1' A P 



«>r twelve times, till the tapers be brought to the required 

 dimenfions. The firft call only foaks the wick, the fecond 

 begins to cover it, ajid the reft give it the form and thick- 

 neis ; in order to which, they take care that every caft, after 

 the fourth, be made lower and lower below the wicks to 

 make them taper. The tapers, thus formed, are laid, while 

 yet hot, one againft another, in a feather-bed, folded double, 

 to preferve them foft ; and afterwards taken out thence, one 

 after another, to be rolled on a long fmooth table, witli an 

 oblong inllrumcnt of box, polifhed at the bottom, and fur- 

 nifhed with a handle above. 



The taper thus rolled and polifhed, a piece of its larger 

 end is cut off, and a conical hole bored in it, with a boxen 

 inftrument, into which the pin or point of the candleftick is 

 to be received. 



While the broach is yet in the hole, they ufe to ttamp 

 the maker's name and the weight of the taper, with a boxen 

 ruler, on which proper charaifters are cut. The taper is theu 

 Iiung up to harden, after which it is fit for ufe. 



Making of Tapers by Hand — The wicks being difpofed, 

 as in the former manner, they begin to foften the wax, by 

 working it in hot water, in a narrow, deep, copper veffel. 

 They then take a quantity of this wax out with the hand, 

 and apply it gradually on the wick, which is faftened to a 

 hook in the wall, at the end oppofite to the collet ; fo that 

 they begin to form the taper by the lai'ge end, and proceed, 

 ftill leffening the thicknefs to the neck or collet. 



The reft is performed after the fame manner as in tapers 

 m.ide with the ladle, except that they do not lay them in 

 the feather-bed, but roll them on the table as faft as they are 

 formed. 



Two things there are to be obferved in the two kinds of 

 tapers ; the firft, that, in the whole procefs of tapers with 

 the ladle, t\\ej ufe water to moiilen the table, and other 

 inftruments ufed therein, that the wax may not ftick ; and 

 that, in the other, they ufe oil of olives, or lard, for the 

 fame end. 



Tapeu, Pajchal, among the Romanijls, is a large taper, 

 on which the deacon apphes five bits of frankincenfe, in 

 holes made for the purpofe, in form of a crofs ; and 

 which he lights with new fire in the ceremony of Eafter- 

 Saturday. 



The Pontifical makes pope Zofimus the author of this 

 ufage ; but Baronius will have it more ancient ; and 

 quotes a h)rmn of Prudentius to prove it. That pope he 

 fuppofes to have only eftabliftied the ufe of it in parifh- 

 churches, which till then had been reftrained to greater 

 churches. 



F. Papebroch explains the original of the pafchal taper 

 more diftinCtlyin his"ConatusChronico-Hiftoricus,"&c. It 

 feems that, though the council of Nice regulated the day on 

 wliich Eafter was to be celebrated, the patriarch of Alexan- 

 dria was enjoined to make a yearly canon of it, and to fend it 

 to the pope. As all the other moveable feafts were to be regu- 

 lated by that of Eafter, a catalogue of them was made every 

 year ; and this was written on a taper, cereus, which was 

 "■lefTed in the church with much folemnity. 



This taper, according to the abbot Chaftelain, was not a 

 wax -candle made to be burnt ; it had no wick, nor was it 

 any thing more than a kind of column of wax, made on pur- 

 pofe to write the lift of moveable feafts on ; and which 

 would fufficc to hold that lift for the fpace of a year. 



For, among the ancients, when any tiling was to be 



TAP 



they came to write the moveable feafts on paper, but they 

 ftiU faftened it to the pafchal taper ; which pradice waa ob- 

 ferved for a long time at Notre Dame, in Rouen, a;id through- 

 out the order of Cluny. Such is the original of the benedic- 

 tion of the pafchal taper. 



TAPER A, in Ornithology, a fpccies of fwallow. Sei- 



HiRUNDO. 



T.APERA dos Bocas, in Geography, a town of Brafd, in ihf 

 govtrninent of Para, on the Guanapu ; 90 miles S.W. of 

 Para. 



TAPERI, a town of Peru ; 16 miles N.E. of Cocha. 

 TAPESTRY, or'TAPlSTRV, a curious kind of nianu- 

 fa<Sure, ferving to adorn a chamber, or other ap.irtnient, 

 by hanging or lining the walls of it. 



Some ufe tapeftry as a general name for all kijids of 

 hanging, whether woven or wrought with the needle ; and 

 whither filken, woollen, linen, leatliern, or of paper, (in 

 which they are countenanced by the etymology of the word, 

 formed from the French tapijfer, to line; of the Latin tapei, 

 a cover of a wall or bed, &c.) But, in the common ufe 

 of our language, the term is now appropriated to a kind of 

 woven hangings of wool and filk, frequently raifed and en- 

 riched with gold and filver, ceprefenting figures of men, 

 animals, landfcapes, &c. 



The invention of tapeftry feems to have come from the 

 Levant ; and what makes tliis the more probable is, that 

 formerly, the workmen concerned in it were called, at leaft 

 m France, Sarazinj, or Sarazinois, 



Some have fuppofed that the Englifti and Flemifh, who 

 were the firft that excelled in it, might bring the art with 

 them from fome of the croifades or expeditions againft the 

 Saracens. Accordingly they fay, that thofe two nations 

 were the firft who fet on foot this noble and rich manufac- 

 ture in Europe, which afterwards became one of the fineft 

 ornaments of palaces and churches, &c. At leaft, if they 

 be not allowed the inventors, they have the honour of being 

 the reftorers, of this curious and admirable art, which gives 

 a kind of life to wools and filks, in fome refpefts not inferior 

 to the paintings of the beft mafters. However, it does 

 not appear at what precife era this manufaiEfure was intro- 

 duced into Europe ; nor is it certain to whom it was owing. 

 Guicciardin, in his " Defcription and Hiftory of the 

 Netherlands," printed at Antwerp in 1582, afcribcs the 

 invention of the art of making tapeftry hangings to the 

 Netherlanders, but he does not adign the time of the 

 invention. 



The art of weaving tapeftry was brought to England 

 by William Sheldon, efq. about the end of the reign of 

 Henry VIIL See Dugdale's Warwickshire in Stemmate 

 Sheldon, p. 584. 



In the reign of king James, the manufafturc of tapeftry 

 was fet up at Mortlake, in Surrey. Aubrey, indeed, in his 

 hiftory of that county, dates its inftitution in the fubfequcnt 

 reign ; but Lloyd (State Wortliics, p. 953.) is not only 

 pofitive for the former era, but affirms, that at the motion 

 of king James himfelf, who gave two thoufand pounds to- 

 wards the undertaking, fir Francis Crane erefted the houle 

 at Mortlake for the execution of the defign ; and this i« 

 confirmed by authentic evidence ; for, in Rymcr's Focdt-ra, 

 vol. xviii. p. 66, there is an acknowledgment from king 

 Charles in the firft year of his reign, via. 1625, that he owes 

 fix thoufand pounds to fir Francis Crane for tapeftry ; and 



written to laftlfor ever, they engraved it' on marble or fteel ; he grants to him two thoufand pounds yearly, for ten ycirs, 



■when it was to laft a long while, they wrote it on Egyptian towards the manitenance of the f;ud work, 

 paper ; and when it was only to laft a ftiort time, they con- Thefe works at Mortlake, which at firft had been con-, 



rented themfelves to vrnte it on wax. In procefs of time, duded after old patterns, were afterwards formed from 

 Vol. XXXV. N defigns, 



