105 
several rows the stone-work was called diaper work, and was in 
special favour in the 14th century. 
It took its name from Ypres, a town in Flanders noted for 
the production of cloth worked in square patterns. It was 
common on great festivals to hang the walls of the churches with 
tapestry, and this may have led to diaper work in stone. 
The other ornament of this period is the Ballflower, 
characteristic of the West of England, and found chiefly in the 
counties of Gloucester and Hereford, where its use is very 
common in church architecture. In Gloucester Cathedral the 
aisle windows of the nave are studded with no less than 1,400 
examples of the Ballflower in each window, and in Badgenorth 
Church, near Cheltenham, the hollow moulding of every window 
and doorway is profusely decorated with it. 
Many examples are to be met with in Bristol Cathedral, 
notably round the arch of one of the stellated recesses. The 
origin of the Ballflower ornament has given rise to much 
speculation, and at present there is no satisfactory solution. The 
ornament is represented as a ball partially enclosed in a round 
cup or flower, which holds it by three wavy lobes. By some .it 
is supposed to be the globe flower of the North of England, 
by others to be derived from a horse bell or a hawk’s bell, and 
by others, again, to be the young bud of the pomegranate. The 
Ballflower, however, has a far better resemblance to the ripe 
fruit of the juniper, and as flower or fruit should be apparently 
looked for as the motive, it is reasonable to think a fruit is its 
real origin. The Juniper is allied to the Scotch Fir, and is 
common on heaths and chalky hills throughout the South-east 
of England, as well as in Northern Europe. The use of the 
Juniper berries was well-known amongst the early herbalists, and 
the name is several times mentioned in the Bible, so that the 
artists in stone would have been acquainted with its peculiar 
structure, and may well have chosen it as their model. 
After considering these many examples of flowering trees 
and shrubs it is possible to realise how completely the Naturalistic 
School in its short reign of forty years was inspired by the flpra 
of the fields and woods. Other plants made use of, in addition 
to those already! described, are found to be the pear tree at 
Evesham, the birch, the poplar at Exeter, the mallow and the 
greater celandine at Oxford. These plants were probably chosen 
and repeated by craftsmen, because some of them, such as the 
vine, oak, maple, bryony, and meadow buttercup have broadly 
shaped leaves with clearly marked veins to give their beauty to 
the arch, the finial, and the boss, while the rose, hawthorn, ivy 
and pear have smaller leaves, whose veins or folds lend them¬ 
selves to produce an equally good effect in closer form. Only 
the very best artists in stone could run riot amongst the crowd 
of flowers and fruit, and such men were scarce to do the work 
with their own hands; the average workman, therefore, had to 
repeat the designs taught to him in the school of carving, and 
