In 1281 the King's daughter, _Margaret_, married _Eric_, the heir to the throne of _Norway_. She died in 1283, leaving an infant daughter, who, a few months after, by the death of _Alexander_, the King's only son, became heir to the Scottish crown. Three years later, in 1286, the King himself was killed by a fall from his horse while riding by night along the coast of _Fife_, near _Kinghorn_. =24. Literature and Architecture.=--No chronicles of this period, written by natives of Scotland, have come down to us. But there was one poet who was held in great repute, not only for his verses, but for his prophecies. This was _Thomas Learmouth of Ercildoun_, called "Thomas the Rhymer," and "True Thomas," from the general belief in the truth of his predictions. He is said to have foretold that great national calamity, the King's death, under the figure of a great storm that should blow "so stark and strang, that all Scotland sall reu efter rycht lang." Another Scotsman of note was _Michael Scot_, the famous wizard. He travelled much in foreign lands, and was greatly renowned in them, as in his own country, as a scholar, an astrologer, and magician. The buildings of this period were chiefly the churches and abbeys founded by Margaret and her descendants. They were all in the same style as contemporary buildings in England. There were as yet very few castles, that is fortified buildings of solid masonry, in the kingdom. The great strongholds, such as _Edinburgh_, _Stirling_, and _Dunbarton_, were steep rocks, made so inaccessible by nature that they needed but little strengthening from art. Dwelling-houses seem to have been generally built of wood.