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Rh Bk. VI. Ch. III. CIVIL AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 197 a very recent period the king, the baron, and the bishop, were the estates of the reahii. The people were nowhere, and neither munici- palities nor guilds could assert an independent existence. On the other hand, in proportion to her population, England is rich in castles beyond any other country in Europe — especially of the Norman or round-arched Gothic age. Germany, as already pointed out, has some fine examples of the Hohenstaufen period. France has scarcely any, and neither France nor Germany can match such castles as those of London, Eochester, Norwich, Rising, etc. The Welsh castles of the Edwardian period form an unrivalled group by them- selves ; and are infinitely superior, both in extent and architectural magnificence, to the much-lauded robber-dens of the Rhineland ; while such castles as Raglan, Chepstow, Kenilworth, Warwick, or AVindsor are, for picturesque beauty and elegance of detail, quite unmatched except by one or two ruined strongholds in the north of France. The discussion of their merits, however, would more prop- erly come under the head of military architecture, which is excluded from this work, and cannot therefore be entered on here. It is difficult, however, to draw the line exactly between the castle and the castellated mansion, the moated grange, and, lastly, the man- sion or manor-house, which, towards the end of the Gothic period, had become so numerous in England, and form an architectural group so beautiful and so peculiarly English. Taken altogether, there is perhaps no class of buildings to which an Englishman may turn with more pride than the educational estab- lishments which the Middle Ai^es have left him. Thous^h in some cases entirely rebuilt, and no doubt very much altered, still the col- lec-es of Oxford and Cambrido-e retain much of their original fea- tures, and are unrivalled in their kind. None of them, it is true, are very ancient, as we now see them. With the exception of some of the earlier buildings at Merton, the greater number owe their mag- nificence to the days of Wykeham (ob. 1426) and Waynflete (ob. 1486). It was during the reign of Henry VI. (1422-1470) that the great impulse was given, not only within the limits of the Universities, but by the foundation of Eton and Winchester, and other great schools, all which belong to the 15th century. But the building of Gothic or quasi-Gothic educational establishments was continued till the death of Queen Elizabeth (1602). In most respects these colleges resembled the monastic establish- ments Avhich, to a certain extent, they may be considered as super- seding. The principal difference was that the churcli of the monastery became subdued into a chapel exclusively devoted to the use of the inmates of the college. In all these establishments, whether palaces or colleges, castles or manor-houses, the principal apartment was the hall, in some cases subordinate to the chapel only. It was on the halls