Bell's Cathedrals: St. David's
Date: 2016-08-05T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: St. Davids Cathedral

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Title: Bell's Cathedrals: St. David's

Author: Philip A. Robson

Release date: August 5, 2016 [eBook #52728]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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List of Contents.

List of Illustrations
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BELL’S CATHEDRAL SERIES

SAINT DAVID’S

Photo. F. Frith & Co.

ST. DAVID’S CATHEDRAL, FROM THE N.E.

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
SAINT   DAVID’S
A   SHORT   HISTORY   AND
DESCRIPTION OF THE FABRIC
AND   EPISCOPAL   BUILDINGS

BY
PHILIP   A.   ROBSON,   A.R.I.B.A.

WITH   FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON   GEORGE   BELL   &   SONS   1901

Dedication.

TO THE

MEMORY OF

THE VERY REVEREND

JAMES ALLEN, M.A.,

DEAN OF ST. DAVID’S,

OF

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

THIS SHORT HISTORY

IS DEDICATED

IN THE HOPE THAT ST. DAVID’S

MAY EVER FIND SUCCESSORS TO BENEFIT BY

THE EXAMPLE OF THIS HER MOST SELF-SACRIFICING

AND CAREFUL OF CUSTODIANS.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

This treatise is little more than a careful digest of numerous works, of the more important of which a list is given. A sincere note of obligation is due to Messrs. Jones and Freeman’s scholarly and accurate History of St. David’s and to Mr. John Murray’s Handbook to the Welsh Cathedrals; but the list is given quite as much to assist future students as to emphasise those writers to whom the author has been under special obligations.

Those who may wish to visit St. David’s will find it remarkably inaccessible, and they will be well advised to travel to Haverfordwest by train, sleep there, and drive on, over the sixteen miles and seventeen hills, to St. David’s on the next day. For cyclists there is a much better road from Letterston station, but the other is preferable from the picturesque point of view.

The illustrations are mostly from the author’s own photographs, but his special thanks are due to Mr. A. David and Mr. Morgan, to whose hearty co-operation on the spot a large meed of whatever success they may attain is unhesitatingly given. The general views are from photographs by Valentine, Frith and Co., and Poulton; the general measured drawings are reduced from the elaborate plans of J. Taylor Scott, F.R.I.B.A., which won the silver medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1882; a few illustrations are taken from old prints in the author’s collection, and for some reproductions we have been indebted to the excellent plates in Messrs. Jones and Freeman’s History of St. David’s.

PHILIP A. ROBSON.

Palace Chambers,
9, Bridge Street, Westminster.

LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED

Owen’s Description of Pembrokeshire. London, 2 vols., 1603 [reprinted 1892 and 1897], 8vo, pp. xxviii and 286, and pp. iv and from 287-578, paper covers. Edited with notes and appendix by Henry Owen (Cymmrodorion Record Series, No. 1).

Cambria Triumphans. London (A. Crooke), 1661, folio, pp. 256; a preliminary in sixes and three folding plates of arms; Russia extra; two vols. in one; numerous woodcuts. Note.—Very rare. Briant’s, £30 9s.; Heathcote’s, £29 18s. 6d.

A Survey of the Cathedral Church of St. David’s and the Edifices Belonging to It, as They Stood in the Year 1715. London, 1717, sm. 410, pp. xii, 202, vii, panelled calf. By Browne Willis. Illustrated “with draughts,” consisting of two treble-folding plates opposite p. 1, “The Iconography” (i.e., plan) and “South Prospect,” and opposite p. 91 a double-folding plate containing fifty-two shields. Very rare. Towneley copy sold for £1 11s. 6d. Considering its date, a most excellent book.

History and Antiquities of the Parish of St. David. London (E. Harding), 1801, 4to, pp. viii and 206, boards. By George W. Manby. Nine whole-page aquatints. Note.—Rare, but amusing rather than veracious when not copying Browne Willis.

The History and Antiquities of St. David’s. London and Tenby, 1856, 4to, pp. xii, 400, cloth. By W. B. Jones, M.A., and E. A. Freeman, M.A. Illustrated. Note.—The best work on the subject.

Cambrian Journal. Vol. iii., London, 1856, 8vo; contains an elaborate review of J. and F.’s History, with illustrations.

St. David’s. The Cathedral of SS. Andrew and David. Tenby, n.d., but reprinted from the Cambrian Journal, 1864, 8vo, pp. 18, paper covers. By M. E. C. Walcott.

Handbook to the Cathedrals of Wales. 1st ed., 1873, pp. xx and 334, 2nd ed., 1887, post 8vo, pp. 334, cloth [by R. J. King], illustrated. Note.—2nd edition was revised by the late Dean Allen.

St. David’s; its Early History and Present State. London and Derby, 1868, sm. 8vo, pp. 42, limp cloth. By an Ecclesiologist (Fox). Three illustrations.

H.M. Commissioners’ Report on Cathedral Churches. London (Eyre and Spottiswoode), 1883, folio (pp. 24 on St. David’s), irregularly paged.

St. David’s (Diocesan Histories). London (S.P.C.K.), Brighton, and New York, 1888, post 8vo, pp. x, 254, fancy cloth. By W. L. Bevan, M.A. With map. Note.—Best history of the Diocese.

The Builder. Vol. lxiii., No. 2,600 (Cathedral Series). An article, three full-page plates (including a good plan) and sketches. Folio. London, December 3, 1892.

A Guide to the Cathedral of St. David’s, the Bishop’s Palace, and the Coast Chapels. London (Jones and Evans), Tenby (Mason), 1896, crn. 8vo, pp. 90, paper covers. By Travers J. Briant.

Pembrokeshire Antiquities. Solva (H. H. Williams), 1897, 8vo, pp. vi. and 84, paper boards (consisting of reprints from the Pembroke County Guardian by various authors). St. David’s is mentioned on pp. 8, 34, 37, 53, 68, and 77.

The Architectural Review. Vol. v., Nos. 27, 8, 9, folio. London, 1899; many photographic illustrations by P. A. Robson.

Cathedral Organists. London (Novello), 1899, 8vo, pp. xii and 142, cloth. By John K. West (St. David’s, pp. 76 and 77).

LIST OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER | | PAGE
| List of Works consulted | xi
I. | The Site and General History of the Fabric | 2
| Previous Churches—Bishop de Leiâ—Fall of the Tower | 4
| Bishop Gower—The Perpendicular Period | 5
| The Civil War—West Front rebuilt—Scott’s Restoration | 6
II. | The Exterior | 9
| The Cathedral Precincts | 9
| The Church | 11
| The Tower | 12
| The South Side | 14
| The South Porch | 14
| The South Transept | 16
| The East End | 16
| The Ruined Chapels | 19
| The North Side | 19
| The Library or Chapter House | 19
| The North Transept | 20
| The North Doorway | 20
| The West Front | 21
III. | The Interior—The Nave | 23
| The Font | 28
| The Rood Screen | 30
| The Organ | 32
| The Choir and Transepts | 36
| The Parclose Screen | 44
| The Stalls | 44
| The Chapel of St. Thomas | 46
| The Chapter House or Library | 47
| The Throne | 48
| The Sedilia | 48
| The Shrine of St. David | 50
| The Shrine of St. Caradoc | 54
| The Aisles of the Presbytery | 55
| The Chapels East of the Presbytery | 57
| Bishop Vaughan’s or Trinity Chapel | 60
| The South Chapel Aisle | 65
| The Ante Chapel | 65
| The Lady Chapel | 66
| The North Chapel Aisle | 68
| Monuments in the Church (otherwise than in the Eastern Chapels) | 71
| Bishop Gower’s Tomb | 71
IV. | The Precincts | 83
| The Cloisters and St. Mary’s College | 83
| The Bishop’s Palace | 85
| The Parapet | 88
| The East Chapel | 89
| The Bishop’s Hall and Study | 89
| The Great Hall | 89
| The West Chapel | 92
Appendix | I.—Bishops of St. David’s | 93
| Precentors and Deans | 94
| Organists | 95
Appendix | II.—Extracts from Sir G. G. Scott’s Report, 1869 | 97

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

| PAGE
St. David’s Cathedral from the N.E. | Frontispiece
Arms of the See | Title-page
The West Front before the restoration of 1862 | 2
The Cross and Cathedral Tower | 3
St. David’s from Speed’s Map | 5
South-west View before the restoration of 1862 | 7
South View about 1700 | 9
Plan of St. David’s, 1806, by John Carter | 10
Top of the Tower | 11
Ceiling of Central Tower | 13
South Elevation (drawn by J. Taylor Scott) | 15
South Doorway | 17
The Nave, looking East | 22
Elevation of a Bay of the Nave, looking East (drawn by J. T. Scott) | 24
Norman Shaft with Re-carved Capital | 25
Details of Pier Arches (from Jones and Freeman) | 26
Carved Panels and Arch-ornaments in the Triforium (from Jones and Freeman) | 26
Groining of Rood Screen showing the flying ribs | 31
The Rood Screen and Organ | 33
The Presbytery in 1856 (from Jones and Freeman) | 36
The Choir and Presbytery, 1895 | 37
The Parclose Screen | 43
Arch between the S. Transept and Choir Aisle | 45
Double Piscina, St. Thomas’s Chapel | 46
The Sedilia | 49
The Shrine of St. David (Base) | 51
The Shrine of St. Caradoc (Base) | 55
Screen of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel | 57
Roof of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel | 59
Recess in Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel | 61
Bosses on the Cornice | 62
Window in Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel | 62
Niche | 63
Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel | 64
View from Ante Chapel to Lady Chapel | 66
Sedilia and Tomb in Lady Chapel | 67
The North Chapel Aisle | 68
Tomb of a Priest, N. Chapel | 70
Tomb of Bishop Morgan | 72
Bishop Gower’s Tomb | 73
Tomb of a Knight | 77
Abraham Stone | 79
North Doorway of Nave | 80
The College of St. Mary (after H. Gastineau) | 82
The Bishop’s Palace, 1779 (after Paul Sandby, R.A.) | 86
Section of Chimney in Kitchen | 89
Bishops’ Palace | 90
Bishops’ Palace; View of Courtyard (from Jones and Freeman) | 91
Gable-Cross lying in Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel | 96
Plan of the Cathedral | At end

THE WEST FRONT BEFORE THE RESTORATION OF 1862.

(The figures in the foreground are those of Sir G. G. Scott, Dean Allen, Prof. E. A. Freeman, the Bishop and Mrs. Jones.)

THE CROSS AND CATHEDRAL TOWER.

ST. DAVID’S CATHEDRAL

CHAPTER I

THE SITE AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE FABRIC

The see of Minevia, or St. David’s, was founded in the sixth century. It has always included the whole of Pembrokeshire, and is by far the most important of the four Welsh sees—St. David’s, St. Asaph, Bangor, and Llandaff. The impressively wild and open scenery which surrounds St. David’s gives it also a natural advantage irrespective of its greater size. But the site of the cathedral cannot be regarded as satisfactory, being close to the little river Alan, on almost marshy ground. Its drainage has consequently always been a source of trouble and expense. In questioning the founder’s choice of site it must always be clearly remembered that the buildings were originally monastic, and that seclusion, combined with a good natural water supply, were regarded by the old monastic builders as primary essentials. Once selected by St. David, however, this site has always been regarded with veneration by those who in later times added to the original foundation.

The existing church is not less than the fourth on this site. The monastic church was destroyed by fire in 645 and the second in 1088, and the third was that visited by Henry II. in 1171 and 1172 (vide Giraldus). The first view of the church generally seen is that from the south-east and from almost on a level with the top of the central tower. The tout ensemble is certainly remarkable, and few thoughtful visitors fail to find a pigeon-hole in their memory for this first impression, which is invariably conjured up by the name “St. David’s.”

Calixtus II. (Pope 1119-1134) canonised St. David in 1131,[1] and the church was solemnly dedicated to him in conjunction with St. Andrew, to whom the previous church had been dedicated. Of this primitive British church, which St. David himself founded long before the coming of St. Augustine, nothing is now visible. For in 1180 Peter de Leiâ, the third Norman bishop (1176-1198), replanned the whole building. Indeed, in consideration of the works being in progress (1189), the Cardinal Legate excused the bishop, Giraldus, and certain others from joining in the Crusade, provided that they contributed towards the expenses of those going and towards the completion of St. David’s Cathedral. It is to this Bishop de Leiâ that St. David’s, even as we see it now, mainly owes its grandeur.

But soon after the completion of the new church the central tower fell, seriously damaging all the adjacent parts, which were rebuilt, including one stage of the tower, by 1248. The foundations, however, on the wet site caused further trouble, and it was not till 1866 that they were properly laid and the tower secured by the late Sir (then Mr.) G. G. Scott. In 1248 an earthquake shook the building in a serious manner, and probably started or aggravated the curious outward inclination of the nave arcade, which can be seen in the illustration, p. 22. The fall of the tower also necessitated alterations in the buildings which had just been erected to the east of the crossing, and no doubt the earthquake also prevented any attempt to complete the stone groining of the nave, for about the year 1500 huge buttresses were added on the north or river side to prevent further settlements. Bishop Martyn (1296-1328) completed De Leiâ’s plan by adding the Lady Chapel; but his immediate successor, Bishop Gower (1328-1347), has, more surely than any prelate—not excepting De Leiâ—left his impress on the present buildings. Under his direction a stage was added to the tower; the south porch was built; the walls of the aisles were raised to their present height and preparations made for vaulting; the eastern chapel to the south transept and alterations to those east of the north transept were carried out; the aisles received Decorated windows and their walls buttresses; and the very remarkable Rood-screen and its adjuncts were then first added. Of his splendid episcopal palace across the Alan more anon.

FROM SPEED’S MAP OF PEMBROKE.

FROM SPEED’S MAP OF PEMBROKE.

In the Perpendicular period the principal alterations were the renewal of the main roofs; the addition of the huge buttresses on the north side of the nave; the vaulting of the chapel just east of the Presbytery, and the addition of one more stage to the tower. It should be noted that this was the only period in which the difficulties of vaulting were overcome, although extensive preparations for a sexpartite system had been made.

Nothing of note was done to the fabric for a long period after this, till Bishop Field whitewashed the cathedral internally in 1630! Then we find that during the Civil War much damage was done, traces of which can be easily found in the ruined chapels east of the Presbytery. The transepts and Lady Chapel were stripped of their lead, and consequently fell into a state of ruin. The roofs of the former were reconstructed in 1696, but the vaulting to the latter did not fall till nearly eighty years later. Sundry precautions were taken to prevent the main fabric from falling into absolute ruin—e.g., the southern arch of the tower was filled up; but St. David’s had fallen on evil days, and it is not till nearly 1800 that we read of a subscription for rebuilding the West Front from plans by Nash which are said to have been approved by the Society of Antiquaries. The frontispiece to this chapter shows this front as it was before Scott’s great restoration of 1862. The additions from 1800 to 1862, as given by Messrs. Jones and Freeman, make extensive reading, but do not count for very much in the building. The Chapel of St. Thomas, east of the North Transept, was converted into a Chapter House 1827. During the forties the South Transept was re-arranged as a parish church and the seventeenth-century vestry was treated as a kind of eastern aisle. Butterfield added some Decorated windows—notably the great North Transept window—and the north aisle of the Presbytery again received a roof.

In 1862 Scott was requisitioned by Bishop Thirlwall to examine the fabric and make a report on its proposed complete restoration, and in 1869 he was able, in his second report, to announce the satisfactory repair of the tower. This work was one of extreme difficulty, as will be seen from the Appendix (see p. 97). The church was then for the first time properly drained; and the next parts to be taken in hand by Scott were the Choir, Presbytery and their aisles, and after that De Leiâ’s original Transitional work, at a cost of about £40,000. This amount included Willis’s organ, and the reconstruction of the West Front in memory of Bishop Thirlwall (of which latter the Very Rev. James Allen,

SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL BEFORE THE RESTORATION OF 1862.

afterwards Dean, was the inaugurator). Dean Allen contributed in a most generous way towards the restoration, as, inter alia, the expenses of the renovation of the North Transept, St. Thomas’s Chapel, Library, and Treasury, and the roofs of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and the ante-chapels he defrayed entirely. The Rev. J. M. Treherne and his wife each gave £2,000 by legacy, and the latter gave an annual subscription of £200 during her life.

It is most welcome news that the present Dean and Chapter have already started a fund for the final section of the restoration, viz., that of the ruinous eastern chapels, wherein is exquisite work being surely destroyed. And it is hardly too much to expect that the Welsh will not fail to respond to this dual opportunity for at once reverencing their Patron Saint and removing what is to-day indeed a national reproach.

SOUTH VIEW ABOUT 1700, FROM AN OLD PRINT.

CHAPTER II

THE EXTERIOR

The Cathedral Precincts.—The wall of the Close, which extends to almost a mile, dates from 1330, but of the four Gateways only one remains. This, to the south-east of the cathedral, is the main entrance to the Close from the secular part of the city. It is about 60 feet high, and the gateway is flanked on the north by an early Decorated (or Transitional) octagonal tower—once the janitor’s lodge—and on the south by a semicircular tower of an earlier character. This latter was probably a detached bell-tower and contained a prison. It also formed a Record Office and Consistory Court. The Precentor’s house abuts on the southern enclosure; the Chanter’s orchard is to the south-west; the Archdeacon has his residence to the west, and north of this is another for the Archdeacon of Brecon; beyond this again are the Chancellor’s, the Archdeacon of Cardigan’s, and the Treasurer’s houses. Adjoining the bridge is a prebendal house.

PLAN OF ST. DAVID’S, 1806, BY JOHN CARTER.

A. Tower Gateway; B. City Wall; C. Cathedral; D. Bishop’s Palace; E. St. Mary’s College; F. Garden; G. Great Hall; H. Kitchen; I. Bishop’s Hall; K. West Chapel; L. Cloister Garth; M. God’s Acre (graves); O. Subordinate Cathedral Buildings.

On the north side of the Nave and parallel with it, but separated by the Cloister garth, are the remains of the College of St. Mary; to the north of its dignified tower are traces, possibly, of the infirmary, and to the north and east of this again are the remains of the houses of the Master and seven Priest-fellows of St. Mary’s, forming three sides of a quadrangle, on the north side of which was an entrance gateway tower. Across the Alan to the north-west are the attractive ruins of Bishop Gower’s once splendid palace.

TOP OF TOWER (S.W. ANGLE) AND TENOR BELL.

