Note 245 — Chapter XVI

It is a curious coincidence that the ivory comb found in St. Cuthbert’s coffin, provided by Westone after the Norman Conquest, had—as nearly as we can count—sixty teeth, sixteen large and forty-four small. Alcuin’s comb may have had the same double row of teeth, with a knob in the shape of a lion’s head projecting from the ends of the central ivory.