e by side with the burgesses
of the towns. In no other country in Europe would this have been
possible. The knights of the shire were gentlemen, who on the
Continent were reckoned amongst the nobility, and despised townsmen
far too much to sit in the same House with them. In England there was
the same amalgamation of classes in Parliament as on the
battle-field. When once gentlemen and burgesses formed part of the
same assembly, they would come to have common interests; and, in any
struggle in which the merchants were engaged, it would be a great gain
to them that a class of men trained to arms would be inclined to take
their part.

[Illustration: The upper chamber or solar at Sutton Courtenay
manor-house. Date, about 1350.]

[Illustration: Interior of the Hall at Penshurst, Kent: showing the
screen with minstrels' gallery over it, and the brazier for fire in
the middle: built about 1340.]

16. =Edward's Triumph. 1347.=--Edward's return after the surrender of
Calais was followed by an outburst of luxury. As the sea-rovers of
Normandy and Calais had formerly plundered Englishmen, English
landsmen now plundered Normandy and Calais. "There was no woman who
had not gotten garments, furs, feather-beds, and utensils from the
spoils." Edward surrounded himself with feasting and jollity. About
this time he instituted the Order of the Garter, and his tournaments
were thronged with gay knights and gayer ladies in gorgeous attires.
The very priests caught the example, and decked themselves in
unclerical garments. Even architecture lent itself to the prevailing
taste for magnificence. The beautiful Decorated style which had come
into use towards the end of the reign of Edward I.--and which may be
seen[19] in the central tower of Lincoln Cathedral (see p. 227), in
the west front of Howden Church (see p. 230), and in the nave of York
Minster (see p. 238)--was, in the reign of Edward III., superseded by
the Perpendicular style, in which beauty of form was abandoned for the
sake of breadth, as in the choir of Gloucester and the nave of
Winchester (see pp. 244, 276). Roofs become wide, as in the Hall of
Penshurst (see p. 246), and consequently halls were larger and better
adapted to crowded gatherings than those at Meare and Norborough (p.
247).

[Footnote 19: Lichfield Cathedral (p. 213) is transitional.]

[Illustration: A small house or cottage at Meare, Somerset. Built
about 1350.]

[Illustration: Norborough Hall, Northa