Some basic stylistic features of ten prose offices for English saints areconsidered. The oldest is that for St Cuthbert (probably c. 930). Others arefor Dunstan of Canterbury, Edmund of East Anglia, Ethelwold of Winchester,Kyneburga, Kyneswytha and Tybba of Peterborough, Mildred of Thanet, Oswaldof Northumbria, Oswald of Worcester, Swithun of Winchester, and Wulfstan ofWorcester. All were probably composed earlier than the office for Thomas ofCanterbury (soon after 1170), which with its rhymed, accentual verse textmarks a new type of office. Important musical features of these officesinclude the deployment of chants in modal order, tonality that relies on aframework of finalis and fifth (also the upper octave and lower fourth),cadences approached from the note below, the use of responsory verse tones,and formulaic melodies.