St. David’s.
Far away in the extreme west of Pembrokeshire, sixteen miles from the nearest railway station, Haverfordwest, is one of the most interesting cathedrals in the British Isles. Dedicated to the great patron saint of Wales, it is as complex in plan as Winchester or St. Alban’s, and abounds in lovely detail of the Transitional and Curvilinear periods.
The earliest work belongs to the episcopate of Peter de Leia (1176-1198), and comprises parts of the presbytery, the western walls of the transept, the western piers of the tower, and the whole of the nave except the outer portion of the west front (Sir G. G. Scott), and the south porch and the exterior of the south aisle (1328-1347). Though built quite late in the twelfth century, when Gothic architecture had got good hold in Ripon, Canterbury, and Wells, St. David’s—partly perhaps from its remote situation—is still sternly Romanesque. The pier-arcade is low, the piers massive and squat; their arches are semicircular, as also the windows of the clerestory; there is a profusion of Norman zigzag ornament. On the other hand, pointed arches appear in the triforium, the bases have the water-holding hollow, and there are all sorts of beautiful varieties of Transitional capitals—from the early cushion-capitals, much subdivided, in the pier-arcade of the choir, to the later foliated capitals, of great beauty and diversity of design, which abound in the nave. The triforium and clerestory, formed into a single member by a containing-arch of zigzag, are a charming anticipation of the design of Southwell choir.
Early in the thirteenth century, c. 1220, the central tower collapsed, as at Winchester, Ely, Lincoln, etc. It fell towards the east, and seems to have broken down the arches of the presbytery. The Transitional piers were retained, more or less altered; but new pointed arches were built, and lancet windows were inserted in the new clerestory and east wall. In the aisles may be seen the low shafts of a Norman vault, and the corbels of a higher Lancet vault; it is uncertain whether either was ever executed. To this period belongs the very remarkable shrine of St. David: a very plain structure, designed for use—for very strange uses. Down below in each side are three openings, allowing three sick people at a time to lie beneath. (Perhaps they lay there all night, waiting for the Saint to come and touch them, as was the case in some shrines of Pagan Greece.) On the side next to the aisle are two large and shallow upright openings, and three small circular openings—the latter, perhaps, as in St. Alban’s shrine, to allow the patient to insert a diseased arm. A parallel to the lower openings may be found in the remains of the shrine now inserted under the effigy of Lord Stourton at Salisbury. When the restoration of the choir was completed (c. 1248), the next task seems to have been to build a processional aisle. The eastern walk of this was built fifteen feet east of the eastern wall of the cathedral, thus leaving a little open courtyard between the back of the east wall and the east walk of the new processional aisle. In the east wall there was a lower range of three tall lancets, which gave much light to the high altar beneath them. The authorities may then have left the little open courtyard to preserve the light of these three windows. But at Winchester and elsewhere the lower lights were sacrificed without demur; and the space between the east wall of the presbytery and the processional aisle, instead of being wasted, was utilised as a saint’s chapel or feretory, where—in the most honoured position in the church, close to the high altar—the shrine of the patron saint of the church was placed: shrines of St. Swithun and St. Birinus at Winchester, that of St. Werburgh at Chester, of St. Ethelreda at Ely, of St. Wulfstan at Worcester, of St. Cuthbert at Durham, of St. Chad at Lichfield. Now the shrine of St. David is artistically rude and uncouth, and occupies a by no means specially honourable position. May one conjecture that the original intention was to open arches in the east wall of the presbytery, and to build a new shrine for St. David, placing it above and behind the high altar, where it would be conspicuous to the very farthest end of the nave,—and that Welsh conservatism refused either to have a new shrine or to change the position of the old one? Before commencing the south walk of the processional aisle, the Lady chapel was erected (1290-1328). Its buttresses are late Gothic.
Then came the great building-prelate of St. David’s, Bishop Gower (1328-1347). (1) He completed the processional aisle, building the whole of the south walk and completing the north walk. (2) Like Abbot Thokey, at Gloucester, he transformed the Norman south aisle of the nave into the style of his day (Curvilinear), and built a south porch. (3) East of the north transept he built a three-storied building, the lower part as a chapel to St. Thomas of Canterbury, the upper part as a chapter-house. (4) He raised the tower one stage above the roofs. (5) He raised the walls of the aisles, and inserted Curvilinear windows. (6) He separated the presbytery from the choir, which as at Gloucester is beneath the central tower, by a parclose screen—a very rare feature. (7) He built the wood throne of the bishop; it seems, however, to have been reconstructed in the fifteenth century. (8) He built for himself the magnificent palace, and another at Lamphey, besides Swansea castle and church. (9) His most beautiful work is the magnificent choir-screen, one of the grandest examples of mediæval art. It consists of three compartments of stone, surmounted by a coved cornice of wood. The southern compartment has two pointed arches, with compound cusping and rich crockets; and within, the tomb and effigy of the bishop. The central compartment is occupied by the doorway and vaulted vestibule leading from the nave to the choir; on either side of the vestibule are effigies of priests. The northern compartment seems to consist of thirteenth century arcading, which has been worked up to serve as a reredos to an altar.
To the Perpendicular period belong the stalls, which have good misereres (1460-1480); the elaborate wooden roof of the nave (1472-1509) and that of the presbytery, which is a little earlier.
Early in the Tudor period Bishop Vaughan (1509) added another story to the tower, and built himself a chapel in the empty space between the east wall of the presbytery and the east walk of the processional aisle, vaulting it with fan-tracery.
Externally, the cathedral is simple and plain, in harmony with its bleak and wild surroundings. Internally, like Canterbury and Winchester, it gains dignity from the greater height of the choir. The whole floor of the nave slopes upwards from west to east, and the choir is elevated eight steps above the level of the nave.