The Church.—An important feature in the general exterior appearance of St. David’s is the walling material. Greys, reds, and purples, and mottle-blends of all three, lend a peculiar richness and warmth to the building on a sunny day, and the converse in wet weather. The quarries from which the cathedral stone was obtained are at Caerbwdy, in the immediate neighbourhood, and as these are almost the oldest sedimentary rocks known, it is conjectured that some part of this locality existed as an island in more than one primæval sea.[2] This ancient cathedral, then, of the British Church has the distinction of being built of more primitive stone than any other important building in the country. Many things combine to render the general character of the exterior architecturally uninteresting. There is a decided feeling of dignity, but not of the grandeur with which one is apt to associate the idea of a cathedral. It lies low; the roofs are of a flat pitch, with the exception of those of the transepts; the highly picturesque and exquisite ruin of Bishop Gower’s palace to the west, with its chequered rampart, and the immense amount of new material used in the very necessary restoration, at present combine to mask the real age of the cathedral; and, finally, there is no hint of the gorgeous work within.

The Tower.—Few Norman towers, situated on the crossing of the nave, transepts, and choir, have not fallen[3] or been in extreme danger of doing so owing to the early architects having a very limited knowledge of the weight of superimposed masses and of the thrust of arches, which, as the orientals declare, “never rest.” The central tower of St. David’s was no exception; it fell in 1220. But it can hardly be that any tower has suffered worse than has this one from injudicious attentions even till the general restorations under Sir G. Scott in 1862. After the fall of 1220 the western piers and arch were allowed to remain, and the other three arches and piers were rebuilt from the ground. This, however, did not deter Bishops Gower and Vaughan adding, the first a Decorated and the latter a Perpendicular stage on to the same faulty substructure. In the rebuilding after the disaster of 1220 apparently but little effort was made towards fully introducing the new style in vogue. In fact, it is one of the most curious features of the whole of the details of the building that all the work is behind the accepted contemporary types in the matter of architectural advancement.

Internally the one old arch remaining is, of course, more or less semicircular, but the three new ones are pointed and consequently the string-course above them is carried at a higher level. Over this string-course on the west side is an arcade of pointed arches with slender shafts and foliated capitals. A corbel composed of a fox’s head carries the centre shaft. Altogether these form a graceful combination of shafts, corbels, and large bowtells with shaft-bases. Above is the characteristic Norman billet string-course.

CEILING OF CENTRAL TOWER.

Bishop Gower’s stage, above a string with the ball-flower ornament, contains on each face a tall two-light window, having pointed arches opening to a wall-passage, and externally a niche on either side. The third storey (of Bishop Vaughan, c. 1515) has a top-heavy effect and a most unusual parapet, with polygonal angle-shafts and a set of eight pinnacles. There are at present three bells, and the one that is used most and strikes from the clock is outside on the tower roof under a wooden diminutive belfry. There are two bells at the west end on the nave floor. Apparently there was an octave in the middle of the fourteenth century, when the bells were recast and the largest was lost at sea. About 1690 there were five (some cracked), and in 1748 the Chapter ordered that the four large bells should be taken down as they were both useless and dangerous, and in 1765 two were sold. The upper part of the interior of the tower consists of an elaborate wooden vault, which was raised by Scott and finely emblazoned. As the roof of the tower must obviously have been raised at least twice before, it seems hardly necessary for Scott to apologise (vide Report, 1869, Appendix) for doing so again. His success, however, is very patent.

The South Side.—Beginning at the west end, the first noticeable feature is the South Porch in the second bay, with the parvise or first floor chamber. The inner doorway has been, as Freeman[4] justly says, “one of the most magnificent displays of ornament in the whole building ... and, contrary to the common rule, the original Norman doorway has given way to a later successor.... The present doorway is Decorated (Bishop Gower, 1328-47), without shafts, but with a superb display of sculptured decoration, besides crockets and the ordinary four-leaved flower. The arch is adorned with a series of sculptures, which are sadly mutilated, but in which we may still trace the familiar representation of the Root of Jesse. The position, however, necessarily involves some singularities, and, as in the better known example of the Dorchester window, the genealogy is by no means easy to follow. The western impost is occupied by what appears to be a figure of Adam, with Eve issuing from his side; the other supports the recumbent figure of Jesse, from whom springs the branch, along which the figures are introduced, somewhat after the manner of the Norman medallions at Iffley. Some of the figures may still be discerned reading at desks; David with his harp may also plainly be seen, as well as a representation of the Crucifixion. Over the apex is an effigy of the Holy Trinity, with angels on each side bearing censers. The doorway has pinnacles at the sides, but they are cut off by the vaulting of the porch, which is plain quadripartite, springing from corbels,

SOUTH ELEVATION.

Drawn by F. Taylor Scott.

among which we may observe the ornament called the mask, the only example of that form to be found in the cathedral.” This porch is the work of Gower, and the peculiar mouldings are readily traceable to the same artist who designed the rood-screen. Scraps of the previous Norman doorway, which was done away with by Gower, are still to be seen in the plinth. At one time there were five steps in the porch, but these were removed in 1885. The entrance to the upper chamber (added by Vaughan, c. 1515) is obtained from the nave by a turret-stair, and the room is now used as a clerk-of-work’s drawing office.

In 1849 Butterfield renewed the tracery of the aisle windows as it originally was in Decorated times, but it is not very attractive.

The Clerestory is Norman, of ashlar work, and the windows are rather wide, stumpy, and round-headed, with flat pilaster-like buttresses between each pair. But the restoration has deprived the exterior of much of its interest, although one can easily imagine that those of the next century will enjoy a very pleasing contrast between the purples of the Caerfai buttresses and the yellows of the window dressings, which are of Somersetshire oolite.

The South Transept still retains the outline of the arch of the great south window which was blocked up when the four existing Perpendicular windows of four lights each were inserted. A double buttress supports the south-east corner of the transept, and behind this is the present Chapter House.

The East End.—The south Presbytery aisle was put into proper repair at the time of the general restoration, and new windows were inserted. The upper tier of windows at the east end of the Presbytery have been well restored also by Scott, and his own description[5] may well be given:

“In restoring the eastern arm of the church, a question arose which, though but slightly suggested in my first Report, grew upon my mind as we proceeded to such a degree, that it was more than a twelvemonth before I could make up my mind as to which course to take. The case was this:

“This wall of the church had originally side walls, much lower than at present, with a high-pitched roof, and was constructed with some view to stone groining, though it is clear that this was never carried out, and was, in fact, deliberately relinquished.

“The east end had two ranges of windows, three most magnificent lights below and four above.

SOUTH DOORWAY.

“In the fifteenth century the high roof was taken off, the side walls raised by the addition of some six feet of dead wall, the gable lowered, and a very flat, though handsome roof placed upon the walls thus altered; at the same time the upper tier of lancet windows was removed, all but the outer jambs, and the space they occupied converted into a single window in the Perpendicular style, with a very flat arch.

“Sometime later still the three great lancet lights below were walled up, owing to the erection of Bishop Vaughan’s chapel behind them.

“Finding that the dead wall, thus added to the sides, was a perfect mine of the débris of the ancient upper tier of windows, that the Perpendicular window substituted for them was so decayed as to require renewal, and that the timbers of the late and low-pitched roof were much decayed, it was a tempting idea to restore this limb of the church to its ancient design, and to add groining (if not of stone, at least of oak) as at first contemplated; while opposed to this was the judicious rule laid down by Messrs. Freeman and Jones, the historians of the cathedral, that when ancient alterations had become stereotyped as a part of an historical monument, all change in them not included under the term restoration is set down as to be in itself reprehended, only to be justified by special circumstances, the burden of proving whose existence rests, in every case, with the innovator.

“This rule would certainly demand the repair and retention of the later roof, and even, at first sight, of the later window, and between these conflicting views I for a considerable time oscillated, in a way which may have appeared weak to others, and was certainly most painful to myself.

“I eventually took an intermediate course, which I think will be admitted to be justified by the result.

“As regards the roof, though it was so bad as to necessitate its being taken down, and though all its main beams (I think) but one had to be renewed, the remainder, including much good carving and many armorial bearings, was capable of reparation. As regards the original intention of groining, I found unquestionable proofs that it had been relinquished, if not by the original builders, yet certainly by the reconstructors after the fall of the tower in 1220, for these builders had inserted niches just where the vaulting would come. They had also erected the upper range of lancet lights at the east end in a form incompatible with vaulting.

“These considerations led me at length to determine to relinquish the idea of groining, and to return to my first intention of restoring the later and existing roof.

“The case, however, was different with the upper east windows, for not only was the later insertion so decayed as to demand renewal, but on searching below its cill we found those of the original lights still in situ, while on working the mine of débris which existed in the dead walls added to the original sides, we found not only evidence sufficient to show the precise design of the ancient eastern lancets, but sufficient to go a considerable way in reconstructing them with their own ancient materials, though we found no details to enable us to complete either the high gable or its flanking turrets.

“While, then, I arrived at the conclusion that the fifteenth-century roof should be restored, I also felt convinced that, as regards the lancet lights, I had discovered just such special circumstances as would justify and almost demand the restitution of their original forms.

“The design of the windows, thus reproduced from their original materials after being for four centuries immured, is very excellent and interesting. Internally they form a continuous arcade, supported on little clusters of light shafts, while externally—the lights being narrow, and the piers between them wide—the latter are occupied each by a double niche, a fellow to which flanks either jamb, so that while the arcade within consists of four arches, that without is formed of four groups of arches, making twelve in all—four being windows and eight niches. The details of all are excellent; unfortunately, however, the roof of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel prevents the external group from being seen with any effect, though within we have now, so far as the forms of the windows go, the ancient arrangement complete, and a most effective and beautiful one it is.”

On the east wall of the tower the various weather-courses of previous roofs are visible, which make a not unnatural appeal to the imagination of the spectator. For the great defect of the exterior generally is that the roofs are of such a very flat pitch.

The Ruined Chapels—on the south King Edward’s, on the east that of Our Lady, on the north of St. Nicholas, and the Ante-Chapel—will be described later, as it is only by an unfortunate chance that they are now roofless (except the last), and will, we hope, shortly be correctly regarded as part of the interior if the proposed restoration takes place.

Not far from the east end of the Lady Chapel is the spring which St. David is credited with creating. Giraldus[6] has a very pretty legend concerning this spring, which was known as St. Mary’s Well. It seems to have been of somewhat variable quality, as its waters were sometimes changed into milk and at others into wine. Sir G. Scott, however, with scant respect for its saintly origin, caused it to be drained!

The North Side is much the more interesting of the two. After passing the chapels we come to a very curious three-storied building, the roof of which is higher than that of the cathedral. On the ground-floor was the Chantry of St. Thomas, now a vestry, entered from the east side of the north transept, and above this the turret stair from the north aisle of the presbytery leads to the old Chapter House, now the Library, and above this again is a disused room, once the Treasury.

No parallel has yet been found for this remarkable building, which Freeman (1856) very accurately describes thus:[7]

“It is continued from the face of the north transept, which it slightly exceeds in point of elevation. The external work is Decorated; the east is flanked by two flat buttresses of very singular character, which are terminated by rich pinnacles, now mutilated. Equally singular is the buttress dividing its two bays on the north side; flat at the bottom, after its first stage its projection becomes angular, and so runs up the whole height of the wall, becoming much smaller in its upper portion; its pinnacle is quite destroyed (but is now restored). At the junction with the transept a staircase is attached, in a singular and almost indescribable way, to the upper portion of the broad pilaster at the north-east corner of the transept....The east end has a very strange appearance, having three windows over each other, and a niche, not unlike a window, above all; that in the third stage is a blocked spherical triangle (now restored). The lower part of the wall is of ashlar, the occurrence of which is so rare in the exterior of this church; the upper is of rubble, excepting the buttresses.”

Butterfield is responsible for the large Decorated window in the North Transept, and Scott raised the roof to its original pitch and rebuilt the north-west angle turret. In the west wall are two Transitional windows (but the northern one has long been filled in), and above is a corbelled parapet. Below, but at a lower level than the transept floor, is a doorway to the cloisters, with a semicircular outer arch having a solid tympanum and segmental head within. At a contemporary period half, and much later the whole, of this entrance was built up, and in the recess thus formed was placed a lavatory and drain.

The east wall of the cloisters connects St. Mary’s College with the north transept. An imposing view is obtained on going through the door at the north-east corner of the cloisters. We now see the north side of the nave, with flying buttresses supported on huge masses of masonry, the ruins and graceful tower of St. Mary’s and, in the distance across the Alan, the magnificent ruins of the episcopal palace.

The North Doorway (see p. 80) corresponds in position to the south porch, and is a good example of a Transitional (Norman to Early English) doorway, but it is much decayed. The principal ornament is, like those in the arcade, a kind of hybrid composed of the Norman chevron and the Early-English dog-tooth ornaments. There is a depressed arch to this doorway, which, with other evidence, leads us to suppose that it has been higher. Another feature which calls for comment—it is the same in the arcade but in less marked degree—is that no matter what the size of the stone, a complete part of the ornament has been carved upon it, thus obtaining an irregular but not unpleasing effect.

The present West Front is from a design by Sir G. G. Scott, who based it upon a drawing which he found in the library of the Society of Antiquaries showing the church as it was before Nash’s alterations.

The illustrations on pages 2 and 7 show Nash’s design of 1793, which seems to have received the sanction of the Society of Antiquaries. The figures that appear in the first are Bishop Jones, Professor Freeman, the authors of the best history of St. David’s, Dean Allen, and Sir G. G. Scott. This execrable composition was a hopeless conglomeration of Norman, Decorated, and Perpendicular, with a couple of heavy-arched buttresses, which were apparently standing as recently as 1887.[8] The rebuilding of the West Front was undertaken at a cost of about £4,000 as a memorial to Bishop Thirlwall, who first seriously began to restore the church in 1864, and his statue stands over the west door. The material is Caerfai stone from the neighbouring quarries of Caerbwdy, and suffers from its newness in appearance. In fact the design and the purple stone combine to give the whole front a very heavy appearance, which only years of exposure to the sea air will partially remedy.

Photo. J. Valentine.

THE NAVE, LOOKING EAST.

CHAPTER III

THE INTERIOR—THE NAVE

At the South Porch, by which the visitor usually enters, the ogee-headed holy-water stoup should be noticed, and a general view be made of the church, as it is most unusual and has a character all its own. The majority of the work is that of Bishop Peter de Leiâ (1176-1198), and is therefore Transitional in character; that is to say, it is at the point of fusion between Norman and Early English. The pointed arch of the latter is not yet adopted, but the round (more or less) arch is still employed, probably in some degree to avoid the greater height otherwise entailed, but the details verge on the purity of the most refined Early English. De Leiâ evidently intended sexpartite groining to form an internal ceiling, but an earthquake and the fall of the tower doubtless instilled caution—even if funds were forthcoming—and the project was never carried out. The exceedingly rich ceiling, however, of Irish oak does not make one regret this circumstance, for its very bizarrerie and semi-arabesque character, coming so closely in contact with the great Norman arches, combine to make the interior of St. David’s one of unusual beauty. The more so, by contrast, on entering from the almost bald exterior.

“Possibly the circumstances which conduced to the lack of external ornament may have led its designers to counterbalance this deficiency by a superabundance of internal decoration. Certain it is that very few structures of the same size equal this cathedral in richness and elaborateness of execution lavished upon this portion of the interior. In fact, much of the solemnity of a Romanesque nave is lost, an effect which is

ELEVATION OF A BAY OF THE NAVE, N. SIDE.

From a Drawing by J. Taylor Scott.

certainly far better produced by more massive proportions and a greater extent of unadorned surface.”[9]

NORMAN SHAFT WITH RE-CARVED CAPITAL, EASTERN PIER IN S. NAVE ARCADE. (See p. 27.)

But although we miss the characteristic massiveness of most Norman naves, we also enjoy the freedom—which may fairly be claimed as the structural note of this interior—from their attendant heaviness. In fact, the very large span of the arches detracts from the size of the piers, the actual bulk of which is great.

DETAILS OF PIER ARCHES.

(From J. & F. p. 58.)

CARVED PANELS AND ARCH ORNAMENTS IN THE TRIFORIUM.

(From J. & F. p. 58.)

The details of the arcade are of an interesting character. The piers are alternately round and octagonal (irregular), with attached shafts at the cardinal points. Towards the aisles the shafts are clustered, being intended for vaulting. The plinths are more varied than is usual, but the tongue of foliage, which is a favourite method of ornamenting the space caused by the change from the square to the round or octagonal, is here conspicuous by only one example, and that a timid one on the south side. The bases are of quite an Early English type, with the usual hollow, but the capitals prove an instructive study. The most frequent type of these is the rather common “cushion,” which the Transitional carvers have vivified in the most exquisite way by, apparently, experimenting with several forms of stiff-leaved foliage, some of which approach more nearly to the classic type than is usual in this country, and least of all was it to be expected at the land’s end of Wales. On the south side towards the east is one of special beauty, where one sees how the carver has treated the Norman cushion cap as a boss on which to let his fancy play. The arches are of exceptional richness and elaborately moulded towards the nave—in fact, just as little of the Romanesque character as is consistent with the Norman arch is retained. The westernmost arches, being narrower in span than the others, are skilfully kept the same in height by being pointed, and the details differ; which prompts the suggestion that De Leiâ, finding his nave somewhat short in appearance, decided to lengthen it by another bay, and was only confined by the river Alan, which at the north-west corner even now runs quite close to the foundations. A strong horizontal line is carried east and west, close above the Norman hood-moulding, which, combined with the great width of the nave and the huge span of the arches, conduces towards the feeling of stuntedness already noticed in the exterior.

The deeply recessed clerestory of round-headed windows is curiously amalgamated with the triforium of couplets having pointed arches; in the spandril between each of which latter are elaborately decorated circles, some with a kind of rude dog-tooth star and others with a kind of eternal interlacing which looks something like an interwoven horseshoe pattern. In other instances, as at Southwell Minster, the triforium absorbs the clerestory, but at St. David’s it retains its character and becomes a screen to the passage over the arcade. The result is a very rich confusion. The amalgamation of distinct members not only precludes either the usual appearance of a church with or without a triforium, but the treatment of the triforial arches themselves is clever without being pleasing (see illustrations, pp. 22, 24, 25). The arches which enclose both the triforium and clerestory are again very rich, and the ornamentation is carried down their whole length without shafts or cappings. Clustered shafts with the Norman cushion capitals having square abaci receive the shafts of the wooden ceiling.

