Notes on the
Plates

THE CAPITALS are illuminated throughout the
text in gold on blue and red grounds. The backgrounds
are square, with edges pointed or indented, outlined black,
and lined inside white. The INITIAL n is in gold on
blue: the moon and stars are in white and gold and white.

•THE LINE-FINISHINGS, mostly in black pen-
work, consist of little groups (sometimes of sprays) of
flowers, &c. Sprays from the border separate the “Song”
from the “Tale.”

THE MUSIC.—Staves black; Clefs, gold; Notes, red.

THE BORDERS (in the opening from which the
plate is taken) frame the text on both pages—nearly
filling the margins (see p. I79): the side and foot edges
of the (verso) page are shown in the plate. The main
pattern is a wild rose, flowers and all, outlined with a
rather broad blue line: the stalks and leaves (lined white)
are apple-green, the flowers are fainted white with raised
gold hearts, the thorns are red. Through the wild rose
is twined honeysuckle and woody nightshade: stalks—
(h) red, {wn) black; and flowers—(h) red with yellow
spots, (wn) purplish red with gold centres.

The whole effect is very brilliant and charming. The
freedom and naturalness of the “design” remind one of a
country hedgerow (p. 179), and show that vital beauty
which is the essence of true illumination.

PLATE XXIV.—Inscription cut in Stone by A. E. R.
Gill, a.D. 1903. Reduced (Д scale.) Note.—To
view these incised letters have light on the left of plate
{or cover with thin tissue-paper).

The STONE—a slab of “Hopton Wood” (p. 359).
30 inches by 18 inches by 2 inches, is intended to go
over a lintel. It has a simple moulding* Note how the
INSCRIPTION occupies the space (pp. 316, 358): the
LETTERS have approximately the same apparent weight
(p. 292)—the large stems are more than twice the height
of the small; they are only \ wider.

422

Note the strongly marked and elegantly curved serifs;
the straight-tailed R; the I drawn out (marking the word
IN); the beaked A, M, and N; the Capital form of u.

The letters DEO would be rather wide for ordinary
use (p. 234), but as special letters, occupying a wide
space,1 are permissible.

Even in the plate, I think this inscription shows to
what a high level modern inscription cutting might be
raised by the use of good models and right and simple
methods.

1 Letters in early inscriptions separated as these are indicated
each a word (contracted), as S. P. Q. R. (Senatus Populus Que
Romanus).

Notes on the
Plates

423