placed. Some have supposed it to be the work of his Queen, Matilda.
The entire length is two hundred and fourteen feet and the width about
twenty inches. It represents events in English history from the last
of Edward the Confessor's reign to the battle of Hastings. As a guide
to a knowledge of the armor, weapons, and costume of the period, it is
of very great value. The tapestry is preserved at Bayeux.

156. Architecture.

Under the Norman sovereigns there was neither painting, statuary, nor
poetry worthy of mention. The spirit that creats these arts found
expression in architecture introduced from the Continent. The castle,
cathedral, and minster, with here and there an exceptional structure
like the Tower of London, London Bridge, and the Great Hall at
Westminster, built by William Rufus, were some well-known Norman
buildings which mark the time. All were of stone, a material which
the Normans generally preferred to any other. Aside from Westminster
Abbey, which, although the work of Edward the Confessor, was really
Norman, a fortress or two, like Coningsborough in Yorkshire, and a few
churches, like that at Bradford-on-Avon, the Saxons had erected little
of note.

The characteristics of the Norman style of architecture was its
massive grandeur. The churches were built in the form of a cross,
with a square, central tower, the main entrance being at the west.
The interior was divided into a nave, or central portion, with an
aisle on each side for the passage of religious processions. The
windows were narrow, and rounded at the top. The roof rested on round
arches supported by heavy columns. The cathedrals of Peterborough,
Ely, Durham, Norwich, the church of St. Bartholomew, London, and