Of the previous nave-roof we have no date, but very possibly it may have resembled that at Peterborough or St. Alban’s, as something similar seems to have existed at Llandaff. The present roof is generally accredited to the Treasurer, Owen Pole (1472-1509), and in all likelihood that of the choir may be also.

“This very singular, if not unique, structure is, in its construction, simply a flat ceiling of timber laid upon the walls; but, by some, certainly unjustifiable, violations of the laws of architectural reality, such as are not uncommon even in the stone roofs of that period, it is made to assume a character wholly its own, and which it is very difficult to describe in an intelligible manner. By the employment of vast pendants, which at the sides take the form of overlapping capitals to the small shafts already mentioned, the ceiling appears to be supported by a system of segmental arches effecting a threefold longitudinal division of the roof, and crossed by a similar range springing from the walls. Of course these arches in reality support nothing, but are in fact borne up by what appears to rest on them. Notwithstanding this unreality and the marked inconsistency of the roof with the architecture below, notwithstanding that its general character would have been much more adapted to some magnificent state apartment in a royal palace, still the richness and singularity of such an interminable series of fretted lines renders this on the whole one of the most attractive features of the cathedral. Both the arches themselves, and the straight lines which divide the principal panels, drip with minute foliations like lace-work in a style of almost Arabian gorgeousness. It is much to be regretted that this ceiling cuts off the top of the western arch of the lantern, which at once spoils the effect of the latter, and gives an unpleasant appearance to the unfinished pendants of the ceiling, when seen from behind, out of the choir. Still this very view of the roof, in which hardly any other part of the nave is visible, is wonderful in the extreme” (J. & F., p. 59).

Having noticed the details and their curious effects in the nave, the observant visitor still feels that he has not fully explained to his satisfaction the complete secret of its bizarre effect. It only unfolds itself on measuring and levelling. The whole nave floor slopes considerably—more than two feet—from east to west, following the natural fall of the ground, and the arcades slope outwards respectively north and south, and, in consequence, their piers lengthen as one nears the west end. A settlement, owing to the very wet site and bad foundations, probably aided by an earthquake (1248) and the unusual width of the nave (for a Norman church) are enough to account for these peculiarities; and the slope of the nave floor seems to have been purposely so devised for the sake of drainage in flood-time.

At the west end of the south aisle, on three octagonal steps, stands the Font. Its original shaft is missing. The marble base is octagonal, and rudely arcaded with sixteen pointed arches, but no part is specially beautiful.

The nave aisles do not call for any very special remarks. At the east end of both will be seen traces of the original vaulting, and on the north side the vaulting-shafts are taller than on the south. Also on that side the Perpendicular flying-buttresses are seen which make such a strange show outside, where once was the cloister garth, with their huge props. Speaking of the aisles generally, Freeman says: “It must be remembered that none of these preparations for vaulting were ever carried into effect. This is, indeed, no unusual phenomenon, yet there is certainly something striking in so many designs for a stone roof being traced out upon the same walls, and none of them being ever brought to perfection. In the nave aisles it may perhaps be accounted for by the strange and untoward shapes which the great width of the pier arches compelled the lateral arches of the vaulting to assume; it may have been found actually impossible to vault the aisles either at this (1328-1347) or the earlier Romanesque period. But this argument does not apply to any of the other unfinished vaults in the church of whatever date.”[10]

The interior of the west front has been as nearly as possible restored to its former state, but has now no triforium passage. There are a couple of tiers of windows over the original west entrance. All the lights are round-headed and are set in a Norman rear-arch.

Some of the nave piers still show traces of polychromatic decoration. On the north and south sides, on the easternmost pier but one, are the remains of some frescoes, as also on the middle pier of the south arcade. But Bishop Field’s white-wash of 1630, which was removed about 1830 under the careful superintendence of the Ven. Archdeacon Davies, doubtless spoilt whatever beauty these mural decorations ever had.

It requires considerable discernment to distinguish very clearly what the designs are, but Freeman[11] made out that on the third southern pier (from the east) is a representation of the Blessed Virgin seated beneath a canopy. The figure is within a vesica, vested in a cope and has a nimbus; beneath which is an inscription, “Virgo Maria.” Above is our Lord and the emblems of the four Evangelists, and on the small attached shafts are figures of seven candlesticks, evidently referring to the vision of St. John.[12]

On the south-east face there is a full-length crowned figure of a king in plate-armour with the basanet and camaille, holding a sword and standing under a canopy. On the left arm is the initial H, which—the date of the plate-armour with knee-caps and elbow-pieces corresponding—has been taken to denote Henry IV.

On the two other piers are achievements of arms which Freeman[13] states to be “a banner bearing a bend, a shield party per chevron, and a casque with crest and mantlings, the crest being a head crowned.”

The Rood Screen.—The elaborate rood-screen, which separates the nave and choir, projects into the nave nearly half a bay. A daïs[14] of three steps in height occupies the remainder of the bay. The entrance to the choir is vaulted in two bays, and there are some very unusual flying groin-ribs, which are shown in the illustration. The work is unmistakably that of Bishop Gower (1328-1347), and was perhaps the completion of the Decorated scheme which he inaugurated throughout the fabric. On the sunny south side the tomb of the Bishop gains by contrast with the heavy arch-shadow.

On the north side, facing the nave is a peculiarly flat and shallow arcade in three bays, which formed a kind of reredos to the altar of the Holy Cross—the piscina being on the north. On the oblique side, facing north-west is a doorway with a semi-octagonal arch leading to the roof and organ loft.

On the south side of the western bay are two tombs, and on the north one, all of which will be described with the monuments in the nave (see p. 71).

The backing to the screen was, when Freeman wrote, solid, and he surmised, with some accuracy, what Sir G. G. Scott found on his restoration of the screen. In Scott’s words:[15]

“I mentioned in my first Report the massive stonework, some seven or eight feet in thickness, which blocked the rood-screen, and which I suppose to have been added to strengthen the tower piers. On examination this was found originally to have been hollow, but to have been filled up solid for the purpose suggested. The entrance to the choir was through a roof and uncouth archway in this vast wall, but on searching the contents of the

GROINING OF ROOD SCREEN, SHOWING THE FLYING RIBS.

wall the débris was discovered of the original archway, and of the side doorways into the hollow spaces. These details were found to be parts of a beautifully groined space, closely resembling the existing archway through the rood-screen, and forming a second, though varied, bay of that beautiful entrance. We have been enabled to reconstruct this feature, using the old remains so far as they would go. This beautiful addition to the choir was wholly beyond anything I had anticipated.”

In the Computus under 1492 is an entry recording that the sum of 100 shillings[16] for materials for a work which would seem to be for the blocking up of the screen, and no doubt the constant trouble arising from the weakness of the western tower arch rendered some such course imperative.

In De Leiâ’s time, or rather later, the screen probably stood between the tower piers, as the bases of their eastern responds are raised above those of the nave and suggest an earlier screen and its platform. And it is not unlikely that the pleasing incongruity of the western side of the screen is due to the retention of some portions of earlier work. There are two steps to the first bay of the screen, and on the second stand the wrought-iron gates (1847), and to the second bay there are three more steps before we reach the level of the choir. Gower’s characteristic ornaments and mouldings are somewhat lavishly bestowed about the screen, and doubtless his statue was intended to stand in the niche on the south side towards the nave above the curious aperture fitted with intersecting tracery. For a description of the tombs, see p. 71.

Along the length of the screen runs an oak cove cornice—possibly Butterfield’s work—copied from an existing piece which is original. The arches are fitted with late Perpendicular tracery, very white in appearance, and the springers of the vaulting seem not to have been completed. The groining has now been finished and an oak cornice added, and on the rood-screen is the organ. In 1571 30s. seems to have been paid for taking down the rood-loft, but it is now almost impossible to be sure what precisely this meant.[17]

The views north, south, east, and west are well worth the little walk on to the organ-loft level. Various details are well seen from this height, notably the interior of the tower, the nave-roof, and the general arrangements and fittings of the choir.

The Organ.—The present organ and case can hardly be

THE ROOD-SCREEN AND ORGAN.

described as things of beauty, though in point of tone the instrument is undoubtedly strong, yet sweet. It was built by Messrs. Willis in 1883, and is almost entirely new. Like the organ at Winchester, it used to occupy the north lantern arch, and was re-erected there in 1843 by Lincoln of London, but the present instrument stands on the rood-screen, care being, however, taken that it should obstruct as little of the view as possible. The tubular pneumatic system has been here adopted, and there are three manuals. A few points concerning the previous organs may be of interest, as it is not unusual to neglect this branch of archæology. According to tradition the present position of the organ is the original one. Browne Willis[18] says: “The Organ, before the Rebellion Stood in the Rood-Loft, under the West Arch, and fac’d the Altar; it is now removed to the North Arch: It is a new one, and those that are Judges, say, a pretty good one.” This amusing criticism gives further evidence to the notion that Browne Willis did not visit the church before—or at any rate very recently before—he wrote his interesting but somewhat unreliable little survey, which has now become very rare in any form. The items—“Et Sol Willō Warryn organizanti 40s” and “to ye mr of ye children for keeping of ye organs and teaching of ye quoristers, £10,” and others from the Liber Communis, imply the existence of an organ in 1490, 1492, 1557 and 1565. In the last year the magnificent sum of 6d. was spent on two stops “for ye great organs,” from which we may infer that our organs of to-day are far larger than in 1565. At any rate some small organ might easily have stood under the western arch of the tower, although this arch was then built up as it “fac’d the altar.”[19]

“Probably the tradition of the organ having stood there, led Browne Willis to suppose that the arch had been recently built up. However this may be, there are strong signs of its having occupied that position subsequently to the erection of the wall. The balustrade which surmounts the canopies of the stalls projects at this point, as if to give greater room for a small organ; and the door which pierces the wall, and is apparently coeval with it, is not set in the centre, where it would have interfered with the organ, but near the northern pier of the arch. This seems to have been the usual place of the organ in our churches, and to have been retained from the mere force of habit to the present time, when, from the greater size of our instruments, it is far less convenient.”[20]

A new organ was built in 1581—“ad usum divini servitii”—but was ruined in the great rebellion.[21] The ever-interesting Manby, however, gives another account, by which the organist, hearing some rebel discussing the demolition of the organ, and fearing that he might lose his position, dropped a stone from the loft and killed a Roundhead, an “aids-du-camp.” The organist fled and thus diverted attention from his instrument, having found a hiding place in the great bell by holding on to the clapper! This same bell the rebels stole, but their vessel was wrecked off Ramsey Sound, and the superstitious still say that the tolling of this bell presages a great storm!

It is clear there was an organ in 1691, as Precentor Ellis, in his answer to Bishop Watson’s Visitation Articles, says: “I answeare that we have an Organ, but out of order, for how long I doe not remember.”

Early in the eighteenth century Bernard Schmidt, the celebrated builder of that in St. Paul’s Cathedral, constructed an organ as the result of an order of the Chapter (1695), by which £10 was, for five years, to be set apart “out of the allowance to the Master of the Fabric”; and in 1698 each canon was ordered to advance £10 towards the new organ, for which the canons had expressed a great desire.

A very interesting communication from Archdeacon Davies to Archdeacon Yardley, of August 3, 1740, gives further particulars:

“What Particular time ye new Organ was set up here, I cannot be positive, but do believe, from ye accounts, it must be in the year 1704 or 1705. What Exact Sum̃ it stood ye Chapter In, I cannot for certain say, but am apt to think, from Various Items in various Years picked up about it, in their Accounts it could not be less, including all Charges, than £300, whatever More; and in a very little time after it was set up, they were at a Considerable Expense in repairing it again, after it had been damaged by a Storm, which uncovered ye very part of ye Roof of ye Church under which it lay, and exposed it to ye Rain and ye open Sky; and they were obliged to have an Organ Builder (down from London I think) at a great Expense to put things to rights again.

“Upon looking over some loose Papers in ye Chest at St. David’s, I have found these Receipts from Mr. Bernard Smith of London, Organ Builder (who made this Organ at St. David’s) for ye Summe of £290 paid to Him only upon that Account. So that when ye Charge of bringing it down, ye Necessary workmanship here, and other articles relating to it are put together, I dare say, before it could be compleatly set up, ye Expense was much nearer to £400 than £300.”[22]

This organ seems to have been used till that consisting of a choir organ and swell was put up by Lincoln in 1843 (as already noted), and the old case “of Norway oak”[23] was re-used. Six of the present stops are Father Smith’s originals.[24]

In the present restoration this organ was removed, and, to the very great discredit of all concerned, the splendid case with carvings if not actually by, certainly worthy of, Grinling Gibbons, was allowed to be broken up. A few of the best pieces were recently put together and a neat organ-screen constructed for the Church of St. Martin, Haverfordwest. A brief list of organists will be found on p. 95.

THE PRESBYTERY IN 1856.

Drawn by J. H. Le Keux (from Jones & Freeman).

THE CHOIR AND TRANSEPTS.

On passing through the rood-screen up five steps from the daïs the choir is reached, which affords one of the most

Photo: F. Frith & Co.

THE CHOIR AND PRESBYTERY IN 1895.

pleasing prospects in the cathedral. This view gains by comparison with the nave because of the latter’s over-intricacy, which complication is avoided in the choir by the absence of a triforium. There are four Transitional bays of very good proportions, if we except perhaps a tendency to heaviness in the alternately round and octagonal piers. Here we have—what the nave-bay design so much wants—strong vertical lines in the clustered shafts. The Transitional vaulting-shafts stop a little above the string over the arcade, and continuing them are slender Decorated ones with elaborate capitals. The clerestory lights (also Transitional) are beautifully detailed with a bold kind of chevron.

The east end is one of the finest pieces of Norman blending with Early English in the cathedral, or, for the matter of that, in the kingdom. It is composed of three lancets below and four above, Sir G. G. Scott having restored it to the state in which it was after the rebuilding of 1220, consequent upon the fall of the tower, except that Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel has made it desirable that the three lower lights should not be open as they originally were. They are now filled with mosaics.

In the fifteenth century, when the Perpendicular window was inserted, the stonework of the previous wall and upper tier of lights was used for heightening the side walls. Finding these walls to be a mine of the débris of the earlier windows, and the Perpendicular window in a bad state of decay, Scott determined to replace the old work.

After the fall of the tower the rebuilders were astonishingly conservative in their avoidance of novelty. It cannot have been from any want of ability, and we incline to the belief that it was the result of a genuine desire to make the new work harmonise with that in the nave and, by re-using a certain amount of old material, to relieve a possibly not overflowing exchequer of a larger disbursement. In the fifteenth century the steep-pitched roof of cradle-pattern, marks of which remain on the tower, was removed, the gable lowered, and the walls at each side raised about six feet. A roof of very flat pitch (as now) and the Perpendicular east window were added.

Finally, when Bishop Vaughan added his chapel behind the east end the lower lancets were walled up. During the Civil War the lead was stripped from the aisle roofs and the main arcades of the presbytery were filled up by walling, and the huge props to the roof were inserted which appear in Freeman’s view. The eastern windows are deeply recessed, and the banded shafts have caps of stiff-leaved foliage, and angels form the termination to the hood-moulding. Just below the cills is an early example of an embattled band, almost Greek in its severity, and beneath this again are numbers of intersecting semicircular arches with a ball ornament.

After four centuries of immurement the upper range of lights are restored to their former arcaded glory, behind the graceful shafts of which runs a passage. The restored portions are readily recognisable by their being made of oolite, whilst the original stones are all of purple Caerfai. These windows are now filled with stained glass by Hardman, the gift of the Rev. J. Lucy. The subjects are the Last Supper, Gethsemane, the Transfiguration, and the Nativity. The large lower lancets are filled with mosaics by Salviati, which are good of their kind. They form a fixed reredos, and were also part of a memorial by the Reverend John Lucy, Rector of Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, to his ancestor, William Lucy, Bishop of St. David’s, 1660-1677. The designer of the mosaics as well as the glass above was Powell, of Hardman’s glass works in Birmingham.

“The subjects are—in the central window, the Crucifixion, with the attendant figures of the Virgin and St. John; the Magdalene kneels at the foot of the cross. In the side windows are full-lengths of ‘Ecclesia’ and ‘Synagoga,’ the Christian Church and the Jewish. In a predella below the central mosaic is a representation of the brazen serpent, with figures of Moses and Aaron. Below the others are—St. David distributing alms to the poor, and St. David addressing the Synod of Llandewi Brefi. Each of the larger subjects has a rich architectural canopy, and a broad border of very beautiful design surrounds the whole....

“Immediately under the Crucifixion are the words, ‘Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi’; and below again, within an arcade of three arches are the brazen serpent, Moses, and Aaron—one bearing his rod, the other his ‘rod that budded.’ Under the figure of Ecclesia is St. David, in a grey monastic robe, bestowing alms. Under Synagoga, he is addressing the Bishops at Brefi.... He stands in the centre, while the Bishops are seated round, with a white robed Abbot in the foreground.”[25]

The golden ground which backs the mosaics sets off advantageously the delicate garb and pale flesh-tinting of the principal figures. The borders and other ornaments are rich and varied in colour; and considering that the east end of the presbytery is somewhat dimly lit, it was unquestionably desirable that the designs of the mosaics should be firm in drawing. The heads are perhaps the best part, which is no small achievement, being as a rule the worst executed. The effect of the mosaics, with their shimmer of gold, and solemn figures lighting up the dark wall of the sanctuary, is by no means bad, and, moreover, they harmonise with the deep hues of the surrounding stonework. There is a pleasing fitness, too, in the “Old coat” of the Lucys being placed in the pavement of the presbytery, and stained glass above—a memorial no less of the former Bishop than of the giver of these handsome decorations.

Under the central recess on a brass is:

“In honorem Dei, et in memoriam Gulielmi Lucy, S.T.P., hujus Ecclesiæ Cathedralis regnante Carolo Secundo, præclari episcopi; has picturas murales et fenestras superne pietate adductus, dat dedicat Johannes Lucy per multos annos Hamptoni Luci Rector, A.D. 1871.”

