Bell's Cathedrals: St. David's

by Philip A. Robson

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.