The architecture of such houses varies according to the climate, the materials of the country, and the customs of the inhabitants. The houses had no special individuality as long as the windows were treated merely as apertures for the admission of light; but directly these began to take on a certain elaboration, and such features as mouldings or sculptures were introduced in the façades, a system of decoration was borrowed from the neighbouring churches or abbeys of monkish architects, a consequence either of the far-reaching influence of monastic schools, or of the spirit of imitation and force of habit. Certain houses at Cluny, which date from the twelfth century, exemplify the style. They are built almost entirely of stone. The arcading recalls various details of monastic buildings which the constructors very naturally took as models. [Illustration: 211. HOUSE AT PROVINS (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)] [Illustration: 212. HOUSE AT LAON (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)] [Illustration: 213. HOUSE AT CORDES. ALBIGEOIS (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)] The same may be said of the other houses, of which we give drawings as illustrating the urban type of the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is easy to trace the successive developments of religious and monastic architecture in the domestic buildings of the period. It is not until the close of the fourteenth century, and more notably in the fifteenth, that such influences gradually die out, and change, if not progress, becomes evident in the altered form of the arcades, which no longer resemble those of cloisters or churches, but have elliptic or square apertures. These, in the windows, are no longer subdivided by a stone tracery of ornamental cusps and foliations, but merely by plain mullions and transoms, forming square compartments which it was possible to fill with movable glazed sashes of the simplest construction. The façades are generally of durable materials, such as stone or brick, and the use of wood is restricted to the floors and the roofs. Houses of the fifteenth century in the Northern departments, where stone is scarce, were built mainly of wood, the more solid material being used only on the ground-floor. The overhanging upper stories were of timbers, the interstices being filled in with brick. The principal members, such as corbel tables, beams, ledges, and window-frames, were decorated with mouldings and sculptures. The façade usually terminated in a gable, the projecting pointed arch of which followed the lines of the timber roof. In other cases it was crowned by richly decorated dormer windows. In rainy districts the roof was covered with slates or shingles. [Illustration: 214. HOUSE AT MONT ST. MICHEL (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)] [Illustration: 215. WOODEN HOUSE AT ROUEN (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)] [Illustration: 216. WOODEN HOUSE AT ANDELYS (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)]