The panelled roof of the presbytery is of flat pitch, and dates from the period of Owen Pole’s treasurership (1472-1509), to whom also that same feature of the nave is attributed. Scott restored the ancient decorations, ignoring that of the seventeenth century, when he was forced to repair and largely renovate the much-decayed beams, &c. The beams are so large that considerable difficulty was experienced before suitable oaks could be found; these were eventually procured from Salop, Radnor, Hereford, and the Forest of Dean. The main bosses are richly blazoned with shields and gilt, and the armorial bearings include those of Bishop Robert Tully (1461-1481), Bishop Richard Martyn (1482-1483), and those of Edmund, Earl of Richmond, impaling Lady Margaret. Freeman says[26] “the arms of Tully and Martyn occurred also in the clearly contemporary upper east window.” If this was contemporary glass we trust it has been carefully preserved. The entry in 1490, which is repeated in 1492, “Et sol 9£ 4d. Dri Oweno Pole Mro operis ad usũ fabriciæ per venerabilẽ patrem Robertū nuper Menev. Epūm per suas litteras patentes assignat,”[27] seems to imply an annual payment, and that probably this roof was completed soon after this date. The colouring is rather bright in black, white, and red, and the ornaments are on a ground of yellowish white. The shields adorn their original positions, and those not mentioned above are France and England quartered, Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Rhys ap Tudor, Bishop Gomeg, and that assigned to Rhodri Mawr, King of Gwynedd, killed 877. The corbels receiving the walling shafts had lost their decorations, and Scott re-blazoned them with the arms of the Bishop, Dean, Canons, and Archdeacons of 1864.[28]

The rise from the choir to the eastern bay containing the altar is of four steps.[29] The tiles in the presbytery are excellent examples of fifteenth-century encaustics in the usual red-brown and yellow, set diagonally. Some are, of course, modern, and these are good copies of the old ones, which are decorated with the arms of Edward III., the Berkeley and Beauchamp families, and the Tudor rose. Near the sedilia are some ancient bordering tiles. From the continual repetition of the Berkeley arms Freeman traces these encaustics to the celebrated Malvern factory.[30]

On the second step of the presbytery, and at about its centre, is a squared mortice. This may have received the stem of the reader’s lectern, which was distinct from those often found in the nave. It may possibly have received even the processional cross or the cross which Alcuin tells us was placed in this position on Good Friday to be kissed by both the clerics and the laity.

The altar slab of grey sandstone and its supports of oak are new. These are kept clear of the east wall, as there is a peculiar opening into Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel just behind. A description of this will be found on p. 62. On the floor near the altar and behind it are placed sundry altar slabs brought from disused altars. One of these (to the south), being only 14¾ inches by 9 inches, is let into a larger stone. It is marked with the usual quintette of crosses and seems to be a picked piece of Caerfai stone in fine state, from which we may infer that it probably was used as an “altare portabile.” In the history of St. David we read of one of these altar stones which was presented to him by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. King suggests[31] that this stone may have been a “seal” for a reliquary or receptacle for altar relics, and if so, this one and

THE PARCLOSE SCREEN, E. SIDE.

that recently unearthed in the Jesus Chapel of Norwich Cathedral are the only known ones extant.

The woodwork in the choir has many points of interest, notably the Parclose Screen, which is unique. It divides the presbytery and choir, and serves to emphasise the ancient three-fold ritual arrangement of nave, choir, and presbytery. Freeman considers the position of this screen very remarkable “in this country at least,” and the only churches with analogous indications that he can instance are Malmesbury and Dorchester. These divisions were usually well marked in large churches, but not with an actual screen. In the middle of the fourteenth century the parclose seems to have been moved to make room for Bishop Morgan’s throne, but as it always occupied a corresponding position, it is not unlikely that we here find a very ancient tradition in the church of St. David’s.

Apart from its position, however, the screen itself is not particularly noteworthy. The style is Decorated, verging towards Perpendicular. The upper part is open and filled with sexfoiled tracery, and the lower is, as usual, panelled. The centre is devoted to a wide entrance, and at different dates three others have been pierced.

The Stalls are inscribed as follows:[32]

| South Return. | | North Return.
1. | Decanus. | 15. | Præcentor.
2. | Archd Meneue. | 16. | Archd Brecon.
3. | P. Llan Dewi. | 17. | P. Sti Nicholi.
| South Side. | | North Side.
4. | P. Cursalis. | 18. | P. Langan.
5. | P. Treflodn. | 19. | P. Cursalis.
6. | ..... | 20. | ....
7. | Vicr Episcop. | 21. | Succentor.
8. | P. Cursalis. | 22. | P. Cursalis.
9. | P. Cursalis. | 23. | P. Cursalis.
10. | P. Cludeu. | 24. | P. Caer-Fai.
11. | .... | 25. | ....
12. | P. Caer-Farchell. | 26. | Archd Cardign.
13. | Archd Carmarn. | 27. | P. Aurea.
14. | Cancellarius. | 28. | Thesaurarius.

The constructional arches in the transepts are pointed throughout, with an occasional decorative circular arch, but are

ARCH BETWEEN THE S. TRANSEPT AND THE CHOIR AISLE.

much plainer than those in the nave and choir. “The peculiar character of the more slender shafts has freer scope than in the nave and choir, where a more massive pier is employed; we may observe the general omission of the neck-moulding and the use of the ogee keel as at Llandaff. The latter is here applied very curiously, being, in several members, doubled and set laterally, the effect of which is by no means pleasing, though it may have had some influence on the architecture of the period.”[33]

DOUBLE PISCINA, ST. THOMAS’S CHAPEL.

The transepts are approached from the nave—not, as is usual, through an open arch, but through original Transitional doorways. The wall which contains these doors effectually cuts off the view from the transept to the nave, and also serves somewhat to make the contrast between the elaborate nave and the rather bare transepts less marked.

The Chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, north of the north transept, and the buildings above form one of the many unique points of St. David’s. On reference to the ground-plan it will be seen that this remarkable building is placed at an unexpected angle, the reason for which is not apparent and remains unexplained.

The year of the fall of the tower—1220—was also that in which the body of St. Thomas, the martyred primate of Canterbury, was translated from the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to the choir. St. David’s, in common with many other great churches, determined to dedicate a chapel to his memory. In 1329 this chapel was probably remodelled, when Sir R. Symonds gave his manor of St. Dogmell to secure two chaplains to celebrate daily mass for his soul and his wife’s at the altar of St. Thomas. It has the only original completed Decorated vaulting in the building (except the south porch), and two stages were added above, making the building taller than the transept and giving the remarkable external effect seen from the north-east. The chapel has served as a chapter-house, library, and vestry, and on its south side has a very beautiful double piscina, in character purely Early English. The trefoiled heads are characteristically moulded and the spandrils richly carved, one with stiff-leaved foliage, another with a bird and foliage, and the third represents a fight between a man and a devil which is trying to devour another man. This piscina is interesting, apart from its beauty, as showing that the Early English architects could work purely in that style when they desired, and that in all probability their use of Transitional detail was prompted by their artistic sense and desire to make their work harmonise with their predecessors’. The vaulting rises from octagonal shafts with round flowered caps, and the bosses at the crossing of the ribs are elaborate. One contains the head of our Lord, and another a similar subject, but the Head censed by angels.

The storey above was the original Chapter House, later the Grammar School, now the Library. This position is, we think, unique for a chapter-house. It is very plain and has a mediæval recessed closet; also a fine Decorated fireplace (and in it a most unworthy stove), which is obviously the work of Gower, as it is almost precisely similar to one in the residential part of his palace over the river. There are also some Early English bracket capitals, one foliated and the other with the nail-head, probably to carry lights. On the cill of the north window is a fragment from the old organ-case, showing how well it was worthy of being, at any rate, attributed to Grinling Gibbons.

The room above this (third stage) was used as the Treasury, but is not of any great interest.

Scott did away with an unsightly temporary wooden stair leading to the chapter-house from the transept, and re-used the original entrance from the north choir aisle; but we do not consider the present arrangement very satisfactory, as it still has a temporary appearance.

The Throne (Bishop Morgan, 1496-1505) stands on the south side of the choir, and is a peculiar structure, rendered the more puzzling by being a blend of Decorated and Perpendicular, judging by the detail. If the Decorated parts, however, are not of that period, they are copied from similar work on the parclose screen. There are three seats, the centre being the Bishop’s, and the others probably for the Canonici Collaterales. Above are innumerable crocketed canopies, pinnacles, pediments, &c., terminating in a kind of open spire. The total height is little short of thirty feet.

At the time of the restoration of the tower all the woodwork in the immediate vicinity had necessarily to be removed, and under Scott’s direction was extensively repaired, “the greatest care being taken to preserve the ancient work as nearly untouched as possible.”

The Sedilia are of a pleasing Perpendicular design, with a cornice in oak of a peculiar white colour, which leads one to suppose that they were once coloured. The canopy work and coved cornice are better in detail and general design than those of the stalls. The buttresses which divide the seats are pierced with tracery, and are surmounted with crocketed pinnacles.

The oaken stalls—like almost all the woodwork in the choir—belong to the Perpendicular period, and were erected during the episcopate of Bishop Tully (1460-1480). They have plain arms, but the return stalls and those of the Chancellor and Treasurer are decorated with grotesque heads. The misereres are also conceived in a serio-humorous vein, some, indeed, being very unusual, the monks being represented as suffering from mal de mer and crapula. One carving exhibits a cowled fox offering the wafer to a goose with a human head, which Freeman thinks may have some bearing on the religious controversy of the time.[34] He also regards the cowled fox as “the carver’s version of the proverb ‘Cucullus non facit monachum.’ ”

THE SEDILIA.

The decanal stall was formerly assigned to the Bishop as Dean, and accordingly inscribed Dom. Epī., but when the Precentor in 1840 assumed the title of Dean[35] this was changed. It will be observed that the seats of most dignity are the extremes, and the western end and southern side take precedence. As in the arrangement of stalls which existed in the colleges of Abergwili and Llanddewi Brefi, founded by Bishop Beck in this diocese, the Bishop’s Vicar (Subdean) sits on the decanal side, and the Subchanter in a similar position on the Precentor’s side.

The delicate silver altar-cross was designed by Mr. T. G. Jackson, and is a choice addition to the cathedral plate. The east end hangings are at once recognisable as one of the happiest of Mr. Bodley’s exquisite designs.

THE SHRINE OF ST. DAVID.

This shrine, which is, and always has been, one of the most important in the country, occupies a very modest position in the presbytery, viz., the third bay from the east on the north side. It is, however, rather a base and a frame for a movable feretrum, for we know it was carried to battle. Although the shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster and St. Thomas à Beckett at Canterbury—to mention two great instances—were placed behind the high altar with much dignity and with plenty of room for pilgrims to circulate, yet it seems most likely that the somewhat extraordinary position of the shrine of the patron Saint of Wales is due to a retention of an ancient British custom.[36] The tombs of St. Trilo and St. Dubricius rest in similar places in Llandaff Cathedral, and that of St. Ninian at Whitherne, in Galloway, occupies an identical position. On the other hand, Dr. Rock[37] writes: “I cannot bring myself to think that the shrine stood anywhere but behind the high altar, in its full dignity and splendour;” which, however, has not been the case, certainly since the fifteenth century, as the stone altar stood against the east wall of the presbytery.

We are inclined to think that the monks divided these relics, which were so infinitely precious that kings came to venerate, and that some were kept in a movable shrine or feretory, and that the remainder were shown in a recently

Photo, J. Valentine.

THE SHRINE OF ST. DAVID.

discovered recess behind the high altar.[38] Probably these are the same relics which were found in the lower part of the recess run with mortar and formed into a solid mass, evidently to prevent desecration. The relics have been extracted and are carefully preserved in the cathedral.

St. David, whom Walcott[39] gives as Bishop from 519-542 (when he presumably died), was canonised by Pope Calixtus II. (Guido of Vienne)[40] 1119-1124, and judging by the numerous Edwardian coins found in the neighbourhood the shrine attained the height of its celebrity during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Bishop Gower was thus able to build his magnificent palace as a hostelry for the many distinguished pilgrims. Amongst the kings who paid homage to St. David were William I. in 1081,[41] when he subdued Wales, and this shrine doubtless formed in some sense a common bond between conquerors and conquered; Henry II., on his way to and from Ireland (1171-1172) when he gave inter alia two velvet copes “for the singers in serving God and St. David,”[42] and it was while waiting here for a fair wind that Henry is reported to have learnt from a bard that King Arthur was buried in the Isle of Avalon; whilst the last royal visit recorded is that of Edward I. and Queen Eleanor in 1284.[43]

It appears that the remains of St. David’s confessor, St. Justinian, were translated from Porthotinan, near St. David’s, to a new tomb in the cathedral in which he himself was also subsequently interred.[44] But it is not clear at what date the relics were translated to a movable feretory. However, it is certain that it was portable, as in 1086 it was stolen and despoiled.[45] In spite of William of Malmesbury definitely stating that the relics were transferred to Glastonbury in 946,[46] they were still in their place when Henry II. made his pilgrimage, and a century later (1275) we find Bishop Richard de Carew building a new shrine which agrees with the general architectural character of the existing structure.[47] But we find that the relics, or some of them, were inclosed in a portable shrine long after this. An Extent of the Bishop’s lands made in the year 1326 informs us that the burgesses of St. David’s were bound to follow the Bishop in time of war with the shrine of St. David for one day’s journey in either direction,[48] and under a statute of Bishop Nicholas the chantry priests were enjoined to carry the shrine in procession on the instructions of the precentor or president of the Chapter.[49] Yet the evidence[50] of those who certainly saw the shrine before the Reformation, convinces us that this structure is the same that anciently bore the name, and, as Freeman[51] says, “the term feretrum, in spite of its etymology, was continually applied to standing shrines, as, for instance, to the celebrated shrine of St. Cuthbert at Durham.” By a statute[52] of Bishop Beck, 1287, recited and confirmed by Bishop Gower in 1342, three officers are directed to take charge of all things given or left “tam ad fabricam, quam ad Feretrum, sive caput.”

The style of the shrine is Early English merging towards Decorated. The base extends from pier to pier of the third arch from the east on the north side of the presbytery. On this are three low chamfered and pointed arches, about 12 inches high, and four deeply-sunk quatrefoils occupy the spandrils; the recesses beneath the arches are also about 12 inches in depth and backed with a stone wall. The outer quatrefoils are merely ornamental, but the two central ones communicate with lockers at the back for offerings. Above these arches is a flat table, restored in many places, on which rested the movable feretory and which also bears the principal structure of three arches and round shafts. The capitals are rather Early English in character, as are the heads[53] at the junctions of the arches, but the crocketed hood-moulding and label running across the archway are most undesirable Perpendicular additions. The arches contained frescoes on the wall at the back. According to Browne Willis,[54] “St. David himself is painted in his Pontificalibus; and on each side of him is a Bishop Saint; one by the Inscription is known to be St. Patrick (to the west); the other is somewhat defac’d.” It is a figure in episcopal attire and said to be St. Denis. He goes on to say that the whole was formerly surmounted by a wooden canopy—“a fair Arch of Timber work painted”—and marks of this remain. The back—towards the north choir aisle—is supposed to be imperfect. It has three low rounded arches, the centre being the widest, and over each was a chamfered quatrefoil, and between these were two rather high niches. A string runs round the each opening, but does not run along the base of the quatrefoils. Quite recently stones were to be seen in the pavement hollowed by continual friction with the knees of the pilgrims. Undoubtedly this shrine suffered when the presbytery arcade was walled up owing to the collapse of the aisle roofs, but now that all is dry and in good repair the three saints might well be repainted.

THE SHRINE OF ST. CARADOC.

Often mistaken for, somewhat similar to, and of about the same date as, the shrine of St. David, is that of St. Caradoc on the south side of the north transept (dedicated to St. Andrew), where he was buried by his own express wish near the altar of St. Stephen. He died in 1124, and at the instance of the historian Giraldus was canonised by Pope Innocent III.[55] The tomb consists of a round arch, with a stone shelf below supported by a wall in which are two pointed arches and a couple of quatrefoils chamfered inwards. Above the arch is a small portion of wall containing some air-holes. It has been suggested that as this transept has been dedicated to St. Andrew, one of the patron saints of the Church, that it was designed as a receptacle of relics of that saint.[56]

The Aisles of the Presbytery, except for sundry attractive monuments, are not very interesting, but have undergone various changes. After the fall of the tower they were reconstructed in the prevalent Transitional style. In the Early English period the wall of the south aisle was rebuilt further south.[57] The old roofs were removed, the walls raised, and new windows inserted in the Decorated period by Bishop Gower (1328-1347). Three hundred years later they were in a ruined condition. In the general restoration of the latter part of this century they have been re-roofed and extensively repaired.

THE SHRINE OF ST. CARADOC.

The capitals of the pier-shafts on the aisle side resemble those in the presbytery, but the piers themselves are peculiar. A group of shafts is attached to each pier; these, however, finish below the capitals of each pier with a bracket. It has been supposed that these were intended for figures, and it is quite likely that this may have been the best way the Transitional architects saw of avoiding a raw appearance when they gave up their groining system.

The eastern walls of the presbytery aisles both show the very steep pitch of the early roof, which apparently remained till the walls were raised by Gower.

In the south-east angle of the north aisle is a doorway leading to the arcaded passage in front of the main east windows. Scott restored the original Decorated windows, which he found much decayed on the north side; but on the south side, where no remains of the tracery were extant “and even the jambs were so shattered that it was only by a fragment here and there that the mouldings were recovered,”[58] the tracery he introduced was “founded on fragmentary evidence from other parts of the church of the same date.” But this archæologic proceeding has not resulted in any specially beautiful design, though, doubtless, it was the best thing that could be done.

The modern roofs are decidedly good and solid—of a Decorated character and well carven.

The north choir aisle is different to the south on account of the Chapel of St. Thomas, which blocks up the westernmost bay. A modern wooden staircase near the west end of the north aisle leads to the chapter-house.

The large north window in the north transept was inserted in 1846 by Butterfield. It is based on one at Sleaford, Lincolnshire, and replaced another of late and inferior design. The west wall of both transepts is of De Leiâ’s time, and the remainder, after the fall of the tower, about 1220. The north transept is dedicated to St. Andrew, and his altar stood in the central eastern arch and the south transept was known as the Chanters’ Chapel, with an altar dedicated to the Holy Innocents and almost certainly one to St. David. This transept had at first but a single chapel (Decorated), with a space between it and the aisle of the choir, but in the sixteenth century these two were joined and the chapel became a vestry. In this century, when the south transept was fitted up as a parish church it formed the eastern aisle. Scott restored the original arrangement.

