also sub-dean at St. Paul's. His father, Isaac Gostling (d. 1669) was a tallow chandler of yeoman status in East Malling; of the other sons, William inherited his trade, Isaac was educated at Cambridge and became vicar of Wouldham, and Thomas failed in business. Miles Gostling, buried at East Malling in 1620, was possibly the father of Isaac (senior).16 Not far away at Ightham, the names William Gosselyn and John Goselyng appear in the court rolls 1568-1618.17 These would have been contemporary with George Gostling, scribe or official of the church at Canterbury. The presence of the Grindall inthronisation document further suggests that an interest in the post-Reformation archiepiscopacy was shared by the overall compiler of Lit. MS. B2. Archbishop Parker died in August 1575; Grindall was nominated in December and elected in January. This enables us to date this document to the second half, perhaps even December, of 1575, the year which appears on the final folio (fo. 170r). Further, the inclusion of three manuscripts - the St. Augustine's Abbey accounts, the late fifteenth-century treatise on the rights of the archbishop and the All Souls College visitation document - manifests an antiquarian interest in the pre-Dissolution institutions of Canterbury. External contexts illuminate the latter document for us; All Souls College, Oxford, was founded by Archbishop Chichele, in 1438, with the particular intention of training lawyers and priests to serve the church and state as he had done. 18 The college retained Peculiar relations to the See of Canterbury after its foundation and was, in effect, subject to the archbishop.19 The many archiepiscopal letters and injunctions in the college archives testify to the practical reality of the visitor's role.20 Our document can probably be explained by the fact that the Prior and Convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, and later the Dean and Chapter, acted as the Archbishop in sede vacante whenever 16 All preceding information on the Gostlings is derived from an unpublished Ph.D. thesis in Canterbury Cathedral Library: Robert Francis Ford, Minor Canons at Canterbury Cathedral: The Gostlings and their Colleagues, 3 vols., 1984. 17 E.H., 'The Court Rolls ofightham', Arch. Cant., xlix (1937), 1-95; 58. 18 C.G. Robertson, All Souls College (London, 1899), 1-2, 24, 29-30. 19 A.B. Cobban, 'Colleges and Halls 1380-1500', in (Eds.) J. Catto and R. Evans, The History of the University of Oxford, vol. ii, Late Medieval Oxford (Oxford, 1992), 582-633; 606. 20 VCH (Oxford), iii (1965), 175. 403 PAUL LEE the suffragan see of Dover was also vacant. Such vacancies between 14 38 and 1540 occurred from 30 March to 13 July, 1486; 15 September, 1500, to 7 August, 1501; 15 February, 1502/3, to 24 January, 1503/4.21 The hand and paper make either of the latter seem more likely for the manuscript in Lit. MS. B2. A particular concern with the ecclesiastical institutions of Canterbury might also have been one reason for the preservation of copies of two Cinque Port custumals by the manuscript collector, in addition to his other interests. The archbishop, Christchurch chapter and St. Augustine's Abbey all had influence in the affairs of the Cinque Ports and their members. The Abbot of St. Augustine's was overlord of Fordwich, a member of Sandwich, as well as of Faversham, a member of Dover.22 The archbishop exercised overlordship through bailiffs in Romney and Hythe among the head ports, and Ly dd among the members.23 The Prior of Christchurch had certain rights in Sandwich granted by Cnut, confirmed by the Confessor but recovered by Edward I, the initiator of the Cinque Ports organisation, when its importance as a port was recognised.24 Sandwich's custumal was written by Adam Champney in 130125 and exemplified with other Cinque Ports' individual custumals under seals of the ports in 1356 at the request of the warden Roger Mortimer. Copies were deposited in Dover Castle where they perished with other Cinque Port records. The fourteenth-century forms of some survive, such as those of Hastings, Sandwich and Romney ;26 in Sandwich a transcription of the original 1301 manuscript was made by John Serles the town clerk between 1461 and 1465, adding customs and observations of his own time.27 The sixteenth-century version of the custumal in Lit. MS. B2 might be based on this because a common Cinque Port custumal was drawn up in 1504.28 The compiler's evident interest in Cinque Port administration mirrors that of Thomas Godfrey who includes general Cinque Port material in his book. This is not an official custumal but a personally compiled 21 C.E. Woodruff and Irene J. Churchill, Calendar of Institutions by the Chapter of Canterbury- Sede Vacante, Kent Records, 1923, xiv. 22 K.M.E. Murray, The Constitutional History of the Cinque Ports (Manchester University Press, 1935), 155. 