the Preston Hall date, though Dr. Harris, in aid of a premature conclusion, has cited with a degree of confidence the numbering of the leaves of the famous Textus Roffensi in Arabic figures; for, as he alledges, "they are, by appearance, of the same age with the Textus itself, and that, if so, they ascertain the use of these numeral figures in Kent thirty-one years before the time assigned by Dr. Wallis, because it was probable that bishop Ernulf, the compiler of the greatest part of this ancient MS. finished it about the year 1120[1]."
Harris does not, however, seem to have been aware of the very great improbability of his surmise, that Ernulf should have been so fully acquainted with the force and convenience of these figures, as to have applied them for the purpose suggested, and yet that not a single Arabic figure should, by accident, have slipt from his pen into the body of the work, though the compiler has specified the dates of the years recorded, together with the value of many of the donations to his church, and of other articles possessed by the priory; and in several of the pages the insertion of these numerals would have saved the writer much time and trouble, and parchment, which was then a dear commodity[2]. No less extraordinary is it that John de Westerham, who, after being prior of this religious house, was promoted to the see of Rochester early in the fourteenth century, must have been assuredly well read in the Textus, should not have marked the leaves of Custumale Roffense in like manner, and have other wise availed himself of the use of
- ↑ History of Kent, p. 32.
- ↑ Upon this conjecture of Dr. Harris, Dr. Pegge "thinks it to be a point very doubtful, since the numerals that appear in the book where they are often applied are always Roman, a strong presumption that these characters on the top of the leaves have been added since." An Historical Account of the Textus Roffensis Bibliotheca Topographia Britannica, No XXV. p. 28.
these
