In this aisle a chantry was founded early in the fourteenth century by Sir John Wogan, of Picton, Chief Justiciary of Ireland under Edward the First, and it is conjectured that the two monuments opposite (i.e., in the north wall) were erected by and to members of this family. The one to the west (No. 2) is a mutilated figure of a knight in chain armour about the date of Henry III.; the other (No. 1) is an exceedingly fine example of a recumbent, eucharistically vested priest having
TOMB OF A PRIEST, N. SIDE OF N. CHAPEL.
his feet resting on a dog and his hands clasped. The head rests on a canopy of a spherical triangle crocketed. Freeman (p. 120) notes that a similar canopy occurs elsewhere in the cathedral, also in a small tomb in the chancel of Carew Church, and in an external tomb at Nangle in Pembrokeshire. But it is the main arch or canopy of the tomb that is its chief glory, and, strangely enough, the part least noticed by previous writers. The subtlety and delicacy of the mouldings is worth careful examination. The under side of the arch has been elaborately cusped, and might easily be restored. The top member is curved back to admit of a very unusual form of crocket, viz., two ivy leaves point to point, well conventionalised and most effective. At the west end this springs from the head of a greyhound, the other is defective. On the whole we are inclined to think that the priest’s effigy has been placed here as a convenient spot for its preservation and is a later insertion. Beneath is some panelling consisting of triangles trefoiled, but it is very flat and tame and in great contrast to the skilful treatment of the upper part. The material is Caerfai stone. Browne Willis shows on his plan[69] two monuments under the third and fourth windows of this aisle from the east, and calls them “Knights Templars”—possibly also Wogans—but they no longer remain.
MONUMENTS IN THE CHURCH OTHER THAN IN THE EASTERN CHAPELS.
Beginning with the remarkable rood-screen, we find three ecclesiastical effigies. During the excavations for the new foundations of the tower-piers and shoring it was necessary to disturb the tombs in the rood-screen, but the remains were carefully and severally restored to their original resting-places, and such rings, chalices, crosiers, and other valuables as were found were removed by the Chapter. The most interesting of these objects are in the Chapter House under glass. They comprise a Decorated gilt bronze pastoral staff (probably Gower’s) with a fragment of its standard, two chalices, and a quantity of cere cloth.
Two of the effigies cannot be with certainty identified, and we have only the tradition handed down by Browne Willis: “I should guess them to have been erected for Bishops of S. David’s, tho’ they have a Tradition here, that one belongs to a Chancellor, or, as some say, a Chantor; and the other to a Treasurer of this Church.”
However, we know that Bishop Gower’s Tomb occupies (No. 25) the southern compartment of the screen. He died in 1347, and is represented as vested eucharistically with a mitre and pastoral staff veiled in his left hand, and at his feet is a lion. The right hand is broken and was originally in the act of benediction. Before the rebellion Browne Willis[70] stated that this tomb was “inclos’d to the South and West with a Brass Pallisade: Upon the Facio of which, was this Inscription:[71]
‘Hic jacet Henricus Gower, Structor Palatii & hujus Ecclesiae.
Menevensis Archiepiscopus qui obiit, &c.’ ”
But on pp. 19 and 71 he corrects himself, on the authority apparently of an eye-witness, and gives the following as being more correct: