12,2, Examination of an Inscription

the Prefton 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 RofFenfi in Arabic figures ; for, as he alledges, " they are, by appearance, of the fame age with the Textus itfelf, and that, if fo, they afcertain the ufe of thefe numeral figures in Kent thirty-one years before the time affigned by Dr. Wallis, becaufe it was probable that bimop Ernulf, the com- piler of the greateft part of this ancient MS. finimed it about the year 1 120 [w]." Harris does not, however, feem to have been aware of the very great improbability of his furmife, that Ernulf mould have been fo fully acquainted with 'the force and convenience of thefe figures, as to have applied them for the purpofe fuggefted, and yet that not a fmgle Arabic figure mould, by accident, have flipt from his pen into the body of the work, though the compiler has fpecified the dates of the years recorded, together with the value of many of the donations to his church, and of other articles poffeiTed by the priory; and in feveral of the pages the infertion of thefe numerals would have faved the writer much time and trouble, and parch- ment, which was then a dear commodity [#]. No lefs extraordi- nary is it that John de Wefterham, who, after being prior of this religious houfe, was promoted to the fee of Rochefter early in the fourteenth century, muft have been afluredly well read in the Textus, mould not have marked the leaves of Cuftumale RofTenfe in like manner, and have othei wife availed himfelf of the ufe of [w] Hiftory of Kent, p. 32. [#] Upon this conje&ure of Dr. Harris, Dr. Pegge " thinks it to be a point very doubtful) fince the numerals that appear in the book where they are often applied are always Roman, a ftrong prefumption that thefe characters on the top of the leaves have been added fince." An Hiftorical Account of the Textus Roffenfis Bibliotheca Topo- graphia Britannica, N XXV. p. 38. thefe