In wrapper.tpl the {MAINMETA} variable appears alone in the <head></head> tags. When I added default meta text on the Search & SEO page said text was printed at the top of each page because it was not enclosed in any <meta> tags. I altered wrapper.tpl to the following:
<meta name="description" content="{MAINMETA}" />
This caused the meta data to be printed where it should be. Is/was this a bug or a problem specific to my install?