23 Idem., 5. 24 Idem., 24. 2s N. Ticehurst, 'The Mote Swan of Kent', Arch. Cant., xlvii (1935), 55-70; 61. 26 K.M.E. Murray, 'The Commonplace Book of Faversham', Arch. Cant., xlviii (1936), 91-114; 92. 21 N. Ticehurst, loc. cit. in note 25. 2s K.M.E. Murray, loc. cit. in note 26. 404 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK book which emphasises Lydd's commonality with the Cinque Ports and their privileges, particularly of their freemen (hence, for example, Godfrey's marginal comment 'note' written against such sections as those dealing with the rights of freemen). We may infer that in this the book reflects Godfrey's view of his town and the value he and the town's governors placed on its connections with the Cinque Ports. These connections were actively defended; at times there were tensions between ecclesiastical authorities asserting their overlordship and a town's assertions of its own rights and privileges as a Cinque Port or member.29 Lydd's charter granted by Edward I in 1290, which bound the town to provide one of the five ships due from Romney to the Crown, enabled it to enjoy all the benefits and liberties of the headports as a corporate member of Romney.30 In 1298, fifteen leading townsmen in Lydd were excommunicated twice by the archbishop; first for seeking to renew their charter, and then for refusing to seal a bond to make no use of it. The charter in effect deprived the church of Canterbury of its rights and privileges.31 Thomas Godfrey must have been a resident, and perhaps a freeman, of Lydd in 1587. We can not be certain of his identity because Lydd was full of Godfreys, and Thomas was a popular name, but there is one strong possibility. Hasted informs us that the family originally came from New Romney and moved to Lydd in Henry V's reign .32 He suggests that they were called Firmor at first, then Fermor-aliasGodfrey and by the sixteenth century, when there were several branches of the family in Lydd, the principal branch (in Hasted's view) used the name Godfrey only.33 Wills demonstrate that from early on they owned and leased land; a Thomas Godfrey, who was buried in Lydd in August 1430, is named on a rent-roll of 3 Henry VI (1425) as a tenant of the manor of Old Langport in the eastern part of the parish of Lydd near New Romney.34 One of his descendants was Thomas Godfrey of Lydd (1553-1623) who could have compiled the book of Lydd in 1587, when he would have been thirty-four. He was married three times giving rise to the branches of the Godfreys in Heppington, Sellinge and MoreCourt in Ivychurch,35 a manor acquired by his father Peter Godfrey in 29 As Murray, op. cit. in note 22, demonstrates. 30 R. Graham, Review of The Register of Daniel Rough and The Custumal of New Romney, Kent Records, 1945, in Arch. Cant., lviii (1945), 87. 31 Ibid .. 32 Hasted, op. cit. in note 4, viii, 426. 33 Idem., 427. 34 S. Robertson, 'Romney- Old and New', Arch. Cant., xiii (1880), 349-73; 372. 35 Hasted, op. cit. in note 4, 427. 405 PAUL LEE 2 Edward VI (1548).36 Thomas's son by his second marriage, Thomas Godfrey of Hodiford in Sellinge (1585-1664), later purchased twothirds of Old L angport manor in 20 James I (1622).37 There are memorials in the chancel of Lydd Parish Church to the fifteenthcentury Thomas, Peter Godfrey (d. 1566) and Thomas Godfrey of Lydd (1553-1623). The inscription on the latter's memorial informs us that he . . . was Captain of ye Horse for above forty years before his Death . . . a frank House-Keeper, Hospitable to strangers and charitable to ye needy ... and died Lamented especially by ye Poor .. ,38 Thomas Godfrey of Hodiford records that his father was a bailiff of Lydd in 1586 and 1587, the year of the 'book' in Lit. MS. B2.39 He may have been the Thomas Godfrey of Lydd who led a party of Cinque Port men, in 1595, in a dispute with Thomas Cheyney over land rights. This case was a test of their special privileges as Cinque Port men as they defended their right to be impleaded only in the Court of St. James at Dover, rather than at