English, and Bede's "Church History" of Britain, written in Latin, a
work giving a full and most interesting account of the coming of
Augustine and his first preaching in Kent. All of these books were
written by the monks in different monasteries.

100. Art.

The English were skillful workers in metal, especially in gold and
silver, and also in the illumination of manuscripts.[1] Alfred's
Jewel, a fine specimen of the blue-enameled gold of the ninth century,
is preseved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It bears the
inscription: "Alfred me heht gewurcan," Alfred caused me to be worked
[or made].

[1] These illuminations get their name from the gold, silver, and
bright colors used in the pictures, borders, and decorated letters
with which the monks ornamented these books. For beautiful specimens
of he work, see Silvestre's "Pale'ographie."

The women of that period excelled in weaving fine linen and woolen
cloth and in embroidering tapestry.

101. Architecture.

In architecture no advance took place until very late. The small
ancient church at Bradford-on-Avon in the south of England belongs to
the Saxon period. The Saxon stonework exhibited in a few buildings
like the church tower of Earl's Barton, Northamptonshire, is an
attempt to imitate timber with stone, and has been called "stone
carpentry."[2] Edward the Confessor's work in Westminster Abbey was