From Cardiff we walked to inspect the remains of the once celebrated city of
LANDAFF.
The ruins of the old Cathedral are very beautiful; the door-cases are all Norman architecture, elegantly moulded; two of which, on the north and south sides, are fine specimens of that æra. All the other parts are Gothic: the nave is unroofed. Within these ruins we entered the Cathedral, which carries with it more the appearance of a modern theatre than a place of divine worship, so erroneous was the taste of the architect, in combining with the sacred Gothic a fantastical work of his own. Among several ancient monuments, are two very elegant ones of the Mathews family, [35a] whose descendants own the site of the bishop’s castle, of which only the gate remains: the rest, with the archdeacon’s house, was destroyed by Owen Glendour. [35b] There are likewise the monuments of two Bishops, with another, and the figure of Lady Godiva, full length, carved in marble on it.
The present cathedral was built by Bishop Urban, about the year 1107: its length is two hundred and sixty-three feet and a half, breadth sixty-five feet, and height one hundred and nineteen feet; like Bangor, it has no cross aisle.
Near this city is the rural village and the castle of St. Fajans, celebrated for a sanguinary battle, fought in its vicinity between the Royalists and Republicans during the Protectorate of Cromwell, in which the former were defeated with the loss of nearly the whole of their troops. Landaff, although it ranks as an episcopal city, and was one of the first places in the British dominions in which a religious establishment was founded, boasting the erection of its first church A.D. 186, is now little better than a village dependant on Cardiff for its supplies: even its clergy find few inducements to draw their attention to it, beyond what duty requires: they possess a chapter-room, kitchen, and office for the Proctor-general, yet seldom meet more than once a year for the audit.
Landaff stands on a small eminence, commanding a view of Cardiff and the surrounding country.—We returned again to Cardiff, and the first six miles of our road to
CAERPHILY
were not very interesting, till ascending Thorn Hill, the beauties of the vale below, with the Flat and Steep Holmes rising in the distant prospect, the ruins of Cardiff Castle, and the ivy-mantled walls of Landaff cathedral, amply compensated for the trouble of climbing this eminence. A little farther on, Caerphily Castle burst upon our sight, and
—“seemed to frown
In awful majesty on all around.”
The founder, and the time of its erection, are very uncertain; but I refer my readers to the first volume of the Archæologia; to an ingenious Dissertation, by Daines Barrington, where it is satisfactorily proved to have been the work of King Edward I. This castle is one of the noblest ruins of ancient architecture now remaining in the kingdom, and exceeds all in bigness, except that of Windsor. The hall and the chapel may still be traced; the former measures about seventy feet in length, thirty-four in breadth, and seventeen in height. The roof is vaulted about eight feet high, and supported by twenty arches. On the north side is a chimney ten feet wide, with two windows on each side, extending down to the floor, and carried above the supposed height of this room. At each angle was originally a round tower of four stories, communicating with each other by a gallery. On the west side of the hall stairs is a low round tower, of one story, called the Mint-house, with three painted arches on the south side, and a square well on the west. The leaning tower, towards the east end, more particularly engaged our notice: it is divided into two separate parts by a large fissure, which runs from the top down almost to the middle. Its lineal projection is supposed to be on the outer side about eleven feet and a half. On the west and north are visible vestiges of a draw-bridge.