His arrival at Oxford is marked by the military and ecclesiastical
erections of its Norman earls. But a result of his presence, which bore
more directly on the future of the town, was seen in the remarkable
developement of its domestic architecture. To the wealth of the Jew, to
his need of protection against sudden outbursts of popular passion, very
probably to the greater refinement of his social life, England owes the
introduction of stone houses. Tradition attributes almost every instance
of the earliest stone buildings of a domestic character to the Jew; and
where the tradition can be tested, as at Bury St. Edmunds or Lincoln, it
has proved to be in accordance with the facts. In Oxford nearly all the
larger dwelling-houses which were subsequently converted into halls bore
traces of their Jewish origin in their names, such as Moysey's Hall,
Lombards', Jacob's Hall. It is a striking proof of the superiority of
the Hebrew dwellings to the Christian houses around them that each of
the successive town-halls of the borough had, before their expulsion,
been houses of Jews. Such houses were abundant in the town, not merely
in the purely Jewish quarter on Carfax but in the lesser Jewry which was
scattered over the parish of St. Aldate; and we can hardly doubt that
this abundance of substantial buildings in the town was at least one of
the causes which drew teachers and students within its walls.