SCREEN OF BISHOP VAUGHAN’S CHAPEL.

The transepts show more clearly than any other part of the church the influence of the west of England on Welsh architecture, and it is remarkable that it should have started thus early. The Transitional and even Early English architecture at St. David’s and Llandaff resembles in mouldings that at Slymbridge and in foliage some of the great Gloucestershire churches. It is not surprising that the later splendid Perpendicular and Decorated examples of Somerset and the Bristol district should have made their impress felt in Wales. But this Early English connection certainly seems wonderful.

THE CHAPELS EAST OF THE PRESBYTERY.

The chapels at the far east end of the church are extraordinarily extensive and most remarkable for a comparatively small cathedral like St. David’s. This being so it is best to refer to the plan, which will simplify what seems bewildering in mere description. Generally speaking the ground-plan may be considered as an extension of the main body of the church, terminating in a Lady Chapel, with aisles continuing those of the choir for part of the length. But, inasmuch as no part of the cathedral seems to have attracted the attention of the various prelates who were successively benefactors to the church, more than this; and, as the changes were numerous and but little regard appears to have been paid to preceding plans, the inevitable result is a kind of architectural pot-pourri. It is, however, a very attractive medley.

De Leiâ’s church clearly terminated at the existing east wall of the presbytery and aisles, and apparently at the time of the rebuilding occasioned by the fall of the tower in 1220, no attempt was made to lengthen the church eastwards. It is not unlikely, however, that shortly before the time of the earthquake of 1248 a Lady Chapel or retro-choir was contemplated and even begun, but discontinued. As we see it now it is also not improbable that the original plan may have been followed, with many changes in detail in the succeeding centuries. The aisles continuing those of the presbytery are connected by a sort of retro-choir or ambulatory—embracing the space now occupied by Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel between it and the east wall of the presbytery. This is all Early English, i.e., thirteenth century, work. Bishop Martyn (1290-1328) completed the present ground-plan by adding his Lady Chapel.

Bishop Gower (1328-1347), the Menevian Wykeham, raised the north and east walls of the north chapel aisle and rebuilt the south and east walls of the south aisle from the ground, probably on Early English foundations. Also, this aisle was projected a few feet in an easterly direction and many changes made in the Lady Chapel, where Gower founded a charity in 1334. Bishop Vaughan (1509-1522) appropriated the space east of the presbytery which was described[59] as “vilissimus sive sordidissimus locus in totâ ecclesiâ,” and converted it into the beautiful chapel which bears his name. Previous to this we can find no early references to this space which was walled in north,

ROOF OF BISHOP VAUGHAN’S CHAPEL.

south, east, and west (according to Freeman) and may previously never have been roofed. With regard to this numerous suggestions have been made which do not seem entirely satisfactory. At any rate the east windows of the cathedral were glazed and required light, which we venture to suggest may have been obtained from the open passage left for pilgrims to reach the ancient recess in the east wall, which is apparently in situ and bears unmistakable marks of having been polished by use. And, that the remainder of the space was screened off and roofed for the immurement of a recluse, who could perhaps watch unseen the movements of the pilgrims. It must be remembered also that stealing relics carried its own absolution. This might account, too, for its filthy state which necessitated the four pence of 1492[60] to clean. In those days an unusually large sum. In making this Trinity Chapel, Bishop Vaughan blocked up the lower east windows of the cathedral and probably added the upper tier shown on p. 36, and then added his fan-traceried roof and other ornaments.

The Lady Chapel and the ambulatory or vestibule were evidently twice prepared for vaulting before Bishop Vaughan actually completed the scheme, but during the Civil War it was denuded of lead, which eventuated in its collapse about 1775 and in the erection of the extraordinary modern buttresses which prop up the inner walls of the chapel and its aisles.

This brief general description may help the visitor to realise the many changes which produced these peculiar eastern adjuncts, and we will now discuss each more in detail.

Bishop Vaughan’s, or The Trinity, Chapel.—This chapel is a peculiarly subtle example of Perpendicular, and retains both its internal and external roofs. Freeman, who does not usually pay high tribute to any phase of Perpendicular, says,[61] “Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel is an extremely fine specimen of late Perpendicular, and that of the best kind, and is the more conspicuous, as being the only portion of the cathedral of any merit or importance belonging to that style. It exhibits the same chasteness of design and delicacy of execution which distinguishes King’s College Chapel, opposed alike to the meagreness of Bath Abbey and the corrupt form and overdone ornament of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel. The arches, one on each side, which divide the chapel from the aisles, command admiration for the justness of their proportions and the purity of their detail, being well moulded, and having shafts with good capitals and bases; the stone screens also with which they are fitted up increase the effect of elegant richness. It is much to be regretted that they should remain exposed to the effect of the weather, even comparatively sheltered as they are by the main body of the cathedral.

RECESS IN BISHOP VAUGHAN’S CHAPEL.

The roof is of excellent fan-tracery, consisting of two bays, running north and south, with a small portion of panelled barrel vaulting at each end. It rises from shafts, of which the central ones at each end are corbelled off. The eastern one would have interfered with the altar of the chapel, the western with the doorway[62] which then opened behind the high altar, and whose arch may still be traced.” The angel which acts as a corbel over the Transitional recess is very finely conceived and carved, as also are the bosses of sculpture on the screens. Indeed they are as fine as anything the Perpendicular men ever did. The recess itself is shown on p. 61. The centre cross is 2 feet 3 inches square and is cut out of a stone 1 ft. 9 in. thick, the four spandrils between the arms being pierced through to the high altar. The height of the top of the cill is about 3 feet from the present floor of the chapel and 1 ft. 6 in. from that of the sanctuary. As already mentioned,[63] the lower part was found to contain human bones, run into a solid mass with mortar to prevent desecration, which probably was done at the time of the religious changes in the sixteenth century. The other crosses surrounding the large one are probably some of those cut for dedication purposes; and as the lowest at any rate is earlier than the centre, it is probably a once much venerated relic of St. David’s own church before that of De Leiâ.

BOSSES ON THE CORNICE.

On the opposite side of this chapel—i.e., in the wall between Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and the ante-chapel—is more finely detailed Perpendicular work.

RECENTLY DISCOVERED WINDOW IN BISHOP VAUGHAN’S CHAPEL.

In 1898 an interesting discovery was made, and our view was taken the same year immediately after. On the west side of this wall stood the altar to the Holy Trinity, with a tall canopied niche on each side.

On either side of these again traces of a four-centred arch showed faintly through the smooth ashlar at the back, and on removing the ashlar two beautiful windows were disclosed. They have their saddle-bars and stancheons in situ, in some places almost rusted through, and it is clear that the windows have not been, nor were they intended to be, glazed. Another interesting point is that they seem scarcely to have been finished before they were walled up again, for the masonry has not even been rubbed down. This seems so unusual a treatment for windows of such refinement, that one is tempted to conjecture that some zealous subordinate of the Bishop’s, anxious to give him a pleasant surprise, had, during his absence, caused these windows to be made, but on his return the incensed prelate promptly ordered their immurement. A squint was, however, left in the centre light of each window, so that from the Trinity Chapel altar the celebrations at those at the east end of the north and south aisles could be seen. When removing the masonry in 1898, it was decided to leave these squint-stones in order not to destroy an important link in the history of these windows.

NICHE, BISHOP VAUGHAN’S CHAPEL.

Curiously enough, the backs of the windows, towards the ambulatory are different from the fronts (one of which we illustrate) and have merely four-centred arches.

BISHOP VAUGHAN’S CHAPEL.

At the north end of this chapel is the tomb of Archdeacon Hiot and that of Sir John Wogan, recently brought here for the sake of preservation. The former stood in the chapel of St. Nicholas. Bishop Vaughan’s own tomb is in front of the altar, the leger-stone once bearing a brass on which was engraved his effigy.[64]

Several Celtic stones bearing crosses, which were found at Pen Arthur, are at present in this chapel. The earliest—from the eighth to the eleventh century—Professor Westwood found doing duty as a gate-post on a farm. The holes show the marks where the hinges were. At the top, on the left, can be read Α Ω and (?) JHS. On the right is XPS, cut after the corner was broken away, and below is “Gurmarc.” On the back is another cross of a still earlier character. It is supposed to have commemorated some battle fought in the neighbourhood, and was found on the moor.

The South Chapel Aisle.—On coming through the east door of the south choir aisle we enter the Chapel of King Edward the Confessor, and we notice on the right a Decorated recess said to have contained the monument of a priest; but the great buttresses, which meet the eye looking east, are only temporary supports and in no sense form part of the original design. Opposite the Decorated recess is the tomb of a knight (8), but unfortunately this has been badly treated at the hands of the buttress builders. On the north side of the altar is a piscina with a pointed arch, cinquefoiled, and a projecting bracket of singularly bold design which seems to interrupt the Decorated string.[65] A curious groining boss, apparently in order to preserve it, is let into the wall to the west above the piscina. It is carven into the form of three beasts (asses or rabbits) with long ears. The peculiarity of the design, which is met with elsewhere, is that there are only three ears, yet each beast has its full complement.

The Ante-Chapel.—Briant (p. 57) says this chapel is known locally as the Chapel of the Seven Sisters, on account of the seven hideous heads which are said to be types of the beauty of South Wales. We can find no such record.

This narrow space, which intervenes between Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and the Lady Chapel to the east, is separated from the aisles by pairs of very elegant Early English arches north and south, and Freeman is of opinion that they differ slightly in date. The capitals have a delicate nail-head moulding not to be found elsewhere in the cathedral. One of the arches on the southern side has a figure lying down doing duty for a corbel which was designed to carry the vaulting; it is, however, more curious than beautiful. A segmental relieving arch in rough ashlar embraces both arches. In this chapel was found the “Abraham” stone now placed in the south transept (see p. 79).

VIEW LOOKING N. IN ANTE-CHAPEL TO LADY CHAPEL.

This chapel is roofed with a neat Perpendicular vault and lit with a poor Perpendicular window, and a couple of depressed arches (i.e., with their springing below the capitals) open into the Lady Chapel. An enormous buttress, however, is an unsightly necessity to prevent the wall above these arches falling eastwards. Our view (page 67) is taken from the east, looking west, and shows one of these arches and, on the south side, the fine Decorated tomb of Bishop Martyn. The composition was that of a five-foiled arch, with open foliations between crocketed pinnacles rising from octagonal attached shafts with floriated capitals, all beneath a lofty straight-sided canopy. The detail seems to point to Bishop Gower as the author. The canopy blocks an Early Decorated window and cuts through a string, but its finial was evidently utilised as a corbel by Bishop Vaughan for his vaulted roof, traces of which are clearly discernible in the view at the south-west corner.

SEDILIA AND TOMB, S. SIDE OF LADY CHAPEL.

The sedilia, of three seats, is a fine design by Gower, the finials of the crocketed ogee arches forming bosses in the cornice as in some of his other designs.

The cross lying on the ground is one which once stood on the east end of the presbytery, probably designed by Sir G. Scott from an old example.

Nearly opposite is a recess for a tomb which seems to have been similar to that of Bishop Martyn. This was wrongly supposed to be that of Bishop Houghton, who founded and was buried in his own chapel of St. Mary’s College, not St. Mary’s Chapel, hence confusion. Archdeacon Yardley conjectures with plausibility that Gower erected these two tombs to his immediate predecessors, Martyn and Beck[66] (1280-1328). Externally, and to some extent even now internally, the Lady Chapel has assumed the appearance of a Perpendicular building, but as a matter of fact it is, in the main, a blend of Early English and Early Decorated.

THE NORTH CHAPEL AISLE.

The North Chapel Aisle.—At the east end of this aisle stood the altar to St. Nicholas, and in the south-east corner is a trefoil-headed piscina with a quatrefoil drain. The changes which took place in the Early Decorated period in this aisle are not so extensive as those of the same date in its sister, where the whole of the southern and eastern walls were rebuilt, but the result is even more of a patchwork in appearance. The walls were raised, windows inserted and preparations made for vaulting, but, nevertheless, the round Early English vaulting shafts (c. 1248) appear below the octagonal ones of the Decorated period. On reference to the plan it will be noticed that the Lady Chapel is not on the central axis of the choir, and that between it and the north aisle is a space, which, we cannot but think, was occasioned by the timidity which we find throughout the cathedral in dealing with vaults. The north wall of the Lady Chapel was thus moved inwards to reduce the span and obtain—as they undoubtedly did, from whatever cause—a much better proportioned building. The monuments in both aisles are much decayed owing to their long exposure to the weather. East of the screen opening to Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel is a small piece of a Decorated tomb canopy, but the chapel arch has cut through the remainder. “Its existence seems to prove that the ‘waste place’ now occupied by the chapel must have been closed at the sides by walls; although there must surely have been some door or entrance, however narrow.”[67] Just beneath[68] this crocketed fragment of a canopy is a small stone with a finely-conceived representation of a crucifixion in relief with the figures of SS. Mary and John, obviously placed here for preservation; and low down under this is an altar-tomb with a panelled arcade, which once bore the figure of a priest in eucharistic vestments, and above the panelling the inscription, “Orate pro Anima Johannis [Hiot] nuper Archi....” which indicates that it was the monument of John Hiot, Archdeacon of St. David’s, who died in 1419.

In this aisle a chantry was founded early in the fourteenth century by Sir John Wogan, of Picton, Chief Justiciary of Ireland under Edward the First, and it is conjectured that the two monuments opposite (i.e., in the north wall) were erected by and to members of this family. The one to the west (No. 2) is a mutilated figure of a knight in chain armour about the date of Henry III.; the other (No. 1) is an exceedingly fine example of a recumbent, eucharistically vested priest having

TOMB OF A PRIEST, N. SIDE OF N. CHAPEL.

his feet resting on a dog and his hands clasped. The head rests on a canopy of a spherical triangle crocketed. Freeman (p. 120) notes that a similar canopy occurs elsewhere in the cathedral, also in a small tomb in the chancel of Carew Church, and in an external tomb at Nangle in Pembrokeshire. But it is the main arch or canopy of the tomb that is its chief glory, and, strangely enough, the part least noticed by previous writers. The subtlety and delicacy of the mouldings is worth careful examination. The under side of the arch has been elaborately cusped, and might easily be restored. The top member is curved back to admit of a very unusual form of crocket, viz., two ivy leaves point to point, well conventionalised and most effective. At the west end this springs from the head of a greyhound, the other is defective. On the whole we are inclined to think that the priest’s effigy has been placed here as a convenient spot for its preservation and is a later insertion. Beneath is some panelling consisting of triangles trefoiled, but it is very flat and tame and in great contrast to the skilful treatment of the upper part. The material is Caerfai stone. Browne Willis shows on his plan[69] two monuments under the third and fourth windows of this aisle from the east, and calls them “Knights Templars”—possibly also Wogans—but they no longer remain.

MONUMENTS IN THE CHURCH OTHER THAN IN THE EASTERN CHAPELS.

Beginning with the remarkable rood-screen, we find three ecclesiastical effigies. During the excavations for the new foundations of the tower-piers and shoring it was necessary to disturb the tombs in the rood-screen, but the remains were carefully and severally restored to their original resting-places, and such rings, chalices, crosiers, and other valuables as were found were removed by the Chapter. The most interesting of these objects are in the Chapter House under glass. They comprise a Decorated gilt bronze pastoral staff (probably Gower’s) with a fragment of its standard, two chalices, and a quantity of cere cloth.

Two of the effigies cannot be with certainty identified, and we have only the tradition handed down by Browne Willis: “I should guess them to have been erected for Bishops of S. David’s, tho’ they have a Tradition here, that one belongs to a Chancellor, or, as some say, a Chantor; and the other to a Treasurer of this Church.”

However, we know that Bishop Gower’s Tomb occupies (No. 25) the southern compartment of the screen. He died in 1347, and is represented as vested eucharistically with a mitre and pastoral staff veiled in his left hand, and at his feet is a lion. The right hand is broken and was originally in the act of benediction. Before the rebellion Browne Willis[70] stated that this tomb was “inclos’d to the South and West with a Brass Pallisade: Upon the Facio of which, was this Inscription:[71]

‘Hic jacet Henricus Gower, Structor Palatii & hujus Ecclesiae.
Menevensis Archiepiscopus qui obiit, &c.’ ”

But on pp. 19 and 71 he corrects himself, on the authority apparently of an eye-witness, and gives the following as being more correct:

“Henricus Gower, Episcopalis Palatii constructor.”

“The Rebels took that, and all the Brass upon the other Tombs of the Church, quite away; and now there are Wooden[72] Rails in Lieu of the Brass Pallisade. His body lies at length in his Episcopal Robes.” On the south side of the altar-tomb are eight figures of the Apostles in relief.

TOMB OF BISHOP MORGAN IN NAVE.

The altar-tomb in the second bay from the east on the south side of the nave is to Bishop John Morgan (1496-1564). The whole is in Bath stone. The mitred bishop is sculptured at full length in his chasuble, dalmatic, stole, alb, and maniple, and holds his veiled pastoral staff. He wears somewhat unusual gloves. Two kneeling angels support the cushioned head. Freeman[73] is very hard on the architecture of this tomb: “The head, foot, and north side of the tomb are

BISHOP GOWER’S TOMB.

adorned with rectangular panels having their upper angles rounded off without any kind of foliation, and exhibiting cases of interpenetration in its worst form. Altogether the architectural ornaments are extremely poor, and nearly resemble much of the German work of that period.” This unnecessarily severe censure is, however, tempered with discriminating praise of the sculpture: “The sculpture, on the other hand, is extremely spirited and graceful, as well that of the principal figure, as those of the smaller images which adorn the sides. In the two panels on the north side there are six images of Apostles; six more evidently decorated the south side, but these have been cut away to make room for a pew. At the foot there is a group representing the resurrection of our Saviour, sculptured in alto-relievo with remarkable grace and freedom. At the head there is a griffin, Bishop Morgan’s bearing, supporting a shield with the letters W and I, or J, in a cypher. Whose initials they may be, we are at a loss to say; the heraldic bearing taken in connection with authority almost contemporaneous leaves us in doubt to whom we are to attribute the monument. This tomb, with its very advanced sculpture, and very debased architecture, is a striking commentary on the state of the arts at that important period of transition; and it is extremely curious to observe the corruptions of the latter art manifesting themselves in tombs in the first instance. The monument of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, is of course a remarkable case of the same kind.”

