BELL’S CATHEDRAL SERIES

SAINT DAVID’S

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

LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED

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

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.