[Illustration: No. 48. Construction of intersecting vaults.] _Dark Ages_ The unsettled condition of Europe, both before and after the final subjugation of the Roman Empire by Charlemagne in 774 A.D., was necessarily detrimental to artistic progress, and the period to the fifteenth century may be truly described as the dark ages as regards the arts and culture in general. Such literary knowledge as survived was mostly confined to the priests, and under the monastic and feudal systems that prevailed the bulk of the people were kept in ignorance and subjection. Building was devoted almost exclusively to fortresses and churches, the domestic conditions being extremely crude as compared with earlier periods, though Eastern luxury must have been known and experienced by the alien adventurers to the Byzantine courts. This was a period of reversion to comparative barbaric taste by people indifferent to refinement and luxurious environment, to whom, however, personal adornment would appeal in the form of jewellery and sumptuous attire. [Illustration: No. 49. Romanesque, south door Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire.] Domestic arrangements were simple in the extreme. The dwellings of the well-to-do in England, similarly to those of the Scandinavians, consisted principally of a barn-like hall. The centre of the hall was occupied by a long table, and at one end raised on a platform or dais another table was placed in the opposite direction. At the latter sat the most important members of the household, while the lower part was reserved for retainers and servants. Heavy chairs and settles were used at the upper table, and benches or forms at the lower. Walls, when covered at all, were adorned with hangings, but then only at the dais end of the hall. Fireplaces in the modern sense were not known. The fire was built on the floor, and the smoke allowed to escape as best it might. Arrangements for sleeping were no more complex than those for dining. Beds were provided only for persons of distinction, and were placed in recesses screened off from the hall by curtains or shutters. They were, in fact, little more than wooden boxes, with sacks of straw to serve as mattresses. Later, bedsteads were used of massive construction, which on occasions of journeying were placed on wheels, forming a sort of coach or carriage ironically termed whirlicots, in which the aged and infirm were transported. [Illustration: No. 50. Chair of Dagobert, French 7th century, bronze.] For some time after the Norman Conquest the unsettled state of the country rendered it necessary that household effects and valuables should be few in number and of such a nature as to be easily transportable. Thus chests in which belongings could be stored came into general use. They were simple in construction, and without carving, but were strengthened and decorated by hinges and scroll strappings in iron. Such chests served a double purpose, as they could be used as tables and seats.