by writers of
the same abbey.

The first English prose work was a volume of travels by Sir John
Mandeville, dedicated to Edward III. It was followed by Wycliffe's
translation of the Bible into English from the Latin version, and by
Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the first great English poem.

273. Architecture.

Edward I and his successors began to build structures combining the
palace with the stronghold.[1] Conway and Carnavon Castles in Wales,
Warwich Castle, Warwickshire, and a great part of Windsor Castle on
the Thames, twenty-three miles west of London, are magnificent
examples; the last is still occupied as a royal residence.

[1] The characteristic features of the Edwardian castles are double
surrounding walls, with numerous protecting towers, and the omission
of the square Norman keep.

In churches, the massive architecture of the Normans, with its heavy
columns and round arches, was followed by the Early English style or
the first period of the Gothic, with pointed arches, slender,
clustered columns, and tapering spires. Salisbury Cathedral is the
grandest example of the Early English style.

Later, the Decorated Style was adopted. It was characterized by
broader windows, highly ornamented to correspond with the elaborate
decoration within, which gave this style its name; this is seen to
advantage in Exeter Cathedral, York Minster, and Merton College Chapel
at Oxford.

V. General Industry and Commerce

274. Fairs; Guilds.

The domestic trade of the country was largely carried on during this
period by great fairs held at stated times by royal license. Bunyan,
in "Pilgrim's Progress," gives a vivid picture of one of these centers
of trade and dissipation, under the name of "Vanity Fair." Though it
represents the great fair of Sturbridge, near Cambridge, as he saw it
in the seventeenth century, yet it undoubtably describes similar
gatherings in the time of the Plantagenets.

In all large towns the merchants had formed associations for mutual
protection and the advancement of trade, called merchant guilds.
Artisans now instituted similar societies, under the name of craft
guilds. For a long time the merchant guilds endeavored to shut out
the craft guilds,--the men, as they said, "with dirty hands and blue
nails,"--from having any part in the government of the towns. But
eventually the latter got their full share, and in some cases, as in
London, became the more influential party of the two.