Chancery.40 We encounter his family again when investigating the manuscript of Anglo-Saxon laws in Lit. MS. B2. The existence of two Anglo-Saxon texts within this compilation reflects the revival of Anglo-Saxon scholarship kindled by Matthew Parker. He had the printer John Day cut the first Anglo-Saxon type in brass in 1566 and produced an edition of Asser.41 This might be another reason for the compiler's inclusion of the Gostling texts in the collection; if he was an Anglo-Saxon scholar then this would have given him an added interest in the archbishop. Woodruff attributes the copy of the laws of Alfred, Athelstan and Inae to William Somner (1606-69), the Canterbury Anglo-Saxon scholar, antiquary, manuscript collector and ecclesiastical court official.42 Analysis of the paper and hand indicate that the copy is more likely the work of a sixteenthcentury scholar.43 36 /dem., 401. 37 Robertson, Loe. cit. in note 34. 38 'Visitation of the County of Kent', Arch. Cant., vi (1864), 260-70. 39 'The Domestic Chronicle of Thomas Godfrey, Esq .', in J. Nichols (ed .), The Topographer and Genealogist, ii (1853), 450-67; 467. 40 W.J. Jones, 'Chancery and the Cinque Ports in the reign of Elizabeth', Arch. Cant., Ixxvi (1961), 143-151; 149. 41 D.N.B. xv, 254-64. 42 Woodruff, op. cit. in note 5, 50. 43 See Appendices B and C. 406 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK Preliminary investigations suggest that this is the work of William Lambarde of Greenwich, a Chancery lawyer, Kentish Justice of the Peace, antiquary and Anglo-Saxon scholar. (He is, incidentally, just the sort of man likely to have compiled Lit. MS. B2). This suggestion is based on the dating of the paper and comparison of this manuscript with four other Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in Canterbury Cathedral Archives and the 1568 printed edition of Lambarde's Anglo-Saxon Laws: Archaionomia.44 As described above, the text in Lit. MS. B2 is not complete or continuous, but it is otherwise exactly the same as that which appears alongside his Latin translation of the laws of Alfred, Athelstan and Inae, amongst other kings, in Archaionomia on ff. 18-43, 56-71 and 12-17. If the manuscript here represents a draft for the printed edition then we can explain the alternate blank sides as being intended for the facing Latin translation. The hand in Lit. MS. B2 is not Somner's.45 Somner's elegant script can be studied, amongst other places, in the marginal annotations, dated 1644, on his inscribed copy of Archaionomia (1568) in Canterbury Cathedral Library, in particular a paragraph in the margin of fo. 17v; the two volumes of his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary in the Archives;46 and his inscriptions on two small paper manuscript books, the Laws of Cnut47 and a transcript of part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.48 Significantly, the hand of the text of the last two matches that of our original manuscript. The Laws of Cnut contains the complete text of that section of Lambarde's Archaionomia (1568) and is dated 1567 on the front fly -leaf and 1568 at the end. The Latin inscriptions in both documents are almost identical and inform us that William Somner of Canterbury was given them by Thomas Godfrey of Hodiford (Sellinge), esquire of Kent, but that originally they came from the most learned William Lambarde. However, a modern annotator of the Woodruff catalogue attributes these to Lambarde's Anglo-Saxon teacher at Lincoln's Inn, Laurence Nowell. We must remain alive to this possibility; indeed we know that it was Nowell who encouraged Lambarde to translate the Anglo-Saxon Laws, and that he gave his papers and transcriptions to his pupil for this task in 1567.49 However, 44 William Lambarde, Archaionomia (pr. John Day, London, 1568). 45 See Appendix C. 46 CCA Lit. MSS. C9 and ClO. 47 CCA Lit. MS. E2. 48 CCA Lit. MS. El. 49 Lambarde in his preface to Archaionomia (1568), cited in K. Sisam, 'The authenticity of certain texts in Lambarde's "Archaionomia" 1568', Modern Language Review, xx (1925), 253-69; 261. 