13. =Architectural Changes.=--Even in the most flourishing towns the houses were still mostly of wood or rubble covered with thatch, and only here and there was to be found a house of stone. So slight, indeed, were the ordinary buildings, that it was provided by the Assize of Clarendon that the houses of certain offenders should be carried outside the town and burnt. Here and there, however, as in the case of the so-called Jews' house at Lincoln, stone houses were erected. In the larger houses the arrangements were much as they had been before the Conquest, the large hall being still the most conspicuous part, though another apartment, known as the solar, to which an ascent was made by steps from the outside, and which served as a sitting-room for the master of the house, had usually been added. The castles reared by the king or the barons were built for defence alone, and it was in the great cathedrals and churches that the skill of the architect was shown. An enormous number of parish churches of stone were raised by Norman builders to supersede earlier buildings of wood. For some time the round-arched Norman architecture which had been introduced by Eadward the Confessor was alone followed, such as may be studied in the Galilee of Durham (see p. 160) the nave of St. Albans (see p. 109) and the tower of Castor (see p. 136). Gradually the pointed arch of Gothic architecture took its place, and after a period of transition, of which the nave of Durham, and the choirs of Canterbury and of Ripon afford examples (see pp. 130, 150, 166), the graceful style now known as Early English was first used on a large scale in =1192= in the choir of the cathedral of Lincoln. [Illustration: Norman House at Lincoln, called the Jews' House. Built about 1140. The square windows are of later date.] _Books recommended for further study of Part II._ STUBBS, W. (Bishop of Oxford). Constitutional History of England. Vol i. chaps. ix.-xiii. FREEMAN, E. A. History of the Norman Conquest. Vols. iv. and v. History of William Rufus. GREEN, J. R. History of the English People. Vol. i. pp. 115-189. NORGATE, Miss K. England under the Angevin Kings. Vols. i. and ii. pp. 1-388. CUNNINGHAM, W. Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages, pp. 129-173. WAKEMAN, H. O., and HASSALL, A. Constitutional Essays. ADAMS, G. B. The Political History of England. Vol. ii. From the Norman Conquest to the Death of John (1066-1216). PART III. _THE GROWTH OF THE PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTION._ =1199-1399=. CHAPTER XII. JOHN. =1199-1216=. LEADING DATES Accession of John 1199 Loss of Normandy 1204 England under an Interdict 1208 Magna Carta 1215 Death of John 1216