The “cote-armoure of Sir Thopas” is the surcoat. There is an admirable example of a thirteenth century surcoat on the figure on the ewer found at Hexham, which has already been referred to. This surcoat is long and sleeveless, with a slit in front. It is embellished by a diamond pattern, interspersed with fleurs-de-lis and stars of six rays. The garment has an ornamental border. A representative example may be seen on the Daubernoun brass. It reaches below the knee, is slit half-way up the front, and is fastened by a cord at the waist. The border is fringed. The surcoat early in the fourteenth century was long, but became gradually shortened and tightened. There are, however, earlier examples of the shorter surcoat, as shown on the Whitworth effigy, which does not reach the knee. The D’Argentine brass (1382) furnishes a good example of the short fourteenth century surcoat, and another may be seen on the effigy of the Black Prince (1376) in Canterbury Cathedral. It is a sleeveless garment reaching a little below the hips, and was variously fastened, being buttoned, laced, or buckled. On an effigy engraved by Hollis in his Plate II., it is held together by a brooch. The fabrics were rich and costly, and usually ornamented with heraldic devices. The surcoat on the figure of the Black Prince is charged with England and France quarterly, with a label of three points. At this period but little of the trunk armour showed through the “cyclas.” The helm on the figure of the Black Prince was gilt or silvered, and had its scarlet mantling. The surcoat of the fifteenth century presents heraldic devices on the front and arms, both before and behind, indeed it was a “tabard of arms,” and so it continued in the sixteenth century as a herald’s tabard. The garment, of course, gave rise to the term “the coat of arms.” An effigy of Sir John Pechey, figured by Stothard, shows a tabard of arms over the armour; and so does the brass of Sir John Say (1473) at Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire. The short surcoat had almost ceased with the second quarter of the century, although there are still isolated examples, such as the short-sleeved tabard on the Ogle effigy at Bothal, Northumberland, which is early sixteenth century. During the first half of the fourteenth century, English knights wore a garment under the surcoat, called “upper pourpoint”; the true “pourpoint” was the surcoat itself.