407 PAUL LEE we also know that Nowell sailed to Europe in early 1567 to extend his learning abroad50 and, as stated, the final date on the Laws of Cnut manuscript is 1568. Of particular interest to us is the gift of these two small books to Somner by Thomas Godfrey of Hodiford, the son of 'our' Thomas Godfrey of Lydd (1553-1623). Further, Thomas the son married William Lambarde's daughter Margaret on 5 May, 1608.51 It seems that Thomas of Hodiford acquired these manuscripts, possibly with the Anglo-Saxon laws manuscript in Lit. MS. B2, through his wife and passed them on to William Somner, perhaps with his father's book of Lydd (if the attribution is correct).s2 It has been inferred from the contents of Lit. MS. B2 that they might have been compiled by somebody in a legal profession who was an antiquary and Anglo-Saxon scholar. Investigation of the late seventeenth-century binding reveals that it is exactly the same as that of Lit. MSS. All and CS both of which are collections of William Somner's manuscripts, transcripts and letters. It, therefore, seems likely that the present manuscript book was compiled by Somner, or from documents collected by him. We may note that he, like his father, worked for the ecclesiastical courts in Canterbury so that he would have had a particular interest in the authority of the archiepiscopacy. One at least of the manuscripts in Lit. MS. B2, the Anglo-Saxon laws, may have come to Somner from Thomas Godfrey of Hodiford with the laws of Cnut and Anglo-Saxon chronicle extract (Lit. MSS. El and E2), if not Godfrey's father's book of Lydd as well. Somner's collections of manuscripts and printed books, including Archaionomia, were acquired by the Cathedral Library after his death.53 Further investigation into these connections is necessary. However, it can be seen that the contents of an apparently miscellaneous manuscript collection have much to tell us about the person or people who compiled it. By seeing the book as a whole, studying its internal evidence as a physical object, and introducing contexts, we begin to see some meaning in its apparent disorder. 50 R.M. Wamicke, William Lambarde: Elizabethan Antiquary 1536-1601 (Phillimore, Chichester, 1973), 23. 51 Idem., 138. 52 It is interesting to note that it was Lambarde and one other Chancery official who presided over the case in 1595 between Thomas Cheyney and the Cinque Port men including Thomas Godfrey. See note 40 above. 53 In particular, Lit. MSS. A3, All, Al5, CS, C6, C7, CS, C9, ClO, Cl6, D2, E20, E21, D2. 408 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK APPENDIX A: CONTENTS AND MEASUREMENTS Literary MS B2 1 fo. 1 St. Augustine's Abbey accounts 310 mm. x 210 mm. (fo. 9) - Verse 295 mm. x 150 mm. (fo. 10) - Plague cure 295 mm. x 195 mm. 2 fo. 63 Surgeon's admission oath, etc. 290 mm. x 190 mm. fo. 66v Archbishop Parker Register 300 mm. x 200 mm. fo. 128 Court of Faculties material Ditto 3 fo. 137 Petitions to 'his grace' 305 mm. x 170 mm. 4 fo. 140 Treatise on rights of the Abp. 295 mm. x 205 mm. 5 fo. 161 Inthronisation of Grindall 315 mm. x 210 mm. - Dean and Chapter Acts 6 fo. 171 Prior and Convent (Christchurch) 290 mm. X 215 mm. Visitation of All Souls, Oxon. 7 fo. 183 Copy of Sandwich Custumal 300 mm. x 210 mm. 8 fo. 218 Thomas Godfrey's Book 295 mm. x 170 mm. - fo. 218 Tom - fo. 219 295 mm. x 190 mm. 9 fo. 245 Laws of Alfred, Athelstan and Inae 295 mm. x 200 mm. 10 fo. 270 Theodosius, Gesta servatoris 280 mm. x 170 mm. 11 fo. 312 Chancery lawyer's collections 290 mm. x 200 mm. APPENDIX B: WATERMARKS Briquet's editor cautions us that watermarks are not keys to precise dates, but 'more often than has been supposed they offer clues to approximate ones'. 54 They can confirm dates suggested by other evidences and help link uncertain texts. (1) Archbishop Parker's Register extracts (ff. 66-127) These folios contain a variety of the hand with star on forefinger mark. Briquet gives many variations and the closest to ours are late sixteenth-century: 10806 (1569), 10807 (1574) and 10723 (1576), except for 10713 which is of 1485.55 54 C.M. Briquet, Les Filigranes, (Ed.) A. Stevenson (Amsterdam, 1968), i, 31. 