Opposite Morgan’s tomb, under the eastern window of the south aisle, is a Decorated recess containing the tomb of an unknown priest (No. 27), all in Caerfai stone. The canopy is very fine.[74] It is part of a concave-sided octagon, at the points of which are radial finials. This form is to be found in Bristol Cathedral, and “is clearly a development of the idea which produced the semi-octagonal doorways in the rood-screen and the palace.”[75] Gower’s characteristic ornaments—the pellet, four-leaved flower and wave-moulding—spring from octagonal shafts with a big projection. On each side is a pinnacle having an odd and ugly decoration at the offsets, but it is on the whole preferable to Gower’s customary flat quatrefoil. The altar-tomb is of plain ashlar, and on it lies a priest in eucharistic vestments, his head on a double cushion carried by angels, and at his feet a dog.

There are some slabs with crosses near here and some shells before the daïs, which once contained matrices of the brasses, with figures about half full size to William Wilcock (1502) and Richard Ragader[76] (1530), prebendaries of St. Nicholas and masters of St. Mary’s College Chapel, which will probably account for several unidentifiable slabs in the choir and elsewhere.

The monument occupying the most important position in the presbytery is that (No. 6)[77] to Edmond Tudor, Earl of Richmond, son of Owen Tudor and Queen Catherine of Valois (widow of Henry V.) and father of Henry VII., who died in 1456, and was buried in the church of the Grey Friars at Caermarthen.[78] But at the dissolution the remains and the tomb were together brought to St. David’s. The position is close to the shrine of St. David, and, as it was unusual to permit any interment in the immediate vicinity of a great shrine, it may be well to note that this tomb was not placed here till after the probable shrine of St. David had been removed. The altar-tomb is in Purbeck marble, and is ornamented with shallow Perpendicular quatrefoils reticulated. Each panel has a shield in the centre, and a brass occupied the leger-stone. These inscriptions were restored by Jones and Freeman[79] from some drawings bound up with a MS. in the possession of the Earl of Cawdor. On the verge:

“Under this Marble Stone here enclos’d, resteth the Bones of that noble Lord Edmond, Earl of Richmond, Father and Brother to Kings, the which departed out of this World in the Year of our Lord God, a thousand four hundred fifty and six, the first Day of the Month of November; on whose Soul, Almighty Jesu have Mercy. Amen.”

On the tomb (at its foot probably) was:

“Heu! Regum Genitor, & Frater splendidus Heros,
Omnis quo micuit Regia Virtus, obit.
Herculeus Comes Ille tuus, Richmondia Duxque
Conditur Edmundus his modo Marmoribus.
Qui Regni Clypeus, Comitum Flos, Malleus Hostis,
Vitæ Dexteritas, Pacis Amator erat.
Hic meditare Vians Te semper vivere posse!
Non morieris Homo? Nonne miselle vides
Cæsar quem Tremeret Armis, nec vinceret Hector
Ipsa devictum Morte ruisse Virum?
Cede Metrum Precibus: Dat Regum Conditor Almus
Ejus Spiritui Lucida Regna Poli.”[80]

The length and sentiments of the inscription, however, hardly atone for the fact that this is a mean ornament to so important a person, and one cannot help contrasting it with that of his illustrious son—King Henry VII.’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

With St. David’s shrine we have already dealt (see ante, p. 50).

Turning to the corresponding arch on the south side of the presbytery, we find two tombs (Nos. 17 and 18). One (18) in Purbeck marble supports the figure of a bishop eucharistically vested and mitred, with a veiled pastoral staff in his left hand. The right hand is raised in benediction. Browne Willis conjectures[81] that this was the tomb of Bishop Gervase or Jorwerth (1215-1229), but later[82] he definitely states that it was unknown, but “was unanimously assur’d to me to be the Monument of Bishop Jerworth.” It is possible that the figure (which is later than 1229) was placed over the remains of Gervase, during whose episcopate the present presbytery was largely erected. A pastoral staff (copper gilt) and part of its wooden stave, of a rich design, were found near here in 1844, and, Freeman notes[83] “is at present in the possession of the Bishop of S. David’s.”

The other (No. 17) is to Bishop Anselm le Gras (1231-47), according to the inscription on the trefoiled canopy supported by angels and adorned with foliage:

Petra Precor Dic Sic Anselmus Episcopus Est Hic.

The Bishop is in relief and wears eucharistic vestments, with a rich mitre and pastoral staff unveiled but turned outwards, and the right hand is in the act of benediction. There is a kind of nimbus to the head and at the feet are two dogs, one of whom is pierced by the staff.

Proceeding to the next arch further east immediately behind

TOMB OF A KNIGHT AT THE BACK OF THE SEDILIA.

the sedilia, there is a recumbent figure in the armour of the late fourteenth century. This is attributed to Rhys ap Tewdwr, Prince of South Wales.[84] “The head, which has the conical basanet and camaille, is reclining upon a casque surmounted by the crest, On a chapeau a lion sejant. The body armour is covered by a jupon, on the breast and back of which are embroidered the wearer’s arms [Gules,] within a bordure engrailed [or,] a lion rampant [of the second]. It is not quite clear whether the jupon, which falls in a fringe round the hips, is meant to have sleeves, or whether the figure has a hauberk with short sleeves, those of the tunic appearing beneath them. The hands are clasped; there is a richly decorated belt and sword; the legs have complete plate armour, with genouillères; the feet have spurs, and rest on a lion.”

In a corresponding position in the north choir aisle is another very similar tomb (No. 11), evidently of a member of the same family, probably by the same designer. The head lies on a double cushion, and the heraldic bearings on the jupon have a label of three points.[85] The general conclusion seems to be that these monuments are to Lord Rhys ap Tewdwr and his son Rhys Gryg. Before the restoration they stood under the same arches in the presbytery, not, as now, in the aisles.

Under the easternmost arch of the presbytery on the south side is a mutilated figure of a priest (No. 20) in the eucharistic vestments of Bishop Gower’s time, which is commonly attributed to Giraldus Cambriensis,[86] but on slight authority. The head rests on a double cushion supported by angels, the hands are clasped (holding the Host) and the feet lie on a dog. Opposite in the south choir aisle is a fine slab (No. 22), with a cross floriated with branches in relief. The chamfered edge bears the following inscription in Lombardic letters:

SILVESTER: MEDICUS: IACET: HIC: EIVS[que] RUINA:
MONSTRAT: QVOD MORTI: [non]: OBSISTIT: MEDICINA:

[Silvester the physician lies here, and his dissolution proves that
medicine withstands not Death.]

Under the easternmost window in this aisle is the effigy of a vested priest with raised hands. The recess is Decorated, and has a foliated canopy which is remarkable as being the only instance of ball-flower in the church except that in the Decorated stage of the tower. In the westernmost bay (No. 21) is a much worn tomb of an ecclesiastic holding a book in his right hand.

The easternmost bay of the north side of the presbytery (No. 13) is occupied by the monument to Thomas Lloyd, Treasurer (d. 1613). The inscription states that it was here placed by his son Marmaduke: Counsel-at-law of the Middle Temple. It is shown on page 45. At its back is a Decorated recess, but the effigy has gone. The inscription is:[87]

MARMADUCUS LLOYDE ARMIGER JURISCONSULTUS ET MEDII TEMPLI SOCIUS HOC FECIT IN PERPETUAM PATRIS SUI CHARISSIMI THOMÆ LLOYD HUJUS ECCLESIÆ CATHEDRALIS THESAURARII MEMORIAM QUI OCTAVO DIE MENSIS MARTII AÑO REGNI SERENISSIMI REGIS JACOBI DECIMO OBIIT ET HIC JACET.

In the north transept are the tomb of St. Caradoc (see p. 55), and the effigy of a priest beneath a Decorated canopy.

In the south transept, near the nave, is an incised slab with a floriated cross having the head of a priest appearing above it through an opening in the stone.

ABRAHAM STONE (CELTIC).

In the east wall of this transept are two fragments of very ancient Celtic slabs. The more important of the two is to Bishop Abraham, and was found in 1891 in the east wall of the ante-chapel.[88] It is inscribed with curious characters:

PONTIFICIS ABRAHAM FILII HIC HED[OM] T ISAC QUIESCUNT.

A very fine interlacing Celtic cross springing from a root is the principal attraction of the stone. The uncarven outer circle terminates at the head with a neat little Maltese cross having an incised border and a slight depression at the end of each arm. The Greek alpha and omega appear in the corners, and below are the sacred monograms. Bishop Abraham (1076-78) was killed when the Northmen pillaged St. David’s in 1078, but it is not known in what way his sons were especially gifted that so fine a memorial should have been erected to their memory.

Near by is another stone of a similar character of which nothing is known. In the new Chapter House the back can be seen, but the large Latin cross with which it is ornamented seems later.

NORTH DOORWAY, NAVE (see p. 20).

THE COLLEGE OF ST. MARY FROM THE S. W.

From an engraving after H. Gastineau.

CHAPTER IV

THE PRECINCTS—THE CLOISTERS AND ST. MARY’S COLLEGE

The College of St. Mary was founded conjointly by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, his wife Blanche, and Bishop Adam Houghton in 1377, but it was endowed solely by the Bishop for the maintenance of a Master and seven Priest-Fellows, who were bound by a solemn oath to live in strict obedience to such regulations as the founder thought fit to ordain. The priests wore the same dress as the vicars-choral, and were under the control of the Precentor or Treasurer of the cathedral. They were bound to say the Hours and Masses of Requiem and perform certain services in the church. Any view from the northern side of the cathedral must include the graceful proportions of St. Mary’s, and it is surprising how well these buildings group with those of the cathedral. The cloisters and the cloister-garth, which separate the two buildings, date from about the same time as St. Mary’s and doubtless were common to the members of both foundations. The Early Perpendicular chapel is built on a large crypt, being quite contiguous to the river Alan, not unlike the chapel and hall of Magdalene College, Oxford. At the south-east angle was a Sacristy, with an upper chamber built over the cloisters, which had alleys to the north, west, and east; the latter running from the college to the north wall of the transept. As at Hereford, therefore, a covered way existed between the cathedral and the college.

To the north of the cloisters was the square occupied by the college; on the north side of which, again, was the principal entrance. And on the south side of the square stood the chapel of which we now see the remains, showing that it must have been a very fine building of its kind. The elegance of the proportions and subtlety of the detail betray the hand of a very skilful architect. The dimensions of the chapel are 69 ft. × 23 ft. 9 in. × 45 ft. high. It was lit by three windows in each side 24 ft. × 9 ft. broad each, and the east window must have been a grand affair, as it occupies the whole of the east wall. The tower is 70 ft. high, to the north of which are the remains of the Infirmary.[89]

The cathedral cloisters, unlike most English cathedrals, never had an alley next the church, and it is most probable that no cloister existed before the time of Bishop Houghton.

But so fragmentary are the remains of the cloister and so complete its destruction that we will only give a brief outline of its state as inferred by Freeman, that the visitor may understand the ruins.

A reference to the plan will best locate the cloister, but it will be noticed that the massive western buttresses, which take the thrust of the nave, show traces of the cloister wall. Also the wall-arcade and vaulting-springers are visible on the south wall of the chapel of St. Mary’s. The sacristy to the chapel, which has a piscina, was over the eastern alley, and under this can be seen the lines of four bays of the cloister and part of a fifth. Apparently the east side of the cloister was never completed, as the buttresses show no sign of additions; therefore, although a covered way was obtained between the cathedral and college, the north door remained as a separate entrance from the prebendal and other houses.

The crypt[90] on which the chapel stands is roofed with a simple elliptical barrel-vault and rear arches of small lights cut into it on the northern side. Below the tower was the cloister entrance, but the steps up to the chapel have quite disappeared. The landing at the top of these steps and two bays to the north formed an ante-chamber to the chapel, and a turret-stair on the northern or garden side led down to the domestic buildings as well as to a room over the vestibule. This room had two windows, one of which looked into the chapel, as at St. Cross. It will thus be seen that there could not have been a west window.

The chapel is in four bays, but as the eastern bays were utilised, on the north by the existing recess for the founder’s tomb and on the south by the sacristy, there are only three windows. The great east window—as well as others—was denuded of much ashlar-work and tracery to help in Nash’s extraordinary concoction the west window of the cathedral.[91] This great east window filled up almost the whole of the wall, and must have been a fine example of the best sort of Perpendicular. Indeed, it would not be impossible to reconstruct it even now.

There is a legend (found by Browne Willis in an Elizabeth manuscript) that Houghton was excommunicated by the Pope Clement, and that he retaliated by returning the compliment, and further pictorially displayed the event in stained glass.[92] Clement died, however, in 1352, before Houghton was made bishop, but was succeeded by Innocent VI. The names may thus have got confounded, or the Pope may have been the Anti-Pope, Robert of Geneva, known at Avignon as Clement VII. Although the story is of doubtful authenticity it is quite in accord with Houghton’s vigorous character, being as he was the friend of Chaucer and John of Gaunt. He also established several ordinances for the diocese, which shows that he was no mere figure-head. He held the office of chancellor for two years.[93]

The tower of the chapel—the only part yet undescribed—was evidently designed for a broached spire, as is shown by the squinches within. But a settlement, owing to the close proximity of the river, evidently not only prevented further weights being imposed, but caused the south-west angle buttress to be added which is so prominent (vide p. 82).

Of the collegiate domestic buildings there only remain a few vaults, except a single entrance, with a four-centred arch, to the north.

THE BISHOP’S PALACE.

After crossing a bridge to the north-west of the cathedral we pursue a most picturesque alley, whence a good view of the tower and north side is obtained, and shortly, on the left-hand side, we come to the entrance to the Bishop’s Palace.[94]

In the times before Gower (1328-47), who built the whole of this once magnificent palace, there undoubtedly was some

THE BISHOP’S PALACE, 1779.

From an engraving after Paul Sandby, R.A.

sort of episcopal residence or guest-house, as Kings Henry II. and Edward I. were here entertained. However, not only is there no trace of a pre-existent building, but this of Gower is a superb ruin. It is said that we have to thank the scandalous Bishop Barlow (1536-49) for initiating the work of destruction, removing, as he did, the lead from the roofs to provide marriage portions for his daughters who married five bishops. He also attempted to remove the see to Carmarthen. “Barlow’s letter to Cromwell on this subject strongly urges the removal, partly on account of the inconvenient situation and partly because the hopes of Protestantism rested on getting rid of the religio loci.”[95]

“It is hardly necessary to say that many churches, even of inferior ecclesiastical rank, greatly surpass St. David’s Cathedral in extent and in positive beauty, though certainly there is none which could so well occupy its peculiar position; of the Palace, on the other hand, it is hardly too much to affirm that it is altogether unsurpassed by any existing English edifice of its own kind. One can hardly conceive any structure that more completely proclaims its peculiar purpose. It is essentially a palace and not a castle; we have not here the moat, the tower, the frowning gateway, or any feature proclaiming, if not an intention of hostility, at all events a state of things involving the necessity of defence. The prominent parts are the superb rose-window of the hall and the graceful spire of the chapel, importing an abode, not of warfare, but of hospitality and religion.”[96]

With all due deference to Messrs. Jones and Freeman, however, the great arcaded parapet, which is certainly the most noticeable feature of the building, gives at least a hint that Bishop Gower had an arrière pensée against defence. As the close was fortified, it was not necessary to make any elaborate preparations against attack; but it will be noted that, although there is no moat, the river Alan—then much larger than now—runs past one side, and that on the others there were very few windows, and those small; in fact, most of the remainder opens on to the great quadrangle, which was self-contained. Let us look at it again from another point of view. Eliminate the parapet, and what do we find? Truly, except for an excellent plan and mere bulk, nothing at all extraordinary from an architectural point of view.

A particular description must be given to the Parapet. It consists of a series of arches, with a hollow ornamented by Gower’s four-leaved flower, carried down on octagonal shafts, which rest on corbels of considerable variety about two feet down the wall. Above the arcade is a corbel-table carrying a projecting battlemented cornice. The battlements have extremely narrow embrasures and loopholes. The sills of the arcade are steeply slanted outwards, and the jambs show the old shape of the roof and finish with a neat weathered projection. Great richness is obtained above the arcade from the various coloured stones employed. They are set in squares, alternately purple and grey, in the voussoirs of the arches and the spandrils above them, and make a mellow and harmonious chequer-work which greatly adds to the character of the whole building.

A similar parapet is only known to occur in two other buildings (also attributed to Gower), viz., Swansea Castle and Lamphey Palace, near Pembroke.

We can place the date of the building about 1340, as an ordinance by Bishop Gower, dated May 27, 1342, orders that only certain buildings belonging to the bishop be kept in repair,[97] which includes the palace. Architecturally, the arrangements are excellent. The leading idea is a great quadrangle, but so skilfully broken up with projections that the monotonous rectangular effect of the square gives place to a most pleasing and picturesque variety, and although the main portion is kept about the same height throughout, yet the most dignified chambers are given due prominence and the parts of lesser importance treated with a fit reticence.

The building is raised on crypts, which, however, were evidently used for domestic offices from the windows (once glazed) and the divisions. The vaults are of the plain barrel description, without ribs, although there are some which rather suggest ribs. These vaults do not run longitudinally, as under St. Mary’s Chapel or, indeed, the chapel in the palace; the reason being that divisions, for living purposes, were necessary on both floors.

On entering the quadrangle, which is about 170 feet square, we find a small building immediately to the left which many call the East Chapel. The West Chapel (K)[98] was probably not built till later, and then probably this little one became the Bishop’s private chapel. There are indications of a way through to the ante-room adjoining in the south-west wall, and a passage also leads to the lower floor.

The Bishop’s Hall (I, about 60 ft. by 23 ft.) is approached from the quadrangle by seven modern steps and a porch with a semi-octagonal arch. The point of the octagon is at the centre of the opening, and resembles that leading to the rood-loft in the cathedral. The small window in the porch has two five-foil lights.

The Hall was lit by two windows to the north-west and four to the south-east. Possibly the recess, which cuts into the window at the south angle, may have contained the refectory pulpit, and behind it was a passage and stair leading to the minstrels’ gallery.

