Bell's Cathedrals: St. David's

by Philip A. Robson

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.