Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/89

Rh to popular towns; thus the Bishop of Thetford migrated to Norwich, and Dorchester to Lincoln. To-day we love and reverence the simplicity and strength of all that remains to us of early Norman architecture. Its chief characteristics are well-known—the low round arch, the stupendous columns, and the stern style of decoration, good examples of which may be seen still at Durham, Canterbury, and Peterborough. Though the secret of mortar-making had not gone with the Romans, yet much early Norman work has perished. The tower of Winchester Cathedral, built in 1093, fell fourteen years later, and though at the time the catastrophe was attributed to Divine displeasure, it was undoubtedly due to bad mortar! Within the great minsters some few organs were now built for Church music. There was a famous one at Winchester with 400 pipes and twenty-six bellows, worked by seventy strong men, "covered with perspiration." Two monks played on two sets of keys simultaneously, with the somewhat natural result that an overwhelming roar was heard all over the city.

In connection with the cathedral was the monastery. As in the old days, those who wished to live the highest Christian life took refuge in