There was a diagonal entrance (just above the head of the I on plan) leading from the Bishop’s Hall to his Study or private apartment. Just by this entrance there is also a way down. There are two fireplaces and chimneys, and as there are indications of a divisional wall there were probably two rooms, the further of which has a blocked doorway and may have been utilised before the main entrance was built. H is the Kitchen (about 26 ft. by 23 ft.), to the west end of the Bishop’s Hall. This room is very interesting, as it was evidently domed, and later a wall had to be built to support it. The chimney, which was standing in 1857 when Messrs. Jones and Freeman published their book, is now lying in a mass on the floor. As this is a good object lesson to the modern flimsy designers of to-day, the dimensions will not be without interest: flues, 1 ft. 11 in.; outer walls, 1 ft. 3 in., inner, 1 ft.

SECTION OF CHIMNEY.

On the northern side of the kitchen was an aisle leading behind the Great Hall, and so out to the garden.

The Great Hall is approached from the quadrangle by a fine porch, richly adorned and of the whole height of the building. The entrance is an unusual one at so early a period.

BISHOP’S PALACE: GREAT WHEEL-WINDOW OF BANQUETING HALL.

It is about 9 ft. wide by 11 ft. 6 in. high, and has an ogee six-centred arch, but the flight of steps are somewhat inconvenient, as the tread is about fourteen inches and the rise about eleven and a half. Above were two niches containing statues of King Edward III. and Queen Philippa. Fragments of one remain now, but where is the other? It seems sad that this should have disappeared within the last few years.

BISHOP’S PALACE: GENERAL VIEW OF COURTYARD LOOKING TOWARDS ENTRANCE TO GREAT HALL.

(From Jones and Freeman.)

The Hall itself is a magnificent stately apartment, even unroofed as it is. It measures 116 feet by 31 feet, but this includes a smaller chamber of about 30 feet which was originally a withdrawing room. At the south corner is a staircase (down and up), and another at the east leading to the turret. A doorway from the kitchen aisle is now blocked. In the south-east wall is an exceptionally beautiful rose-window. The centre is an upright quatrefoil, and at the cardinal points radiate four strong mullions, and in between each of these are three lesser ones. The heads are of the trefoil kind. The inner circle is not concentric with that enclosing the tracery, but is dropped a little to create, as was often done in these circular windows, an optical delusion. Thus the splay at the top is considerably less than at the bottom, but looks about the same. Gower’s four-leaved flower is again in evidence in the hollow at the outside edge of the splay. Bedrooms in two floors occupied the western end of the hall.

The West Chapel is entered from the northern corner of the hall, and projects from the main building. There must have been a fine window to the east judging by its proportions, and it has niches with canopies outside. A large arched piscina can be seen on the south wall inside, and at the east corner a double-bodied grotesque. In the north-east angle is the belfry turret, which terminates in a very pleasing broached spire; but the porch, which occupied the angle between the chapel and the domestic buildings, is all destroyed.

Of the Domestic Buildings to the north-west less remains than of any other part. The well of the palace is to be seen in a crypt, and a fine example of a stone chimney-place with brackets, like the one in the library of the cathedral, is also worthy of notice. The northern side was probably used for stables, and the foundations for the enclosing wall on the north-east side can still be traced.

In conclusion, it must be remembered that the very high regard in which St. David’s was held as a pilgrims’ haven, particularly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and that the Bishop was bound to entertain all who came, necessitated a very large guest-house, and here, indeed, was one which was deemed worthy of the attention even of royalty on many occasions.

APPENDIX I.

BISHOPS OF ST. DAVID’S.[99]

[601] | David
| Cynog
| Teilo
| Ceneu
| Morfael
| Haerwnen
| Elwaed
| Gwrnwen
| Llunwerth
| Gwrgwyst
| Gwgan
| Clydawg
| Eineon
| Elfod
| Ethelman
| Elanc
| Maelsgwd
[831] | Sadurnfen
| Cadell
| Sulhaithnay
840. | Novis
| Idwal
| Asser
| Arthwael
| Samson
| Ruelin
[961] | Rhydderch
| Elwin
| Morbiw
873. | Llunwerth
944. | Eneuris
| Hubert
| Ivor
[999] | Morgeneu
| Nathan
| Ieuan
| Arwystl
[1023] | Morgeneu
1023. | Ervin
1039. | Trahaearn
[1061] | Joseph
1061. | Bleiddud
1071. | Sulien
1076. | Abraham
1078. | Sulien (again)
1088. | Rhyddmarch
1096. | Griffri
1115. | Bernard
1147. | David Fitz-Gerald
1176. | Peter de Leiâ
1204. | Geoffrey de Henelawe
1215. | Iorwerth, alias Gervase
1230. | Anselm de la Grace
1284. | Thomas Wallensis
1256. | Richard de Carew
1280. | Thomas Beck
1293. | David Martyn
1328. | Henry de Gower
1347. | John Thoresby
1350. | Reginald Brian
1353. | Thomas Fastolfe
1361. | Adam Houghton
1389. | John Gilbert
1397. | Guy Mone
1408. | Henry Chicheley
1414. | John Catterick
1415. | Stephen Patrington
1418. | Benedict Nicholls
1433. | Thomas Rodburne
1442. | William Lyndwood
1447. | John Langton
1447. | John Delabere
1460. | Robert Tully
1482. | Richard Martin
1483. | Thomas Langton
1485. | Hugh Pavy
1496. | John Morgan
1505. | Robert Sherborne
1509. | Edward Vaughan
1523. | Richard Rawlins
1536. | William Barlow
1548. | Robert Ferrar
1554. | Henry Morgan
1559. | Thomas Young
1561. | Richard Davies
1582. | Marmaduke Middleton
1594. | Anthony Rudd
1615. | Richard Milbourne
1621. | William Laud
1627. | Theophilus Field
1635. | Roger Mainwaring
1660. | William Lucy
1677. | William Thomas
1683. | Laurence Wornack
1686. | John Lloyd
1687. | Thomas Watson
1705. | George Bull
1710. | Philip Bisse
1713. | Adam Ottley
1723. | Richard Smallbrooke
1730. | Elias Sydall
1731. | Nicholas Claggett
1742. | Edward Willes
1743. | Hon. Richard Trevor
1752. | Anthony Ellis
1761. | Samuel Squire
1766. | Robert Lowth
1766. | Charles Moss
1774. | Hon. James Yorke
1779. | John Warren
1783. | Edward Smallwell
1788. | Samuel Horsley
1793. | Hon. William Stuart
1800. | Lord George Murray
1803. | Thomas Burgess
1825. | John Banks Jenkinson
1840. | Connop Thirlwall
1874. | Basil Jones
| John Owen

PRECENTORS[100] (DEANS FROM 1840).

1224. | Richard
| W——
[1237] | Philip
[1254] | Richard Pue
[1287] | John de Swinssey
[1300] | Thomas Barry
1328. | Richard de Musselwick
[1334] | David Barret
1339. | Adam Houghton
[1352] | David Ley
[1399] | John Noke
1413. | Thomas Wollaston
1437. | Hugh ab Owen
1486. | Richard Machen
1492. | John Howell
1509. | Lewis ap Rhys
1534. | Thomas Lloyd
1547. | Thomas Young
1554. | Morgan Phillips
1558. | Thomas Young
1560. | Thomas Huett
1591. | Roger Gyfforde
1596. | William Hinton
1631. | Griffith Higgs
1660. | William Thomas
1663. | Richard Watson
1677. | John Ellis
1693. | Charles Pryse
1696. | Hugh Powell
1717. | John Davies
1733. | John Pember
1735. | Joseph Hill
1753. | John Morgan
1774. | John Jekyll
1777. | Francis Wollaston
1816. | Richard Richardson
1839. | Llewelyn Lewellin (assumed the title of Dean in 1840)
1878. | James Allen
1897. | Evan Owen Phillips
1897. | H. Howell

ORGANISTS OF ST. DAVID’S CATHEDRAL.[101]

Walter Warryn | 1490
Priest Vicars[102] officiated from | 1490-1563
John Norman | 1509-1522
Thomas Elliott | 1563-1577
Priest Vicars officiated in turn | 1577-1713
R. Mordant | 1713-1714
(Lay Vicar Choral)
Henry Mordant | 1714-1719
(Son of the preceding Lay Vicar Choral)
Richard Tomkins | 1719-1719
(Lay Vicar Choral)
William Bishop | 1719-1720
(Lay Vicar Choral)
Henry Williams | 1720-1725
Matthew Maddox | 1725-1734
(Lay Vicar Choral)
Matthew Philpott | 1734-1793
(Lay Vicar Choral)
Arthur Richardson | 1793-1826
(Lay Vicar Choral, also tuner of the organ. Died 1826?)
John Barrett | 1827-1851
(Lay Vicar Choral)
William Peregrine Propert, LL.D. and M.A., Cantab.;
Mus.B., Oxon. | 1851-1883
(A Lay Vicar Choral of the Cathedral. During the restoration of
the Cathedral, 1864-1883, the organ was not in use)
Frederick S. Garton | 1883-1894
(Organist of St. Martin’s, Haverfordwest, 1894)
D. John D. Codner | 1894-1896
(Born 1851. Organist of St. Bride’s, Fleet Street, E.C.)
Herbert C. Morris, F.R.C.O. | 1896
(Born at Coventry, June 18, 1873)

GABLE CROSS LYING
IN BISHOP
VAUGHAN’S CHAPEL.
(See p. 67.)

APPENDIX II

EXTRACTS FROM SIR G. G. SCOTT’S REPORT TO THE DEAN AND CHAPTER, 1869

By reference to my first Report, addressed to the Dean and Chapter in 1862, it will be seen that, while the entire building was reported to be in a state of the most severe dilapidation, and some portions actually in ruins, the greatest immediate danger was to be apprehended from the tower, the crushed condition of two of whose sustaining piers rendered its fall an event by no means improbable—a catastrophe which would probably involve the destruction of a large portion of the church.

Before, therefore, embarking upon any other works of restoration, it was determined to take immediate measures for the removal of this great danger, and, while the first contract united with this the restoration of the choir, the actual work in the first instance undertaken, excepting only some necessary works of drainage, was limited to this “article of a standing or a falling church.”

At the risk of being tedious, I will repeat here a detailed description of these most dangerous and difficult operations, which I wrote immediately after their completion, in a private Report to the Bishop:—

“I do not hesitate to tell you that the operations thus in the main completed, have caused me the greatest anxiety; for, although it has been my lot to apply the same process to five other central towers, and though I have, in each instance, undertaken it not without much trepidation, I have never met with a case so serious, and involving so great an amount of apparent and actual danger, as that of your Cathedral; for not only is the tower far larger and of vastly greater weight than any other on which I have been called to operate, but its two western piers were more alarmingly shattered than anything I have witnessed elsewhere. I take the liberty of quoting the following passage from my first Report, as showing what were my impressions on this point after my original survey, and they have been more than verified by the result:—

“ ‘The present condition of the tower is in the highest degree alarming, and till it is restored to a state of security, it is quite useless to think of any extensive reparation of other parts of the building.

“ ‘The western piers consist each of two portions, the parts towards the nave belonging to De Leiâ’s work of the twelfth century, and those towards the transepts having been added after the catastrophe of 1220. Of these, the older or western portions are literally, at least so far as they are open to examination, shattered to fragments, and the same process has extended itself in a less degree into the later or eastern parts of each pier; in fact, the only security which the tower has from actually falling, is the buttressing it sustains from the walls of the transepts and the nave, though the latter have themselves severely suffered under the undue pressure thus brought upon them.

“ ‘The arch facing the nave is very much injured, and the wall which it sustains, up to the commencement of the later stages, is utterly disintegrated, so much so as to render it dangerous very closely to investigate the defects; and the same state of disintegration extends itself some feet into the north and south walls, but especially the former, which is at this point crushed throughout its whole thickness.

“ ‘It will be seen from what I have stated, that the whole remaining portion of the first tower is crushed and left at the mercy of the various walls which abut against, and, so to speak, bolster it up; and that this terrible failure extends itself to a certain distance into the later and, in themselves, better constructed portions; in fact, that of the four supports of the tower, two are sound, and two wholly untrustworthy.’

“It will be seen from the above, that the object to be aimed at was little (if anything) less than the rebuilding from their foundation of two of the four piers which sustained the tower, each of them bearing a load of 1,150 tons, which had to be supported by timber shoring during the operation.

“Our first work, however, was to take measures for binding together, and otherwise strengthening the tower itself, so as to avoid the danger of its becoming fractured, or otherwise injured, during the reconstruction of its supporting piers; and this was rendered the more necessary by the disintegrated state of the lower walls immediately resting on the arches, and the enormous cracks by which the north and south walls were rent throughout their entire height. This object was attained by the introduction of permanent iron ties of great strength, at several different levels, binding all the walls together; by the use of temporary girders of massive timber-work round the exterior of the tower, throughout the greater part of its height; and by repairing with new stone and strong cement many parts of the disintegrated walls.

“The shoring by which the weight of the western half of the tower has been temporarily supported is of three descriptions—1st, direct supports under the western, northern, and southern arches (the two former consisting of timber framing, and the latter being provided by an old stone wall, by which the arch was blocked); 2ndly, vertical shores of immense strength, supporting “needles,” or horizontal masses of timber, passing through the walls; and 3rdly, by ‘raking’ or inclined shores abutting against the walls in all directions, and both supporting weight and preventing lateral motion. All these had to be provided with firm foundations, having to bear the actual weight of the tower. The magnitude of the work may be judged of when I mention that, of the six main supports of the ‘needles,’ two consisted each of nine, and the others of six full-sized balks of timber, bound together into one mass by irons, and thus making timber supports, the first 3 feet 6 inches square, and the others 3 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 4 inches in thickness, and all of them 36 feet in length. The ‘needles’ are of oak, 2 feet 4 inches deep and 2 feet 4 inches thick, and shod with wrought iron. The raking shores are arranged in systematic groups, giving supports at all heights, from immediately over the piers to nearly the top of the tower.

“The shoring has required the use of nearly 12,000 cubic feet of timber.

“The state of the west wall of the tower was rendered alarmingly apparent by the difficulties encountered in making the holes for the ‘needles.’

“Mr. Clear, the Clerk of the Works, and myself, foreseeing some difficulty, arranged a plan by which, before cutting through the wall, a sort of tunnel of strong stone should be formed through it, by inserting the stones, one at a time, in the shattered rubble work, and then removing the enclosed wall. This was done, with some difficulty, to a depth of 2 feet from either side, but as the wall is 6 feet thick, there remained 2 feet in the middle untunnelled, and when the enclosed wall was attempted to be removed, the middle mass began to pour out like an avalanche, which was only stopped by the immediate insertion of sand-bags, and by subsequently running the wall from above with liquid cement, and thus solidifying the disintegrated rubbish.

“These systems of supports having been completed, the actual operations commenced, and for this another and less permanent system of shoring was requisite. If the main shoring may be compared to the solid masses of an army, those I am now speaking of may be viewed as the skirmishers. They consist of needles and props inserted immediately above the part to be operated on, and supporting a portion of the shattered pier while that below it was renewed, and as soon as this was effected, a new needle was inserted above the first one, to make way for the renewal of another batch, each lower needle being in its turn removed, when that above it was secured. Besides this, however, endless extemporised precautions had at every hour to be taken, to provide against contingencies which were ever arising; blocks of timber inserted under stones threatening to fall; struts and shields against masses in danger of bursting; sand-bags, &c., against the rushing out of the avalanches of rubbish; temporarily running together, with liquid cement, of parts which, though eventually to be removed, had not yet been reached, and threatened, if not consolidated, to bury the workmen in their ruins. All these, and many more precautions, had to be taken to meet the exigencies of every day and every hour; and when it is considered that each pier took months to reinstate, that these dangerous operations could not, in many cases, be suspended day or night, and that the Clerk of the Works would never leave the spot while any dangerous work was pending, you may judge of the wearing anxiety which he and others engaged in the work have undergone.

“By the process I have thus briefly sketched, the entire piers, excepting a small central portion, have been rebuilt from their foundations to their capitals; the new stone-work having to be inserted a little at a time, has been aided, in all cases, by strong copper cramps, so as to tie its courses together in their circuit round the pier.

“All the stones are laid in strong cement, and all that remains within of the old work is run together at each course with liquid cement till it will hold no more. I saw, myself, ten pails full of this material poured into a single hole.

“The stone made use of is the purple stone of the neighbouring cliffs, and closely resembles the old stone, though somewhat harder, and is worked in a similar manner. Any old stones which are unshattered (of which I regret to say that but very few were found) have been re-used.

“I had hoped that the southern pier, which was the second operated upon, would have proved less dangerous than the northern one, but on a close examination of it, just before the work on it was commenced, I found that it was really as much shattered as the other had been, and, in point of fact, was ready to burst at the middle of its height. The Clerk of the Works, when he reached this point, told me that a cat could walk in and out of the cracks which intersected the pier!

“I have been the more minute in describing our operations, and the state in which we found the old piers to be, because, when such a work is completed, there is a tendency to forget, or to discredit, the danger which has been avoided; indeed, to any one who sees the piers as now reconstructed, it would be impossible to believe that the tower could have stood on such masses of shattered fragments as those which they have replaced.”

At the time that the above description was written the shoring had not been removed. This has now been the case for several years, and the piers, I am thankful to say, have sustained the weight perfectly.

When the crushed substructure had been thus rendered trustworthy, we not only proceeded with the restoration of the remainder of the choir, which formed a part of the same contract, but your orders were given to proceed also with the repairs of the upper portions of the tower, which were sadly dilapidated, and with the aisles of the choir, one of which had long been in ruins and roofless, and the other in but little better condition.

(For extract here see pp. 16-19, ante.)

I have had to bear some little ridicule for taking down the dead wall, by which the sides had been heightened, and building it up again. I can only say that the roof having been of necessity temporarily removed, and these additions to the walls, being devoid of any character or value of their own, being a mine of wealth in the debris they contained, I simply worked them as a mine, and having obtained the treasure which lay hidden within them, I reconstructed them with their old materials.

In doing this we discovered the curious eaves-course and gutters of the original roof, which is of a remarkable construction, and is now exposed to view with some restoration.

Among the timbers of the later roof were found portions of that of the earlier date, shewing that it was perfectly plain, though massive, and of the cradled form so usual at early periods.

The design of the early stonework of the eastern arm, apart from its intrinsic merits, is interesting from the evidences it presents of its double date, being a union of the original work of Bishop De Leiâ (begun in 1180) with that resulting from the reparations after the fall of the tower in 1220. The tower falling eastward would of course destroy the parts immediately adjoining it, and it would appear that it, by the fall of its upper portions, must also have reached and damaged the eastern wall.