55 Idem., iv. 409 PAUL LEE Heawood draws many of his examples from documents in Canterbury Cathedral Library; this was one of the most common marks found in England before 1580.56 Our example accords with his figure 134. (2) Grindall inthronisation document (ff. 161-70) This one-handled jug with decorated top device was even more common in sixteenth-century England than the hand with star;57 Briquet's closest examples range from 1547 (12666) to the 1570s (a number).58 (3) Thomas Godfrey's Book 1587 (ff. 218-44) (i) Ff. 218+219 share the same sixteenth-century single-handled jug watermark with eight vertical lines as we found in ff. 161-170 (dated 1575). (ii) Ff. 220-228 are quite different in terms of the paper as well as the script. The watermark is a gothic P. Briquet says that no single letter of the alphabet was used as much59 and he gives 466 examples. There were two main classes - the Gothic and Latin Ps. None of Briquet's illustrations are quite so angular as our example but nos. 8522-c. 8544,60 which range in date between 1447 and 1526, are most similar. The majority of these are from the 1460s and 1480s and the two closest to our mark are 8528 (1467) and 8525 (1453), the latter sharing the divided feet with split up the middle. In these the arm goes behind the stem, two stems at the top meet but do not join, the lower right-hand bend of the loop is squared off and there are no crosses, crowns or stars attached at the top. Heawood's figures 62/3 are very similar, excepting the cross on top of figure 62, and he cites examples in the paper of various of the Paston letters, 1472-1500, as well as some of the first half of the sixteenth century in Canterbury Cathedral Library materials.61 On the whole, a later fifteenthcentury date for our paper seems most likely. (iii) Ff. 229-232 are the same paper as ff. 218-219 above, including the watermark, so it could well be Godfrey's hand again. (iv) Ff. 233-241 have the same watermark as well as the same hand as ff. 220-228 (although the hand becomes less certain). (v) Ff. 242-244: the hand does not change at this point and the paper, although different, is of a similar age. The watermark is a simple pot/jug with six vertical lines; it could be one of a number of Briquet's pots from the late fifteenth to the first half of the sixteenth century (12476-12495). The closest is an example in Neubourg in 1471 (12476) from the Champagne area.62 Heawood's figure 70 is an exact match and various examples from 1477-83 are cited.63 56 E. Heawood, 'Sources of early English paper supply', The Library (4th ser.) x, (1929-30), 282-307 and 427-454; 436. 57 Idem., 445. 58 Briquet, op. cit., in note 54, iv. 59 Briquet, op. cit., in note 54, ii, 454-5. 60 Idem., 462. 61 Heawood, op. cit., in note 56, 296; 438. 62 Briquet, op. cit., in note 54, iv. 63 Heawood, op. cit., in note 56, 244; 296. 410 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY KENTISH MANUSCRIPT BOOK (4) Laws of Alfred, Athelstan and Jnae (ff. 245-69) The medium sized crown watermark confirms that this is a sixteenth-century text. It conforms with Heawood's figure 104 (Canterbury 1536, 1545).64 (5) Chancery lawyer's book (ff. 312-412) The paper throughout these various items has the same jug watermark as manuscript E. Only fo. 412 is different having a two-handled jar with long neck and stopper which I cannot identify in either Briquet or Heawood. APPENDIX C: HANDS (1) Thomas Godfrey's Book (ff. 218-244) Study of the hands is another method of distinguishing between assembled sections of this text. Godfrey's hand (?) on fo. 219 is a flowing cursive which leans to the right with long curved ascenders and descenders. These characteristics are true of ff. 229-32, but the ink is blacker and a thicker quill has been used. Both are present in annotations on ff. 220-28; incorporation of some 'orange' notes into those in the darker ink suggest ff. 229-32 were written by Godfrey after fo. 219. An annotation on fo. 227v includes the date 1616 and is rounder than Godfrey's with shorter stems. The hand of the main text of ff. 220-228 is upright with elaborate 'w's and long 'r's; it returns on fo. 233. After fo. 236 it is difficult to tell whether it is a new hand or the same one becoming untidy. Capital 'B's in 'bailiff' on ff. 220 and 241 are different but sufficiently similar in their long tails and flourish to be still the same. (2) Laws of Alfred, Athelstan and Jnae (ff. 245-69) The hand is not Somner's; it is a larger squared italic with different ascenders and cross-bars on the thorns. The letter shapes match those of Lit. MSS. El and 2, and similarly the characteristic of setting the first capital of each new section into the margin. Somner's hand in the inscriptions is small, neat, rounded and elegant. (3) Chancery Lawyer's Book (ff. 312-412) The main hand of the legal texts and the Epitaph is a compact cursive clearly distinguishable from the longer flowing cursive of most of the recipes on ff. 402 and 403v-412. The other major new hand of these last folios, which also commences on fo. 402, is unelaborate, round and upright. 64 Idem., 432. 411