Our oldest Church inventories make frequent mention of such diapered silks for vestments. In 1277, Exeter Cathedral had: “una (capa) de alba diapra cum noviluniis,”[156]--a cope of white diaper with half moons. It was the gift of Bishop Bartholomew, A.D. 1161. Bishop Brewer, A.D. 1224, bestowed upon the Church a small pall of red diaper: “parva palla de rubea diapra;” along with a chasuble, dalmatic and tunicle of white diaper: “casula, &c. de alba diapra.”[157] Among its vast collection of liturgical garments, A.D. 1295, old St. Paul’s had a large number made of diaper, which was almost always white. Sometimes the pattern of the diapering is noticed; for instance, a chasuble of white diaper, with coupled parrots in places, among branches: “casula de albo diaspro cum citaciis combinatis per loca in ramusculis.”[158] Again: “tunica et dalmatica de albo diaspro cum citacis viridibus in ramunculis,”[159] where we see the white diaper having the parrots done in green. Probably the most remarkable and elaborate specimen of diaper-weaving on record, is the one that Edmund, Earl of Cornwall gave, made up in “a cope of a certain diaper of Antioch colour, covered with trees and diapered birds, of which the heads, breasts, and feet, as well as the flowers on the trees, are woven in gold thread: “Capa Domini Edmundi Comitis Cornubiæ de quodam diaspero Antioch coloris, tegulata cum arboribus et avibus diasperatis quarum capita, pectora et pedes, et flores in medio arborum sunt de aurifilo contextæ.[160] [156] P. 297. [157] P. 298. [158] St. Paul’s, ed. Dugdale, p. 323. [159] Ib. p. 322. [160] Ib. p. 318. By degrees the word “diaper” became widened in its meaning. Not only all sorts of textile, whether of silk, of linen, or of worsted, but the walls of a room were said to be diapered when the self-same ornament was repeated and sprinkled well over it. Thus, to soothe his daughter’s sorrows, the King of Hungary promises her a chair or carriage, that-- Shal be coverd wyth velvette reede And clothes of fyne golde al about your heede, With damaske whyte and azure blewe Well dyaperd with lylles newe.[161] Nay, the bow for arrows held by SWEET LOOKING is, in Chaucer’s “Romaunt of the Rose,” described as-- painted well, and thwitten And over all diapred and written, &c.[162] Even now, our fine table linen we call “diaper,” because it is figured with flowers and fruits. Sometimes, with us, silks diapered were called “sygury:” una capa de sateyn sygury, cum ymagine B. M. V. in capucio.[163] [161] Squire of Low Degree, ed. Ritson. [162] “Romaunt of the Rose,” l. 900. [163] Fabric Rolls of York Cathedral, p. 230.