We accordingly find that, while the eastward portions of the side walls and the lower parts of the east end are of the original date, the western bays of the sides and the upper parts of the end are of the later date. This is made very manifest on the south side of the clerestory by a triforium passage, originally communicating with that in the south transept, but which was omitted in the reconstructed parts, thus cutting off the communication.

Curiously enough, we also find that in the reconstructed portions of the sides a very marked preparation was commenced for vaulting, which, however, was suspended at a few feet in height, and on one side niches added just where the groining arches would come; while at the east end the upper range of windows (as already mentioned) was designed without reference to vaulting.

We made a curious discovery in the eastern end, where a walled-up arch was visible below the cill of the central window in Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel (formerly the exterior of the end). On opening this we found it to be a deep recess into the thickness of the wall, at the back of which are some ornamental crosses of the older period, in the principal of which (which is very beautiful) the intervals between the arms of the cross are perforated through into the interior, opening just behind the high altar, as if to allow a person while kneeling in the external recess to participate in the services going on within.

Returning for a moment to the choir roof, I will mention that we have restored it precisely to its old form, retaining every part not unfitted by decay. The chief exceptions are the beams, which were hopelessly decayed, and which were of so great a size as to cause us much difficulty and delay in obtaining trees of sufficient size to contain them. They were eventually procured from Radnorshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and the Forest of Dean.

The old roof was decorated throughout with colour, which has been carefully restored. The panels had been repainted in the seventeenth century, in a discordant style; these have been now decorated in a manner agreeing with the older work.

The roof contains ancient shields, bearing the arms of Bishop Tully, the Earl of Richmond, Roderic the Great, Bishop Martin, Owen Poole, treasurer to the church; the arms of France and England quartered; those of Edward V., Richard III., and (perhaps) Henry VII., of Rhys ap Tudor and of Bishop Young. Those which were affixed to the corbels had been obliterated, and have been supplied by the arms of the present bishop, dean, canons, and archdeacons, thus marking the period of the restoration.

The walls, pillars, arches, &c., of the eastern arm, are now put into a thorough state of repair; and the beauty of the interior will be greatly increased by the munificence of the Rev. John Lucy, of Hampton Lucy, in Warwickshire, who, as a memorial of Bishop Lucy, a member of the ancient family to which he belongs, has undertaken to fill the upper tier of windows in the east end with stained glass, and the lower tier (blocked up by Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel) with Venetian enamel mosaic work, the opaque co-relative of stained glass, though a much more costly form of art. This will give to these noble lancets just the relief and beauty which they had lost when deprived of their light, and that in a form more unique and striking than stained glass itself. I had in my first report suggested for these blank windows that “possibly some more durable kind of decoration (than painting) may be introduced,” and Mr. Lucy’s benefaction precisely meets the want.[103]

The aisles of the eastern arm, which owing to their ruined condition had been walled off, have now been opened out and brought back to a perfect state, which of course brings out the beauty of the interior in a very marked degree. In opening the second arch from the east the old sedilia were found. They are of wood, and of the fifteenth century. These have been carefully restored. The piscina, which occupied the south-eastern arch, is too ruined for its design to be recovered, though I think that a beautiful basin dug up in the churchyard must have belonged to it. Three arches on the north side are occupied by ancient tombs (including the substructure of St. David’s shrine). These are a good deal ruined, and must be in some degree restored. The tombs similarly placed in the northern arch of the tower, and which had to be removed for the repairs, have been carefully replaced.

The aisles of the choir have been twice prepared for vaulting, first in the original structure, and again when the aisles were widened, and the walls raised and remodelled, by Bishop Gower. I doubt whether in either case it was carried out, as I could find no evidences of it on the inner side, and after some perplexity I determined not to attempt it, but to cover them with handsome oak roofs, suited in character to Bishop Gower’s work.

The windows were in a most ruined condition. We found on the north side evidences of the old form of their tracery, which we have followed. Those of the south aisle had no remains of the tracery left, and even the jambs were so shattered that it was only by a fragment here and there that the mouldings were recovered. These were found to be curiously varied, out of four windows two only being alike. The tracery introduced has been founded on fragmentary evidences from other parts of the church of the same date.

One thing caused us a little puzzle: we found the remains of windows in all four bays, though the westernmost of them would be blocked up by the eastern aisle of the transept. On close scrutiny, however, we found that the place of this aisle was at first only occupied by a single chapel,[104] with a space between it and the aisle of the choir, which had been at a later period built over, so as to form the aisle which stopped the window in question. This we have restored to its older form, at the same time repairing the adjoining stair turret of the transept, which was in a dangerous state.

I will now return to the space beneath the tower, which in this church is the choir proper, as containing the stalls; the eastern arm of the church being more correctly the presbytery.

The great engineering works already described necessitated the temporary removal of the stalls. They have subsequently been restored to their old position, and have undergone a most careful process of reparation. On close examination they were found to have been deprived of many of the more delicate of their decorative details. These have been or still are in process of being restored from fragments, more or less extensive, which have been discovered; the greatest care being taken to preserve the ancient work as nearly untouched as is possible. The whole is a very excellent and interesting specimen of ancient woodwork, and retains traces of coloured decoration, including some armorial bearings.

The same process of careful reparation has been applied to the Bishop’s throne, and the unique screen, which severs the choir proper from the presbytery, neither of which have been moved from their positions, but have been repaired as they stood. The similarity of the panels of the lower parts of the screen and the throne, show them to be practically one work. I suppose their date to be late in the fourteenth or early in the fifteenth century. Both are very curious and valuable ancient works. I am aware that the conservative manner in which they have been dealt with has provoked some criticism from those who undervalue these relics of ancient workmanship. For myself, I do not hesitate to express my high satisfaction at the manner in which they have been both preserved and restored; and I trust that the hand of spoliation and innovation will never be permitted to tamper with the works I have thus endeavoured to hand down in their integrity to future generations.

(For extract here see pp. 30-32, ante.)

One thing I will mention which stands, I think, alone, as a deliberate deviation on my part from the old work.

Bishop Gower, in building the middle stage of the tower, had made it form a fine lantern storey to the choir. Late in the fifteenth or early in the sixteenth century, wooden groining had been introduced, which, strangely enough, cut Gower’s lantern windows in two, entirely hiding their traceried heads. I have done away with this desight, by lifting the wood groining a stage higher, so as to show Gower’s windows in their integrity, which forms the lantern into a very fine feature. I trust that, as regards the general principle of conservative restoration, this exception will be accepted as one of the class which proves the rule. The wood groining was decorated with colour, and has been repainted.

. . . .

Since the date of the last Report the works have been proceeding. The restoration of the roofs of the nave and south aisle with their ceilings has been accomplished. The clerestory of the nave has been fully restored externally and internally; some of its windows which had been walled up have been opened out, and the whole of them have been reglazed.

In carrying out this portion of the work it was found that the parapets had been corbelled in the same manner as those of the presbytery, although the corbels had been cut off flush with the face of the wall. Fortunately in a sheltered corner next the tower two or three of the corbels remained in a perfect state; these have been the guide in the restoration. The parapet was probably of less height originally, but the position of the sixteenth century roof would not allow of the height being kept lower than at present.

The ceiling of the south aisle, which until lately was open, showing the rough timbers above, has been panelled in completion of the ancient design. The parapet and pinnacles have also been repaired.

The walls internally of the nave and south aisle and the piers and arches have been cleaned, restored, and pointed.

The north transept has been groined in oak, carrying out the design which had been commenced in stone. The modern roof, which was truncated and of very slight timbers, has been strengthened, and the pitch carried up to fit the fifteenth century gable. The ruined pinnacle at the north-west angle has been completed.

Whilst speaking of this transept, it will be well to call attention to the doorway on the western side, which was originally of considerable width, but at a period very shortly after its erection was narrowed, the later jamb with its shaft, cap, and base being precisely like the original jamb which remains built up in the wall; and at a still later period the doorway appears to have been walled up to form a recess, in which was placed a hollowed stone sink with a stone shoot projecting through the wall.

The roofs of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and of the cross aisle eastward (page 6) have been thoroughly repaired and releaded.

The works now in progress (July, 1873) are the reparation of the roof of the north aisle of the nave and the restoration of the upper part of the Chapter-house building. The windows in the north aisle, two of which have lost their tracery, are being restored, and the walls internally will be cleaned.

The modern roof of the Chapter-house building, which has for years been in a very unsafe condition, is now being removed, and will be replaced by a new roof covered with lead. The walls, &c., of the upper part of the building will be restored as far down as the floor of the Chapter-house. This will include the completion of the triangular window in the gable, and the windows in the north side of the uppermost storey or “Treasury.” The window in the north wall of the Chapter-house has enough of its tracery remaining to enable the design to be completed with certainty, and will be restored. The pinnacles flanking the eastern gable, which are of very curious design, will be completed.

The cost of these works on the Chapter-house building is being defrayed by one of the Canons Residentiary, to whose liberality the new roof and groined ceiling of the north transept, and the renewal of the roofs of Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel, and of the adjacent ante-chapel are also due.

Now that the substantial repair of the nave with its aisles is so nearly completed, the nave should without further delay be paved and provided with fittings for the parochial services.

The pavement of the north transept should follow, with the restoration of St. Thomas’s Chapel, stone tracery being substituted for its present wooden window-frames, and an open screen for the existing partition between it and the transept.

The south transept should be dealt with in a similar manner to the northern one. The unseemly condition of its roof is rendered more apparent by contrast with the restored roofs and ceilings of other parts of the church.

There would still remain the porch, with sundry external repairs to the north and south aisles. There is also the eastern group of unroofed chapels, for which some provision should be made, to prevent further dilapidation to their walls and injury to the delicately wrought tombs still remaining within them.

It is unnecessary at present to give estimates for the works enumerated above, or for the amelioration of the western front.

The extent to which these very desirable objects will be effected, must depend on the liberality with which the present appeal is responded to.

The outlay and liabilities up to the present time are—for the Drainage, £500; the Tower, with the Presbytery and its Aisles, £15,700; the South Transept Chapel and Stair Turret, £600; the Nave and its Aisles, £6,500.

CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

Dimensions of the Cathedral.

Total length (interior) | 298 | feet.
Length of nave | 130 | “
“ from crossing to E. wall of choir | 56 | “
Width of nave and choir | 68 | “
Length along transept | 131 | “
“ of crossing (E. to W.) | 30 | “
Area | 21,950 | sq. ft.

[Larger version (150kb)] [Largest version (500kb)]

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Jones and Freeman, p. 140.

[2] King’s “Handbook to the Cathedrals of Wales” (Murray), 1887, p. 115.

[3] Winchester central tower fell 1107; Ely central tower in 1321.

[4] J. & F., p. 54.

[5] Report, 1869, p. 16.

[6] Giraldus, “Vita S. Dav.” Ang. Sac. ii. 634.

[7] J. & F., pp. 72-73.

[8] King’s “Handbook,” 1887, plan p. 105.

[9] J. & F., p. 56.

[10] J. & F., p. 161.

[11] P. 127.

[12] King’s “Handbook,” p. 123.

[13] P. 128.

[14] Pronounced Dice locally.

[15] Vide Scott’s Report, 1869.

[16] “El sol pro factura muri in solaris Ste. Cyencis calce & lapid’ & aliis nēriis ad idem opus pertinent, ut palet per billam inde examinat, 100s.”—Lib. Comm. vol. i., p. 24.

[17] Lib. Com., vol. i., p. 47.

[18] “A Survey of the Cathedral Church of St. David’s” (1715), 8vo, London, 1717.

[19] Browne Willis, p. 8.

[20] J. & F., p. 94.

[21] Manby’s “History and Antiquities of the Parish of St. David’s,” 1801, pp. 20, 30. “Mens. Sac.,” vol. i., p. 23.

[22] J. & F., p. 95. “Mens. Sac.,” vol. ii., Appendix, fol. 54.

[23] “Mens. Sac.,” vol. i., p. 23.

[24] “Guide to St. David’s,” &c., T. J. Bryant, 1896, 12mo, p. 49.

[25] King’s “Handbook,” pp. 143, 144.

[26] J. & F., p. 163.

[27] “Lib. Comm.,” vol. i., p. 15, an. 1490.

[28] Vide Appendix.

[29] Vide Plan, at end.

[30] J. & F., p. 129.

[31] “Handbook,” p. 147.

[32] J. & F., pp. 84-85.

[33] J. & F., p. 65.

[34] J. & F., p. 86.

[35] 3 & 4 Vic., c. 113, § I. Vide also p. 94.

[36] J. & F., p. 105.

[37] “Church of Our Fathers,” vol. iii., p. 473.

[38] See post, pp. 61, 62.

[39] McKenzie Walcott’s “St. David’s,” p. 17, and “Anglia Sacra,” vol. ii., p. 640.

[40] Two other doings by this Pope are worthy of passing notes. (1) Being a Frenchman, he was the first to make France a traditional ally of the Roman See. (2) He concluded the celebrated Concordat of Worms, 1122, by which the rights of the Roman Church in relation to the Crown were defined.

[41] Given as 1079 in “Anglia Sacra,” p. 649.

[42] “Brut y Twwysogion, sub annis.” Haddan and Stubbs, vol. i., p. 377.

[43] “Anglia Sacra,” p. 651: “Annales Cambriæ,” in ann. 1284.

[44] “St. Justinianus martir 5 die decembris in vigilia Sancti Nicholai; jacet in capella in ecclesia Sancti David sub ejus tumba, confessor Sancti David.”—Itinerarium Willielmi de Worcestre (Nasmyth, 1778, p. 164).

[45] “Anno MLXXXVI. Scrinium Sancti David de Ecclesiâ suâ furator, & juxta civitatem ex toto spoliator.”—Anglia Sacra, vol. ii., p. 649.

[46] Gale, “Scriptores,” vol. xv., p. 299.

[47] “Anno MCCLXXV. Incœptum fuit Feretrum Beati David in Ecclesiâ Menevensi.”—An. Sac., p 651.

[48] “Mens. Sac.,” vol. i, pp. 255-257.

[49] “Lib. Stat.,” p. 299.

[50] “Browne Willis’ Survey,” pp. 54-55. and 69.

[51] J. & F., p. 105.

[52] “Lib. Stat.,” p. 24.

[53] Removed from the back recently. J. & F., p. 103.

[54] P. 69.

[55] “Anglia Sacra,” vol. ii., p. 547.

[56] Fenton’s “Pembroke,” p. 84.

[57] Freeman, p. 155. King’s “Handbook,” p. 148.

[58] Report, 1869, p. 21.

[59] George Owen’s MS. history, see Fenton, p. 98.

[60] J. & F., p. 152.

[61] J. & F., p. 70.

[62] During Scott’s restoration this was subsequently found to be a recess only (of De Leiâ’s period).

[63] P. 52.

[64] Briant, p. 67.

[65] J. & F., p. 96.

[66] “I take it to be This Bp. who began S. Mary’s Chapel, & that He lies buried in it on ye N. Side, which Tomb is by Mistake said to be Bp. Houghton’s.” “Mens. Sac.,” vol. i., p. 49. J. & F., p. 121. Fenton, p. 87, note.

[67] King, “Handbook,” 1873.

[68] On Plan No. 4.

[69] Browne Willis, opp. p. 1.

[70] J. & F., p. 71.

[71] Browne Willis, p. 4.

[72] Now wrought iron (vide opposite).

[73] P. 108.

[74] Finton, p. 423, gives a similar design.

[75] J. & F., p. 159.

[76] “Mens. Sac.,” p. 232.

[77] See p. 36.

[78] Fenton, p. 73.

[79] P. 112.

[80] J. & F., p. 112, from Browne Willis.

[81] “Survey,” p. 12.

[82] Pp. 68-69.

[83] J. & F., p. 113.

[84] J. & F., p. 114.

[85] For a learned disquisition on these tombs see Jones and Freeman, pp. 114-116.

[86] Browne Willis, p. 101.

[87] J. & F., p. 116.

[88] T. J. Briant, p. 54.

[89] McKenzie Walcott, p. 16.

[90] Formerly a charnel-house (Browne Willis, p. 25).

[91] See plates, pp. 2 and 7.

[92] King, 1887, p. 239; Briant, p. 71.

[93] Vide Campbell’s “Lives of the Chancellors.”

[94] Reference to the plan on page 10 is here desirable.

[95] J. & F., p. 330.

[96] Ibid., p. 189.

[97] J. & F., p. 190; Lib. Stat., p. 24.

[98] The references are to the plan on p. 10.

[99] J. & F., pp. 358, 359.

[100] The List of Precentors is from Eardley as far as the middle of the eighteenth century, from the Cathedral Registers from then to 1854. Freeman (footnote p. 358) states that the Registers have never been very carefully kept, but both lists were revised by Le Neve’s “Fasti” (ed. Hardy); the accuracy of this latter, however, is not very remarkable.

[101] Condensed from pp. 76-77 “Cathedral Organists,” by J. C. West, 8vo, London, 1899, which was apparently compiled from information supplied by D. J. D. Codner.

[102] “Mens. Sacra.”

[103] The stained glass and mosaics have since been fixed. Mr. Lucy has also undertaken the repair of the Earl of Richmond’s altar-tomb in the presbytery.

[104] This chapel was added in the fourteenth century, being a part of Gower’s work. Its extension into an aisle was probably of modern date. It will be seen that the old base-moulds concealed by that extension still remain.

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Table of Contents

- THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT DAVID’S A SHORT HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE FABRIC AND EPISCOPAL BUILDINGS

- AUTHOR’S PREFACE
- LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED
- LIST OF CONTENTS
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

- ST. DAVID’S CATHEDRAL

- CHAPTER I THE SITE AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE FABRIC

- CHAPTER II THE EXTERIOR

- CHAPTER III THE INTERIOR—THE NAVE

- THE CHOIR AND TRANSEPTS.

- THE SHRINE OF ST. DAVID.

- THE SHRINE OF ST. CARADOC.

- THE CHAPELS EAST OF THE PRESBYTERY.

- MONUMENTS IN THE CHURCH OTHER THAN IN THE EASTERN CHAPELS.

- CHAPTER IV THE PRECINCTS—THE CLOISTERS AND ST. MARY’S COLLEGE

- THE BISHOP’S PALACE.

- APPENDIX I.

- APPENDIX II EXTRACTS FROM SIR G. G. SCOTT’S REPORT TO THE DEAN AND CHAPTER, 1869

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE