Edward was well aware that he had both the men and the materials for the accomplishment of this great design. Although the King was unable to devote much of his time to artistic matters, he could not have been the son of his father without having a cultivated taste and a competent knowledge of the arts and crafts of the time. His father, Henry III, however much he failed as a ruler in an age when the power of the King was the main factor of good government, was an enthusiastic lover of art and a patron of artists. It was during the reign of Henry, and largely owing to his influence, that perhaps the most remarkable development of Early English architecture took place. His principal work, to which he gave himself with the utmost devotion, and, indeed, with little consideration of other and more important duties, was the rebuilding and decorating of the Abbey Church at Westminster. For the carrying out of his designs he had gradually fostered a school of architects, sculptors, painters, and other artists in Westminster unrivalled in England. This Westminster School of Art not only produced a great part of the magnificent edifice of the Abbey Church, but was directly engaged in the construction of many other great churches and buildings. Its influence, however, was still wider. From it trained and skilled men travelled throughout Britain, imparting the knowledge of structure and artistic design, while artists and students came to learn the Westminster methods from the ends of the land. There is, however, a good deal of evidence to show that Edward inherited the collecting proclivities of his father, and was encouraged in this amiable failing by Eleanor. He spent very large sums of money in buying gold and silver plate, jewellery, carvings and embroideries. Records remain not only of his own possessions, but of the lavish way in which he and the Queen presented such works of art to religious houses which they visited from time to time, and in which they took special interest. An example may be found in the accounts of the Queen’s executors, where we find that a certain Brother Nicholas received the sum of £10 for bringing jewels, and, apparently, other works of art, from Acre to England for the Queen’s service.[39] Footnote 39: _Cf._ “Liberationes factae per Executores,” &c., _Item_, fratri Nicholao de Acon, pro cariagio diversarum rerum et jocalium, ad opus Reginae de Acon usque in Angliam, x li.