More cleartext in the MS?

[-JKP-]

I'm posting this for interest's sake, not as an explanation, but there were certain styles of script where the long-ess was written by going over the stem a second time to emphasize it and to add a little tick mark on the left. This is usually only done well by professional scribes because the stem can get messy if the aim and pressure are not perfect. The top of the long-ess could be rounded or straight (some scribes penned it both ways). Here is an example from a 14th-century manuscript: